By Ed Birch, Special Writer
The 2012 South Brunswick Vikings opened its season last Friday on the road by tearing up the East Brunswick Bears 34-0.
The game was never in doubt, as the high powered Vikings turned its offense on and never stopped the attack.
The Vikings scoring started with just 9:36 remaining in the opening quarter.
The Vikings scored on a 12-yard run by quarterback T.J. Perkowski. The scoring drive was set up by a 20-yard pass completion from Perkowski to co-captain, and Rutgers-bound tight end, T.J. Taylor.
With a little less than three minutes remaining in the period, senior running back Dion Hooper scored again for the Vikings on a 6-yard run. The point-after kick by sophomore Dylan Olsson brought the lead up to 13-0.
The second quarter saw the lead increase to 26-0 with 13 more unanswered points on a 4-yard touchdown run by Perkowski and a 10-yard score by running back Donte Strickland. At that point, it was quite apparent that the Bears were in trouble and the match was getting out of hand.
The third quarter started off with Hooper breaking some Bears tackles and then scoring on a 34-yard run to bring the score up to 34-0 after another Olsson point after kick.
The fourth quarter was a great exercise for the Vikings coaching staff as they pulled their starters very early for some much needed rest and gave players on the bench the opportunity to participate.
The final statistics showed that the Vikings were totally in the driver’s seat.
The Vikings earned 11 first downs during the match as compared to the Bears four. The rushing attack for the Vikings earned 113 total yards as compared to the 58 yards for the Bears. The Perkowski led passing attack was responsible for 72 yards compared to just six yards for the Bears.
The Vikings almost tripled the total offense of the Bears 185-64 yards. Third down efficiency for the Vikings was 4 for 9 attempts compared to two for 11 tries for the Bears.
Hooper accounted for 61 of the 113 rushing yards for the Vikings. T.J. Taylor led the team of receivers with a total of 37 total yards.
Quarterback Perkowski was accurate in five of seven attempts for a total of 63 yards. Dylan Olsson controlled the kicking game with three extra points and averaged 49.3 yards punting.
The Vikings defense was clearly the stars of the contest. Leading tacklers were Co-Captains T.J. Taylor and Ken Drost with six tackles each and Brian Lee was credited with five tackles.
”In football, the challenge for the defensive team is very hard,” Head Coach Joseph Goerge said after the game. “We came up with two blocked punts and always had good field position.”
Coach Goerge said kicker Dylan Olssen “really inspired the defense with some great punts that kept East Brunswick far away from the goal line. Our team really showed a good attitude.”
Coach Goerge told the team that “he wished he had come aboard in January instead of June. I could have had a lot more time to work on making the Vikings into even a better-prepared team. Right now, I think that we are almost there.”
Newly appointed Interim Principal Peter Varela was one of the biggest cheerleaders for the Vikings.
”This was one great opening, the team looks great and I am sure that everyone, including myself, will be seeing a lot more from these kids and our great new coach,” Mr. Varela said. “I will be there cheering for our team and hopefully the entire Vikings community will be there along side me.”
The Vikings open up their home season tonight at 7 p.m. against neighboring Monroe Township High School. Tickets are still available.

