Bradynn Belcher, Campus Carrier asst. sports editor
College on Sept. 2. Katelynn Singleton | Campus Carrier
Touchdown celebrations and blocked punts were a common occurrence at Valhalla Stadium on Saturday night when the Berry Vikings football team won their season opener against Huntington College 67-34 after a dramatic first quarter.
Junior running back Josh Rogers and the Vikings offense decided that 294 days was long enough without putting on a show at Valhalla for the Berry community. Rogers did not waste a single moment by scoring within the first 40 seconds of the game. A successful extra point attempt by senior kicker and punter Charlie Bell made the score 7-0 for the Vikings at 14:21 in the first quarter.
The Huntingdon College Hawks were not going to give up without a fight, and that was proven when they scored on a 96-yard kickoff return. A successful kick tied the score 7-7 less than a minute into the game.
The Vikings and the Hawks continued the back-and-forth brawl into the second quarter until Berry broke the scoring open. Berry’s defense kept the Hawks silent into the fourth quarter, holding them to 20 points and only allowing them to score once the Vikings put up 53 points on them.
Assistant Coach Jake Weitkamp has seen the highs and lows of the Viking’s program the last five years from two perspectives: as a player and as a coach. Weitkamp played under Head Coach Tony Kunczewski, for five years before being hired as a full-time assistant coach to the program that raised him.
Weitkamp said that Saturday’s win has set standards high for the remainder of the season.
“Huntingdon is a solid team, and we still have lots on which to improve,” Weitkamp said. “We are excited to see what we can do when we are playing at our full potential.”
The ultimate goal for the Vikings is to win the Southern Athletic Association (SAA) conference championship. Afterwards, the team aims to succeed in the NCAA playoffs in hopes of bringing home a national championship, according to Kunczewski.
Before the football team can begin tackling these goals, a competitive foe stands in their way. The Trinity University Tigers have become the force to be reckoned with in the SAA, winning the conference title in 2021 outright and in 2022 by going undefeated in conference play.
Berry and Centre College are the only two other teams to accomplish this difficult feat since the SAA’s birth in 2012. Starting in the program’s fourth year, from 2016 to 2020, the Vikings won the conference championship five straight times.
The last time Berry defeated the Tigers was in 2019, which is also the last time that the Vikings won the SAA regular season title, not counting the 2020 season that was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In order for the Vikings to achieve their hefty post-season goals, beating Trinity is imperative.
Captain Brock Skinner is exercising his fifth and last year of eligibility for the Vikings. He was on the squad during the 2019 season, and this veteran player believes that this year’s team has all the elements it needs to defeat the Tigers.
“I know for a fact that if we are playing our best football, and we’re detail-oriented, we will beat [Trinity],” Skinner said. “It’s not a matter of beating Trinity, it’s a matter of if we are going to beat ourselves.”
In Skinner’s five years of experience, he said that this is the best team chemistry that the Vikings have had, and this will set them apart from the rest of their SAA opponents.
“I haven’t felt closer with any group of guys years prior to this,” Skinner said. “I think that is arguably one of the more important aspects of the team. Knowing that you can rely on other guys to do their job consistently as well as lead different people takes away a lot of stress at the individual level and it makes us closer.”
Kunczewski sees the remarkable team chemistry that his players share with one another from the sidelines. He said that it reminds him of what it used to look like when the Vikings were regularly winning the SAA season championship.
“I think our team culture has been really good, and continues to get better, and I think it’s back to the levels it was a few years back when we were going on a run and winning a bunch of conference championships,” Kunczewski said. “At the end of the day, I think culture wins. You have to have talent, but you also have to have the right culture too.”
According to Kunczewski, his team has the talent that it needs to take them far this season. Junior Brandon Cade is back for his third year and has acquired first team all-conference accolades as running back during his underclassman campaigns.
Josh Rogers is the peanut butter to Cade’s jelly. The running back responsible for the Vikings’ stunning opening plays last weekend, Rogers was an all-SAA honorable mention and second team all-conference player during the 2021 and 2022 seasons, respectively.
Kunczewski expects these two to represent the Vikings well this season, referencing them as two of the best running backs in the league.
Bryce Herring, sophomore, won SAA Newcomer of the Year last season for his success at the wide receiver position. Another big-time returner is senior captain Tonny Garcia, who was selected as a pre-season All-American candidate.
The next time the Vikings will be back at Valhalla is Sept. 30, when they will take on the Tigers, who are ranked number four nationally in the pre-season, according to D3football.com. Berry football will travel to LaGrange, Georgia, this Saturday to take on the LaGrange College Panthers at 6:00 p.m.