(Avoca) AHSTW continues to impress on the football field this fall. The undefeated Vikings finish the regular season on Friday against St. Albert.
Coach GG Harris admits it didn’t take long to realize this group had the potential to be special. “It was really early on. We knew we had a lot of potential. You always have those goals and aspirations, but you’re just not really sure when you’re going to see it come to fruition.” Harris says they saw things coming together in Week 2 and Week 3. “When you combine really strong work ethic with really strong leadership with talent things can really turn in a quick, solid, positive fashion.”
The 2-5 Falcons are coming off of a 56-23 win over Sidney last week. “We know that they are very skilled and they are always playing their best football at the end of the season. St. Albert is a traditional football powerhouse. They are well coached. They are always going to have some athletes and some size and physicality. We are preparing for a fundamentally really good team.”
A 40-0 win at Logan-Magnolia a week ago was evidence that AHSTW has the potential to make a serious postseason run. “A huge team defensive win. We were super consistent on the defensive side of the ball.” Harris says, “We felt that we executed on multiple different levels that night.”
With a team best 67.5 tackles, Nick Denning has been vital to AHSTW’s cause all season long. He had a particularly big game last week with 13.5 stops including 12 solo tackles and three interceptions. “Really excited and so happy for him to have a big breakout statistical game like that.” Harris says, “He plays like a linebacker, but yet he’s a safety…He loves to hit. He’s one of the hardest hitting kids on our team and it’s contagious. When he’s out there making plays everyone else wants to make a play too. He’s definitely a leader of that defense. He takes pride in doing his job well and does a lot of the dirty work for us.”
2nd on the team in tackles is Aidan Martin with 64.5. Martin made 17.5 tackles last week including two for loss.
AHSTW’s closest game all year was a 20-point margin over Riverside. They’ve made it a point to find areas to work on even if their weaknesses aren’t being exposed in games. “That’s something we work on during the week. We’ve been fortunate to have really good looks from our scout team and our underclassmen. It creates a really competitive practice atmosphere. I’m fortunate to have a great staff that breaks down film and looks at ourselves.”
Luke Sternberg ran for 178 yards on 14 carries with two TD’s last week. That gives him over 1,000 yards in his sophomore season with 1,144 yards and a Class A, 5th best 17 TD’s. He’s averaging 11.8 yards per carry.
Kyle Sternberg went 12/16 passing last Friday night for 223 yards, 3 TD’s, and no interceptions. The Viking QB hasn’t thrown a pick all season. He is 5th in Class A with 16 passing touchdowns and has 1,157 yards.
AHSTW coach GG Harris:
