Ryan Nase secures first win as Northeast Head Coach
Tagged under: District 12, Gameday Hub, News
Anthony Franklin | September 2, 2023
After falling on the road last week to Cedar Crest the Northeast Vikings were determined to come back this weekend and get that taste of defeat out of their mouths. This Vikings team is talented but short on experience as most of what was expected to return for reasons unknown bolted to other city programs. Head Coach Ryan Nase formerly of Cheltenham HS rallied the troops this week and star LB/TE George Truitt when asked how the mood of this past week was after that opening loss he stated I’d describe the mood as intense. Coach wanted to make sure that we didn’t feel that feeling of traveling an hour just to lose again. Practice moved faster and with more intensity and we ended almost every practice with the word “WIN”.
As I mentioned while talented this years Viking team is young so there will be growing pains George mentioned “Our team is young so it’s a lot of teaching the basics as far as the newer players. Now for the players that left. Coaches preach next man up.”
This game started slowly for both teams and looked to be a defensive slugfest with hard hitting until the 3rd quarter when Truitt provided the first score on a reception that was followed by So RB David Akpuru rushing for a score to extend the lead to 14-0 heading into the final quarter. West would respond late in 4th quarter when QB Durham Kal-El converted a QB sneak to get the Burrs on the scoreboard and cut the lead to 14-6 with just under 4 mins remaining. After the Burrs defense forcing Northeast to punt the Vikings defense had to answer the call and preserve the win. When asked about the team mindset before the final Burrs drive George says “The message was to finish! Not everything will go right. Next play mentality is what we practice. And we got it back for our team and sealed the deal.”
This was the first win for HC Ryan Nase at Northeast. George says “It meant a lot to get him his first win. Hopefully we can bring many more wins for him and the team. I feel like coach Nase could take NE to new heights. But it starts with the players so we have to ball out!”
George is a senior looking to compete in college next year and when asked what should college coaches who are recruiting would be getting in him he says “ I feel like coaches should know that I’m coachable, I work hard and that I’m a team player. I’m willing to make sacrifices and do things to help my team win.”
At the conclusion of the game I got to speak with David who was awarded game mvp about his performance and the teams overall performance. He emphasized “I am proud of my team that we could put a great win together and how we had the ability to face adversity and focus going into halftime”. When asked about his game deciding score he said “What made me believe I could punch it in was because the ends kept on biting on the iso which they did on my touchdown run”. Going forward David says “we expect a public league championship and keep a tradition going”.
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