STORY BY: KEITH KANE
BELTON — The Bryan Vikings looked a step slow from beginning to end Friday (9/14) night in Belton on the way to a 42 -16 loss on the road.
The Vikings were on their heels right from the opening whistle. Belton’s Shane Stafford took the opening kick-off across the field and down the sideline for 95 yards as the Vikings lost containment and gave up an early lead to the Tigers, 7-0. Belton’s offense scored on its next three possessions to take the wind out of the Viking’s sails early on. In fact, the score was 21-3 at the end of the first quarter after Belton scored on two touchdown passes by Tigers quarterback Peter Shelburne, one to Camron Meyer and the other to Derrick Bates. Bryan’s lone score in the first quarter came on a 42 yard field goal by Jose Falcon, who kicked much better this week with new holderRyan Way.
The Vikings’ defense came up with a big play in the second quarter when Derrick Smith scooped up a Belton fumble and returned it 81 yards for a touchdown. But, two touchdown runs by Brandon Rhodes in the second and third quarters plus a touchdown run by Kyle Adamson in the fourth quarter would salt the game away for the Tigers.
Bryan would score once more in the game on a 10 yard Logan Pottenburg pass to V-J Banks.
Bryan did move the ball well on offense with 318 total yards for the game. But once again the Vikings had trouble scoring, twice being stopped scoreless inside of the Belton 20 yard line.
The Vikings have one final tune-up before the District Schedule begins on Friday, 9/21, when they host Pflugerville Hedrickson for a 7:30 pm game. The game will be broadcast on 1150 The Zone beginning at 7 pm.