Each Week following Spartanburg Viking Football games, I’m going to take a couple of days and think about the 3 most important things I saw on the field. Some good, some great, some not so good. I’ll try to break through what mattered, and what not to overreact to. So here’s 3 things from Week 11’s 27-24 loss to Gaffney.
1-Details! Make no mistake, and I’m sure there will be people who disagree…but every single media person and multiple Gaffney fans I spoke with right after the game all agree…the better team lost. Now for those of you who don’t understand that’s possible…maybe this article isn’t for you..LOL. But Spartanburg dominated the first 3 quarters and made mistake after mistake in the 4th Q. When given the opportunity, Gaffney made winning plays and deserved to win. Again…for some of you maybe now is the time to stop. What happened in the 4th Q was Spartanburg lost their focus on the details. We let the moment win instead of focusing on the details of each play. So many mistakes were made which led to the loss. IF the Vikings can stay focused for 4 quarters, we will go a long way in the playoffs. There’s no mistaking our talent…we have a ton of it.
2-I couldn’t have been more proud of Justin Rice and Trenton Lynch. Rice has been hurting all year and wanted a big game in his last regular season game. 5 catches, 135 yards and 1 TD..he was outstanding all game. Gaffney’s Defense had allowed just 20 yards per game on the ground this year. Lynch had 20 carries for 167 yards and a Touchdown and if it wasn’t for an eye injury, he would’ve easily gone over 200 yards in the game. The question of who would win the strength on strength battle was won by Lynch. Gaffney had no answer for him.
3-It’s Playoff Time. Shoutout to Gaffney and their QB who has taken a lot of heat this year…they made big plays in the 4th Quarter and Spartanburg and Gaffney share the Region Title. But now it’s the best time of the year. There’s nothing like a great playoff run and make no mistake…the Vikings are good enough to win the 5A Division 1 State Championship. They’ll have to win a couple home games against some very good teams and of course will have to go through Dutch Fork..who deservingly so is the #1 seed this year. They’re outstanding and it’ll be tough. It’ll be very important for Spartanburg to have their minds right and stay locked in on every play and they can do it.
