By Alex A. Gonzalez
PASADENA — The Northview Vikings opened the 2022 campaign on a crisp Friday night by shutting out the Muir Mustangs’ offense while wideout Aaron Silva scored the game’s only touchdown in their 10-0 victory at John Muir high school.
Silva’s touchdown score came early in the third quarter as the Vikings took the field for their first possession of the second half. With the ball placed on the Northview 37-yard line, quarterback James Arellanes took the shotgun pass, lobbed it to Silva who hauled in the reception and tiptoed his way down the Northview sidelined for the score with less than three minutes into the third period.
“That touchdown, man, I haven’t scored in a long time,” said Silva postgame. “I got my opportunity and scored. We did our thing. They are bigger and faster and we don’t care. We got out there and played.”
There were numerous lessons learned from Northview’s Week Zero victory. With numerous mental errors on the offensive side of the ball, the team struggled to put points on the board in the first half.
As a team, the Vikings did find production via the ground game with four different ball carriers. However, said ball carriers did not reach the end zone throughout the first quarter and most of the second.
They did manage to put a drive together before the halftime whistle that led to Joseph Gutierrez booting a 23-yard field goal as time expired.
“We learned that we can still play some football,” said Viking head coach Marcel Perez. “Everyone thinks we’re down and out with graduating a bunch of guys, but we got a great program, and next guys up and we come to play ball for four quarters.”
Muir, who finished tied for first place with cross-town rival Pasadena in the Pacific League, had their miscues and mistakes as the game unfolded. They too committed false start penalties that stalled any offensive production.
What put a dagger in the Mustangs’ offense was when Senior quarterback Mahki Clark left the game early due to an upper-body injury following their second possession of the contest.
From there, Muir relied heavily on the ground game led by Khaali Hicks and backup quarterback Alexander Miler taking snaps the rest of the night. The offense gained minimal yardage as they struggled against the Vikings defense which ultimately kept the Mustangs from reaching the end zone.
With the win, Northview will try to make it to 2-0 when they host Charter Oak next Thursday night. As for Muir, they will try to even their record next Friday night when they host St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy.
1-1 after next Friday.