The Santa Monica Vikings walked away Friday night with an unfortunate loss to the Redondo Sea Hawks. The Vikings were excited to play one last time on their home field and perhaps earn a CIF birth. Expectations were high. 

While the Sea Hawks had a full side of family and friends who came to support them, the cheers were scant in comparison to the home-field Vikings and the SaMo community. 

At the start of the game, both teams did a solid job of defending. At about the 10:00-minute mark, a Redondo player broke through and sprinted with the ball toward the SaMo goal. The Vikings goalie made a risky move by leaving his post and sprinting toward the ball, but it did close the distance between him and the opponent, and he was able to capture the ball and rob a potential goal from the Sea Hawks. Loud cheers and bleacher stomping erupted from the Vikings faithful. 

But Redondo was relentless. They began to play aggressively and somewhat cheaply, often pulling on the Vikings jerseys. The Vikings pushed harder and successfully rebuffed Redono when the Sea Hawks invaded their defensive zone. However, the score remained nil-nil for most of the first half. 

Then, with 15 minutes left in the first half, a Vikings player took the ball and kicked it into the outside of the net. But it seemed to fool SaMo fans who cheered enthusiastically, thinking at first that they had a goal. And while the cheers were loud, they didn’t compare to the ones that occurred two minutes later when, after a series of successful set-up passes, midfielder Hayden Howard successfully put the ball into Redondo’s net. The real thing!

This clearly upset the Sea Hawks, who because even more aggressive towards the Vikings. After a few minutes spent defending, Sea Hawks midfielder Aiden O’Brien took the ball and scored, then tried to show up the Viking fans by running to their side of the field and performing a bit of a victory dance. This elicited some “boos” and taunting, and the referee pulled him over for a little chat. One person sitting on the bleachers even yelled, “You have to learn from the best and know when to do it.”

Tied at 1-1, with just minutes remaining in the half, the Vikings returned to defending well and left the score there at the break.

While the teams talked it over in the locker room, I asked Vikings defender Jesse Howard’s dad, Dan, about his prediction for the second half. Without hesitation, he said the Vikings would end the game with a score of “2-1 or 3-1.” When I asked him if he thought Redondo would score again, he said, “No, I won’t let it happen. I feel like I would run onto the field and defend myself if I have to.”

Howard says his son pushed through sickness earlier in the week to play Friday night. While he is proud of Jesse, he is aware they are approaching the last few games of his high school career. “I’m sad. We don’t want this to be the end of the path,” he said.

Throughout the rest of the game, Howard would cheer for his son and would passionately tell the Vikings to score again. As close to the field as he could be, he could be heard saying, “Let’s do it, Santa Monica! We are ready boys — more than ready!”

During this point of the game, the boys on both sides of the field were unable to score. Both goalies were fantastic and prevented every attempted goal. At one point, the Vikings received a promising corner kick. No matter how many times they continued to miss, they also continued to push through. 

After remaining knotted at 1-1 after regulation, the teams received a 10-minute overtime. Vikings coach Chris Sandoval took this time to tell the team to push through it. The crowd clapped loudly as they saw the ten-minute increase on the scoreboard.  As the team got ready to play, they sang “Olé, Olé, Olé,” a common refrain in Latin soccer. 

Everyone was on their feet, some even went on the track that surrounds the field to get as close as they could hoping to see the Vikings score one more time.

Unfortunately, in the fifth minute of overtime, a Redondo player found the back of the net with a golden goal. The Vikings’ collective facial expression quickly shifted into defeat. Some even blamed the referees for some unjust calls. 

Even with the tough loss, Dan Howard was glad he saw his son play during the last twenty-five minutes of the game. He laughed at the score and said, “It’s still 2-1.” When asked if he believed the referees were wrong he said, “I don’t see it that way. If you see it in a narrow way, sure, but I’m not going to see it that way.”

While he may not see it that way, I have to admit that the referees giving fist bumps to every Redondo player after the game, and not the Vikings, was a bit strange. 

Once the Vikings were done, they stormed off of the field. I waited for Coach Sandoval to come out of the boys’ locker room, but never got the chance to speak to him. I still stayed back and watched the response of family and friends.

As the boys exited the locker room, many were comforted by cheers, and others with flowers and balloons. If there is one thing that never ceases to amaze me, it is how the Vikings community always shows up.

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