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South Tahoe crushes Wooster in final home game of 2017 regular season

South Tahoe senior Jakob Costly runs for a big gain Friday night against Wooster.
Bill Rozak / Tahoe Daily Tribune

Costley, Castles and Cain.

It’s not an official law firm. But the Viking seniors were the law Friday night at South Tahoe.

Jakob Costley rushed the ball right through Wooster behind a physical offensive line.

Mccallan Castles intercepted two passes to lead a Vikings defense that gave up a few big plays, but not much else.

And Matt Cain hauled in 143 receiving yards, scored twice and looked like he would go the distance every time he touched the football.

The Vikings trio, along with quarterback Peyton Galli, helped crush the visiting Colts 47-10 in South Tahoe’s final regular season home game.

“It went how we wanted,” Cain said smiling while looking at the scoreboard. “We knew what we had to do and we were definitely the more physical team, which we’ve struggled with the past couple of games.”

Costley, along with the offensive line, set the tone right off the bat. He rushed for 6 yards on the game’s first play and 18 on the next one.

On the third play, Galli hit Castles on a crossing pattern for a 21-yard touchdown. Castles was hit at the 10, but it didn’t faze him. The Colt defender bounced off the 6-foot-5 Castles like he was wearing an invisible shield.

Costley gave the Vikings a two-touchdown lead late in the first quarter on a run up the middle where he found a gaping hole and knifed his way 27 yards to paydirt.

“The offensive line opened up everything and the holes were giant,” said Costley, who rushed for 178 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries and also had 62 yards receiving on four catches.

Wooster got on the board with a 23-yard field goal to end the first quarter.

South Tahoe answered fast. Cain grabbed a quick pass and went 51 yards to the Colts’ 7. Caleb Moretti hauled in a Galli pass on the next play to give the Vikings a 21-3 lead.

Wooster shot itself in the foot half way through the second quarter when a snap sailed over the punter’s head and into the Colts’ endzone. Junior co-captain Kody Griffis and Castles smashed the punter as he tried to recover it and there was hustling lineman Jackson Binns to fall on it for a Vikings touchdown and a 27-3 advantage.

South Tahoe added another touchdown late in the half, and it was Cain with the big play. The wide receiver grabbed a quick screen pass and made defenders look silly on his way to a 51-yard touchdown to make it 34-3 at halftime.

At the break, Castles had more interceptions (2) than Wooster had completions (1) in 10 attempts. The Colts had just 105 yards and four turnovers and couldn’t stop the Vikings from exerting their physical dominance. Galli already had thrown for 184 yards and three touchdowns. He finished with 284 yards and four scores and now has thrown for 13 touchdowns in his last three games and has 17 on the season.

“(It was a) Great win for seniors,” said Vikings head coach Louis Franklin. “We improved and played more physical than last week. It led to some turnovers and I was excited to get our first special teams score of the season. There were a lot of things this week to be happy about.”

The Colts scored on the first drive of the second half, but they were never heard from again.

The Vikings answered immediately with a 5-play, 74-yard drive. Costley carried four times for 53 yards and capped the march with an 11-yard touchdown run.

“The linemen aren’t sometimes in the newspaper so much, like the running back and quarterback, but when we see Jakob 30-40 yards downfield, we can look at ourselves and say, ‘Yeah, we’re the reason he’s running down that field,’ ” said Vikings senior tackle Logan Langmeier. “From the linemen’s standpoint, that’s probably the best thing to see, a running back way down the field.”

South Tahoe scored its final touchdown half way through the fourth quarter on a 25-yard pass from Galli to Cain.

The Vikings (3-3 3A Northern League) have won two straight and will finish the season with three consecutive road games, at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 13, at Dayton (1-6, 0-6 3A Northern), at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 20, at Elko (2-4 3A Northern) and at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28, at rival Truckee (5-1, 4-1 3A Northern).

The Vikings are satisfied with the way they played, but even after gaining a combined 240 yards of offense, Costley wants more.

“We played really well, very physical and executed what we needed to do and did what we practiced all week,” Costley said. “I’m happy with the way we played but we can do better, there’s always room for improvement.”

Game notes and quotes: South Tahoe’s Quinten Morullo recovered a semi-onside kick after the Vikings’ first touchdown. The kick was lofted high and bounced at the Colts’ 38 where Morullo pounced. … Vikings junior Kody Griffis caused a second quarter fumble that teammate Sonny Anthony recovered. … Wooster completed just four passes but gained 141 yards through the air, averaging over 35 yards per catch. … Wooster receiver Adam Amezola made a brilliant catch deep down field over South Tahoe’s Matt Cain in the third quarter, but Cain got even a few yards after the grab when he stripped him of the ball and recovered the fumble.

Logan Langmeier’s game assessment: “We came out strong the whole game. That’s what we needed here on senior night. Coming out of last week, it was important that we play a full, strong 48 minutes of football. We did that tonight and came away with a 30-something point victory. For us as seniors, especially as our last home game, it was a big win for us.”

On the Vikings’ physical play: From the O-line standpoint, we’re done letting our quarterback get hit. We’re done kinda taking the blows. We went strong the whole time at practice this week and that led up to a game where we knew they were a physical team, and we had to come out harder. And as long as we came out harder and played a full 48 minutes, we knew we’d walk away with a win.”

Matt Cain’s thoughts about South Tahoe exerting its dominance: “We knew Wooster was going to be the physical team. We knew we had to get it together and not keep playing how we’ve been playing. Something had to change. So we stepped it up in practice, went harder and it showed. It was definitely one of our best games.”


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