By Richard Paolinelli
MaxPreps.com
The final gun of the football season sounded on a Saturday that saw all three Southern California teams celebrate state championships, sending the three northern teams home disappointed.
But despite a 42-28 loss in the Division II State Championship game to the Orange Luthern Lancers, the Palo Alto High School football team did not return home a beaten team.
The Vikings finished the season as the Central Coast Section champions, having defeated both the No. 1 and 2 seeded teams in Oak Grove and Palma, and were one of only six teams to play for a state title this year.
"Regardless of the loss, we've played great the whole year," Palo Alto quarterback Nick Goodspeed told the Paly Voice in an interview following Saturday's loss. "We won league, we won CCS, and no one expected us to be here."
The Vikings spotted the Lancers an early 21-0 lead as USC-bound quarterback Aaron Corp was a one-man assault team, having a part in all six of Lutheran's touchdown-scoring plays.
Palo Alto rallied back and actually outscored the Lancers over the final three quarters, but the early deficit was just too much for the Vikings to overcome.
After a 12-2 campaign, Palo Alto coach and athletic director Earl Hansen can focus now on his A.D. duties and take a little bit of a break from football.
But Hansen will have to start looking at replacing 17 graduating seniors, including Goodspeed, WR/DB Trenton Hart and RB Will Frazier for the 2007 campaign.
The good news for Hansen is that he gets back bruising fullback Sione Mataele for one more year and has a pair of 6-3 quarterbacks in his stable in junior Jeff Wilson and sophomore Will Brandin.
Their primary target is likely to be junior wideout Mike Scott, who had 10 catches for 210 yards and two touchdowns and more than made up for his fumble on the Vikings' first drive that led to Lutheran's first score of the game.
The Vikings may have even silenced their critics, who felt that the North Coast Section should have represented Northern California in all three of Saturday's title games, although it appears evident that the Southern California schools would have swept aside any team from the north on Saturday.
But even if the naysayers are still out there, the Vikings have a section trophy on their mantle at Palo Alto High and their place in California High School sports history is forever secure.
And with one year left in the current state football playoff format, the Vikings have the motivation - and the first-hand knowledge of how to do it now - to get back to next year's title game with a much different ending in mind.