4B | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2019 | SIUSLAW NEWS
Viks
from 1B
One year later, as Siuslaw
hosted the Eagles, Vikings
coach Sam Johnson was
surveying the field with
just under five minutes left
in the fourth.
“Come on baby, you
got this!” Johnson yelled
from the sidelines as the
score read 57-8, Viking ad-
vantage. Freshman Odin
Smith made a 4-yard run
to bump the score up to
63, then sophomore Camp
Lacouture made the kick
for the extra point. Despite
their best efforts, the Ea-
gles were unable to make a
push as the clock ran down,
losing the game 64-8.
It was as close to a mir-
ror image as one can get in
football, yet Johnson had
no idea.
“I had no clue. All the
kids remember the score
from last year,” he said.
“Since I wasn’t on the
coaching staff, I have no
clue what the scores were
last year. To me, I know
they were 0-8, and that’s all
that matters.”
The Viking’s are on
a roll, picking off each
school one-by-one that
took them down last year
— Newport, Philomath.
Some have dubbed this the
year the “Gold Helmet Re-
venge Tour.”
That’s not how Johnson
sees it.
“It wasn’t any revenge or
any malice,” he said. “Har-
risburg’s coaching staff is
awesome, and I love their
head coach. And they said,
‘We got you guys last year
and we’re glad you guys
are up and rising this year.’
There were no ill feelings,
and I don’t feel like we ran
up the score. I just feel like
we executed and played re-
ally well.”
That’s not to say that the
Viks aren’t out to prove
something.
“For us, we’re playing
together as a family play-
ing football,” Johnson said.
“We’re hoping all the scores
are very lopsided and we’re
on top. For the kids, it’s got
to feel real good. When
you get embarrassed like
that in front of the entire
state, it feels good to get a
win 64-8 and let everybody
know, that’s not who we
are. And that’s definitely
not who we are this year.”
And who the Viks are
this year is a diverse team
with offense and defensive
standouts that Johnson is
more than happy to talk
Fishing
from 1B
be found throughout the
lake in a variety of habi-
tats. Warmwater fishing
will continue to be good
through the summer and
into the fall.
Siltcoos also gets
stocked rainbow trout,
check the stocking sched-
ule for numbers and dates
of stockings.
Coho fishing in Siltcoos
and Tahkenitch opened
Oct. 1.
up.
“Offensively, you could
say all 11 and add in our
substitutes, but we couldn’t
do what we do if it wasn’t
for the man behind the
center, quarterback Elijah
Blankenship,” he said. “His
will power to just show
up and do the right thing,
whether it’s at school, in
the classroom, on the prac-
tice field, in the game field,
outside of school, at church
— he just consistently does
the right thing.”
But Blankenship knows
he’s not alone on the field.
After throwing a pass to
wide receiver Braydon
Thornton, he told Johnson,
“Holy smokes, it’s really
fun throwing to a kid like
that.”
“I’ve never seen a receiv-
er as a sophomore that has
such raw talent. For me it’s
fun because the receiver is
the position that I played
and coached, specifically.
And to get to coach a kid
like that is really special.”
As of Friday, Thornton
had 10 touchdown recep-
tions in just five games
— including four against
Harrisburg, tying the sin-
gle-game record set by
Collin Cram-Watkins in
2003.
Johnson gave gave start-
ing receiver Issac Garza
high marks, stating that he
would be a go-to receiver
for any team in the state.
“You can see how good
he is when we throw him
the ball two or three times,
and every catch he makes
is diving or he’s jumping
over the guy or he’s making
a catch when he’s getting
hit,” Johnson said.
There’s Rhys Fleming
and Avery Hart, the tight
ends, along with Camp La-
couture.
“To be able to throw it
to Camp in the backfield
and shove it down people’s
throat with him and Hec-
tor Garcia, if I was an op-
posing coach to these guys,
I wouldn’t know what to
do. I know a lot of teams
will say they have a ton of
skill guys. But when you
look across the board at
our guys, and have them all
love each other and want
each other to succeed way
more than they want them-
selves to succeed, it’s really
cool and really special.”
Johnson said defensive-
ly, Henry Rankin and Matt
Horillo can hold down the
middle like no others.
“And then you got
Dayson Foglio and Avery
Hart with the in,” he said.
ALSEA RIVER: Fall
Chinook, cutthroat trout
Fall Chinook fishing on
the Alsea River continues
to be fair to good. It has
not been red hot but
anglers are consistently
catching fish every day
and fish are now spread
throughout the estuary.
A few fish moved into
the river with the last rain
events but the low water
should hold everything in
the estuary until the next
significant rain. The first
few weeks in September is
typically when the fishing
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“And then you have fresh-
men that sub in there all
the time.”
But Johnson pointed out
that the defense would not
be anything close to special
if it wasn’t for Brady Libby.
“Every day in practice,
he sets the tone with the
kids — ‘This is how we’re
going to go about things,
this is how hard we’re go-
ing to hit, this is who we
are as a defense,’” said
Johnson. “He’s got a bunch
of turnovers early. He leads
our team by a million in
tackles. We wouldn’t be
anywhere near the football
team we are if it wasn’t for
his character and attitude
every day.”
Despite the strong team,
the plays aren’t always per-
fect, as Johnson pointed
out.
“We had to fumbles,” he
said, referring to Harris-
burg. “Five incompletions.
We had a dropped ball.
Missed a bunch of block-
ing assignments, defen-
sively. We missed a bunch
of tackles.”
That’s not to say that the
game was bad, “I’d be in-
sane to say that we played
bad or that we have tons
of room to grow,” Johnson
said. “That was pretty ex-
cellent on all sides of the
ball and all facets of the
game.”
But with issues to work
on, the Viks have no
reached their peak perfor-
mance, in Johnson’s view.
“You’re not supposed
to peak at week five,” he
said. “A lot of teams peak
at week three or four. Some
always try and peak when
the playoffs are starting.
You want to peak in De-
cember, and that’s when
the state championship
is. If we’re not peaking in
December, then what are
you preparing for? If you’re
peaking in week six or sev-
en, you’re doing everything
wrong. We’re still slowly
installing stuff and we’re
slowly learning new stuff.
We’re going to continue to
install stuff to get better as
a team and look forward to
the future.”
And the future is any-
thing but easy for the Viks.
This week, they travel to
Santiam Christian, who are
looking to continue their
five-win streak.
“I mean, man, you say
you don’t circle any games
on the calendar, but San-
tiam Christian, shoot, ev-
erybody circles them.”
The perennial power-
house is always ranked
improves and it will con-
tinue to get better as the
season progresses.
Due to low forecasted
fall Chinook returns, this
year’s daily bag limit has
been reduced to 1 wild
Chinook per day and 5
per year for the mid-coast
aggregate (Siletz River to
Siuslaw River).
No wild coho retention
for the 2019 season.
Trout fishing in streams
is open until Oct. 31.
in the top five in the state
yearly, and as a private
school, they get more lat-
itude in picking their own
kids.
“If we make stupid mis-
takes like we’ve done all
year, they’ll blow us out,”
Johnson said. “For us, we
need to shore up those
holes in our ship real
quick. And we need to do
it this week.”
But the Viks are accept-
ing the challenge.
“We can sit back and
complain, or we can just
buckle up with the guys
we’ve got. We’re going to go
right after them, just like
they’re going to come right
after us. I don’t think we’re
going to shy away in any
way. To me, this is the bat-
tle that we want, because it
will say a lot about who we
are as a team.”
Kick-off for Friday’s
game is set for 7 p.m.
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