By Dave Ryan

CAMBRIDGE — It was a long time coming, but the pandemic-abbreviated football season finally began on Friday. The Vikings (1A) opened their seven-game, spring season with a 27-6 win over Wicomico High School.
Regular fall season openers are generally played in warm, even hot, September weather.
Friday, not so much.

The game took place in windy conditions, with the temperature in the 30s. The long layoff since the team’s most recent game more than a year ago, coupled with frozen fingers, resulted in lots of dropped passes and fumbles from both teams.
Not that a whole lot of people saw the miscues — the game took place in a nearly empty stadium, as the Bayside Athletic Conference put rules in place for all sports, limiting the number of spectators as a way to combat the COVID-19 virus.
But fans did listen on the radio, via livestream, shared highlights on social media, or just peeked through the fence to watch the long-awaited contest. Also taking place on Friday were numerous other games and meets, including volleyball, soccer and cross-country running. Vikings cheerleaders didn’t sit this one out, either, as the girls were on the sidelines keeping spirits high.

Dario Belizaire led the Vikings offense with two touchdowns, and helped to shut down the Indians with a fourth-quarter interception.
The Vikings are led by Head Coach Gaven Parker, with quarterback John Henry guiding the offense on the field. Henry helped get scoring started near the end of the first quarter, with a pitch to Dario Belizaire, who took it in around the right side from the 1-yard line. Junior Kicker James Henry was back on the job after a successful freshman season, getting the extra point to make it 7-0.
The Indians took their first trip across the goal line with about 5 minutes left in the second quarter. A failed 2-point attempt left the score 7-6.
Through the rest of the first half, the Vikings offense sputtered in the difficult conditions, but so did WiHi’s, which also had to contend with a stout Vikings defensive line and linebackers.
Early in the third quarter, Belizaire scored again. A missed extra point made it 13-6.

As the fourth period got underway, so did cornerback Tim Johnson. The speedy defender scooped up a WiHi fumble and took it 64 yards for a score.
On the first play of their following possession, Belizaire, who also plays defense, snagged his pick to stop any remaining hope of a comeback for the visitors.

Vikes’ fullback Jordan Manokey made his mark on the scoreboard with less than 2 minutes left on the blustery evening, bringing the score to 27-6. Jay’zon Roberts added an exclamation mark to the final moments, as he grabbed his own interception of an Indians’ pass.
The Vikings will travel to Federalsburg on March 12 to take on Colonel Richardson at 6 p.m.