Hoggard looks to avenge a 2016 loss and advance to 4A Football Finals

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The Hoggard Vikings football team sits one game away from returning to the state championship for the first time since 2007. It has been a historic run for the Vikings, but more history can still be made.

“Making it to the Eastern Finals is really quite the accomplishment,” Hoggard Coach Craig Underwood said. “I’m really proud of the way our team has played week in and week out. It’s another big challenge this week and the guys are really excited about it.”

It’s a challenge not many teams have been able to over come. The Scotland County Fighting Scots have only lost nine games since 2011, defeating teams all across the state including Hoggard in round three of the playoffs last year.

Here in 2017, the Vikings have shown they can avenge losses and Coach Underwood said they can do it again if they execute.

“We’ve got to be fundamentally sharp in all three phases of the game,” Coach Underwood said. “You win championships by doing little things right, tackling well, finishing blocks, ball security and all those things.”

You also win championships by jumping out to early leads, something Hoggard did to perfection last week in their victory against Heritage when they scored on their opening possesion and followed that with two turnovers ultimately turing them into a 13-point lead in the first quarter.

With a team that’s scored more than 63 points in each of their playoff games, the Vikes need to score early and often.

“It’s huge,” Coach Underwood said. “You try to set a tone in every game. That’s what Scotland has made a living on. They have major production in the first quarter. That’s a big challenge to us. We have to play our game and be the team with the big production in the first quarter and we’ve done a great job of that lately.”

This is what the perfect season comes down to: win and the Vikings play for the first state championship under Coach Underwood. Lose and the year ends one game short.

“I think it really comes down to our players motivation. They are a very driven group starting with our senior class. They worked hard all year and the end is in sight. I think their ready to show up and execute at a high level again.”

It all goes down in Laurinburg Friday at 7:30. We’ll have highlights from the 4A East finals friday during our Full Court Press broadcast.