Vikings get shut down at City College

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Aaron Tolentino | Sports Reporter | DVC Inquirer | October 14, 2017

The Vikings went on the road to walk away with a 59-7 blowout loss to the City College Rams, Saturday in San Francisco.

City College took control from the get-go and never looked back. The Rams blocked the punt on the Vikings' first possession to set up an easy 1-yard touchdown only two minutes into the game.

The Vikings did show a promising drive in the first quarter. Wide receiver Devin McDaniels got his hands on a tipped pass from quarterback Jarrod Hoyer for a 47-yard score, but that proved to be all the offense the Vikings could muster.

The Rams did most of their damage in the first half, scoring 42 points courtesy of multiple deep throws right through the Vikings' defense.

"Our cover kept getting blown," said cornerback Dieontae Malan. "Coach is calling everything we need to be doing and we just didn't execute."

Malan is part of that Viking secondary that allowed 365 passing yards. The Vikings' defense overall gave up 646 yards of offense, including 281 rushing yards.

"We didn't tackle well. They know it, we know it," said head coach Mike Darr on a key setback during the game. "It's a skill you got to be able to work on."

The offense also had a trouble getting past the City College defense with only 216 yards of passing and 46 yards of rushing.

"They're impressive up front and they've got some big guys up front," said Darr. "They cause you some mismatches."

An underlying factor players and coaches won't want to make an excuse for is the missed practices due to the air conditions stemming from the Sonoma County fires. During the week of preparation, players were not able to practice on the field for two days.

"No excuses, obviously, we still came out, still showed up, we still played the game, still put on the same pads, took the same field, but we also missed the two practices, so that put us behind a little bit," said quarterback Matt Vitale. "But it's all good, we'll bounce back next week."

Bouncing back from a tough, lopsided loss is nothing new for this resilent bunch. The Vikings look to duplicate their victorious response from their first blowout loss in September with a win this upcoming Friday against De Anza College.

"The good thing about (losing) is it's on film, so now we get to learn even more from what we did," said Vitale. "We obviously didn't play anywhere close where we needed to play, but we'll bounce back."

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