Vikings cruise past Curie

Updated: March 22, 2011 5:12PM

Never underestimate an opponent.

First-year Homewood-Flossmoor coach Craig Buzea made sure his players understood the true meaning of such a statement during practices for Friday night's Class 8A first-round playoff game against Curie of the Chicago Public League.

The Viking players listened, roaring to a 41-14 victory that earned them a second-round home matchup against Waubonsie Valley.

"When we were only leading 22-14 at halftime, coach Buzea told us that he wanted to coach us in another game next week, and more games after that," Purdue-bound defensive lineman Michael Rouse said.

"I think we had some butterflies in the first half. This was a new experience for a lot of us. When we saw Curie on film, we realized they had a lot of talent. We did a much better job of stopping them in the second half."

It was a little scary early in the third quarter. A 55-yard run by Jamell Tambah on a broken play put Curie at the H-F 13. The Condors then moved inside the H-F 5, but Aidan Conlon came up big, stopping the Curie drive with a fumble recovery at the 5 yard line,

The rest of the game belonged to the Vikings (8-2), who dominated the final 18 minutes.

H-F running back Malik Norman (26 carries, 212 yards) was almost unstoppable, scoring second-half touchdowns of 4 and 6 yards to go along with the 14-yarder he tallied with 5:56 left in the first quarter.

"I had missed a couple days of practice with a shin bruise, but I felt pretty good out there tonight," said Norman, who also tossed a 30-yard touchdown pass to Sean Jones with 1:02 left in the opening period.

"I think we played with a lot of energy. We are very motivated to do well in the playoffs. We knew it was going to be a tough game."

Tough it was in the first half. After Norman's first score, Curie responded with a 16-yard scoring run by Kevonta McIntyre to make it 7-6.

But Norman's surprise pass to Jones and a 2-point conversion run by Lantz Sims (8 carries, 91 yards) put the Vikings ahead 15-6.

H-F quarterback Tim Williams followed with a 36-yard scoring pass to Willie Ross and Anthony Crescenti kicked his second extra point of the contest for a 22-6 lead.

But 59 seconds before halftime, Curie quarterback Reese Fleming (10-of-23 passing, 107 yards) passed 12 yards to Mitch Altman-McCray for six points and added two more on a conversion toss to Brandon Barker for a 22-14 halftime score.

H-F's Anfernee Roberts finished the night's scoring with a 10-yard run for a 41-14 final.

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