Vikings' 14-point, final-quarter rally enough to tie Gauchos

Montgomery has been just a tad schizophrenic this year. First the Vikings destroy Lincoln of San Francisco and then lose a low-scoring ugly game to Sonoma Valley.

On Friday night under the lights at home, the Vikings scored two fourth quarter touchdowns to gain a 17-17 tie against Casa Grande, The Press Democrat's second-ranked large school.

Did the real Vikings show up against Casa? Perhaps the 12-3 loss to Sonoma was an aberration, or maybe the 27-9 dismantling of Lincoln is more a commentary on how bad the Oakland-area teams are this year.

It may take another game or two for Montgomery coach Jason Franci to know what he really has this season. However, he hopes its the team that rallied in the second half against the Gauchos.

"We played hard in the second half," Franci said. "We came to play. Maybe we grew up tonight.

"This is a good bunch of kids. Our defense has been solid, we just haven't been able to do much offensively."

Montgomery, down 17-3 with under eight minutes left in the fourth, got a 3-yard touchdown run by Noah Feeney to close the gap to 17-10.

Then on the first play from scrimmage after the kickoff, Anthony Biasi fumbled at the 26-yard line and Cameron Sprenger recovered. It took the Vikings eight plays to cover the short field. Jaime Kelm bulled in from the one, and Cameron Loomis added the extra point for the tie.

Franci said he thought about going for two, but decided against it since there was still nearly four minutes remaining. "You can see how they move the ball," he said.

Casa went up 10-3 on a 36-yard field goal by Connor Derby late in the first quarter. Casa quarterback Matt O'Brien got the Gauchos on the board on their first possession with a 15-yard TD strike to Matt Nadolski, who beat a Vikings' defender in the back of the end zone. Biasi had a 1-yard TD run in the third quarter to put the Gauchos up 17-3.

Montgomery played without its top runner, Jeff Marks, who sustained a knee injury in the third quarter of the Sonoma game. Fenney picked up the slack with 94 yards rushing on 20 carries.

"Coach told me I would be getting a lot of carries," Feeney said. "We knew we would have to go 100 percent. Everyone said Casa was going to blow us out."

Casa coach Rick O'Brien said the game was exactly what he expected.

"Our defense had been on the field a lot in the fourth quarter. You can't give a good team short fields," he said. "This is always a battle. Every year this is a close game."