After suffering a defeat from Wilcox in their last home game, the Palo Alto High School football team (5-2, 2-1) rebounded with a 42-0 victory against the Fremont Firebirds (1-5, 0-2) Friday.
Rising sophomore running back Josh Butler, who had three touchdowns in the game, said he attributes the team’s success to the offensive line.
“We all did our own job. I should give it up to my line. [We] Can't run the ball without an offensive line, so that's great work by them to give me those three [touchdowns]." — Butler
The Vikings started off strong in the first quarter with two early touchdowns made by sophomore running back Josh Butler, and senior tight end and defensive end Louis Passarello.
Continuing from the previous play, Passarello makes the second touchdown of the game, putting the Vikings up 14-0.
In the second quarter, senior wide receiver and cornerback Junacio Henley ran 40 yards after regaining possession of the ball from a kick and set Butler up for another touchdown soon after, putting the Vikings up 21-0. Sophomore quarterback Danny Peters quickly made it 28-0 after scoring a 10 yard touchdown.
Throughout the game, the Vikings exhibited strong defense with tackles from senior inside linebacker and wide receiver Colin Giffen and senior free safety Creighton Morgenfeld. Senior left tackle Jurgen Dittrich played especially strong defense and sacked the Firebird’s quarterback in the second quarter.
In the second half, Paly scored two more touchdowns by Butler and senior wide receiver Ray Richard, ending the game with a score of 42-0.
This game lies in stark contrast to the previous home game against Wilcox, where the team lost, 15-23. Senior wide receiver and cornerback Junacio Henley, who set up multiple touchdowns throughout the game, expressed how well the team performed in this game.
"It was a great victory, being out here and playing with my brothers, come out here and win. We played together very well." — Henley
The Vikings will face the Los Gatos Wildcats at 7 p.m. on October 25 in Los Gatos. According to Dittrich, the Wildcats will be a challenging game.
“They're very competitive. They got a lot of good guys you know they got D one [division one] football players, and Gatos is going to be a tough game. But we got guys to get it done.” — Dittrich
According to Butler, the team will be watching film and preparing for the game in the weeks leading up to it.
“[The Los Gatos game] It’s gonna be an awesome game. Everyone should come and it's going to be a fun one to watch,” Butler said.