POPLAR GROVE — North Boone senior Colton Friemuth pulled his jersey off and walked slowly across the football field.
The emotions of Friday’s game against Harvard hit him with a tug.
“Everybody was fighting hard,” said Friemuth, one of 12 seniors. “As seniors, we wanted to win.”
The Vikings’ quest for their first playoff berth under head coach Aaron Sullivan was dashed by Harvard in a 19-7 loss despite a rally in the fourth quarter.
‘We knew it was our last chance to get into the playoffs if we didn’t win this game,” said Friemuth, who had 22 tackles. “We wanted to leave it all on the field.”
The Vikings (3-5, 1-3 Big Northern East) were no match for the Hornets the past two years as Harvard routed North Boone 42-0 in 2006 and 45-27 last season.
Both North Boone and Harvard came into the game with similar records at 3-4 and 1-2 in conference.
The loss for North Boone eliminated it from playoff contention.
“The seniors wanted this game and the sophomores and juniors worked their tail off,” said Sullivan, who is in his third season. “They felt how much they wanted to win.”
Led by a tenacious defense in the first half, North Boone trailed Harvard 7-0 at halftime.
Hornets running back Vince Gabrys scored on an 8-yard touchdown run midway the second quarter. Vikings defensive back Chris Beck intercepted Zach Fiegel’s pass on the North Boone 3 to halt a potential touchdown before halftime.
The defeat kept the Vikings winless against conference teams outside of Marengo in the Big Northern East. North Boone is 3-11 in the conference since joining in 2006.
Despite the loss, Sullivan said there were still plenty of positives to take from the game.
Vikings quarterback Alex Albrecht, who passed for 141 yards, engineered a 13-play, 89-yard drive that he capped on a 19-yard touchdown pass to his brother, Jon, to make it 13-7 in the fourth quarter.
“We came into the second half more pumped up,” Alex Albrecht said. “We got the momentum and kept the drive going.”
The Vikings nearly took the lead on their next possession, but Albrecht’s pass on fourth-down and 3 fell incomplete to Chris Beck with 1:03 left.
Harvard seized the momentum back just 10 seconds later when Phillip Towne scored on a 58-yard touchdown run with 48.7 seconds left.
Albrecht led North Boone with 99 yards rushing.
- Brenda Young, rrstar.com
