Vikings Squeeze Victory Out Of Royal Falcons
Strategy shone through on Wednesday evening as the Vanier Vikings used the press to extract a 75 - 45 victory over the South Hill Royal Falcons in JV boys action.
The Royal Falcons - a team amalgamated from students of Cornerstone Christian School and Riverview Collegiate - held a height advantage but the quick moving Vikings were able to contain it.
Or worse yet for the Royal Falcons draw fouls and put the Vikings on the free throw line.
The Vikings scoring was interspersed throughout the team being led by C Bradish with ten points and D Toupin with 13 points.
Inversely the Royal Falcon’s scoring was by a small group. Seth Kohl once again led the Royal Falcons with 27 points. Zalan Deak had six points in the losing effort.
The game started with both teams relatively close on the scoreboard through two quarters of play.
The Vikings led 17 - 11 after the first quarter of play.
The score at halftime was Royal Falcons 28 and the Vikings 27.
In the third quarter the effects of the press started to show as the Vikings moved ahead 53 - 39.
The fourth quarter saw a noticeably tired Vikings score right up until the eight second mark and the 75 - 45 victory.
“I think we played pretty good. I think we bounced back from that game that was a little bit rusty on Monday. We were out in Briercrest and it was not as good as today,” Royal Falcons head coach Kalen Senecal said.
“I think we did a good job of bouncing back and running our offence better so I’m happy with that.”
Senecal spoke about how the Vikings used strategy the Royal Falcons hadn’t encountered before.
“They put on a bit of a press in the second quarter and that’s a little bit new for our kids. Something they’ve never experienced. We’re going to have to work on breaking the press and running our offence afterwards,” he said.
He said with experience over the year he’s hoping the young team will gain the experience so they can expand their game.
Asked about the strategy they had last year of allowing all players (over 30) to come on out and practice and try for the team and had been successful Senecal said it had..
“Last year we didn’t have a ton of games for those grade nines but now they are in grade ten and they’re playing. Our grade tens will be the meat and potatoes over the next few years and they’re getting their experience to.”
Once the rebuild is complete the Royal Falcons want to rejoin the senior boys league.
Focusing on the positives is how the Royal Falcons fight being demoralized in the face of a losing record.
“We had a guy score their first bucket today. That is awesome. We have an exchange student that was able to get into the game and help out on defence . We had a real good defensive game by Brody Hutchinson it’s something we’ve focused on. We just try to win quarter by quarter.”
On Wednesday evening the Royal Falcons got out of sequence and fell out of their offence. The team got behind by 20 points and couldn’t come back from the deficit, he said.
He said overall the team might be in a deficit in their development but it was all about getting the reps in and the full effect be felt years later.
“ I’m very happy thinking about where these kids will be in grade 12. They’re in grade 9 and 10 right now but I think they’ll be pretty good players when they are in grade 12.”
The Scoresheet