The victory catapulted Westmont into the Medium School Division championship game against Woodside High School slated for Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. at Milpitas High School.

As the team and coaches mingled with family and friends on the field, basking in the victory and the anticipation of playing in a championship game, Santos had nothing but praise for his Warriors.

"It was a total team effort by our players," the coach said. "Palo Alto is a well-coached team but we took advantage of what they gave us and went with where our strengths were."

There were definitely plenty of heroes to choose from.

Offensively, it could have been the arm of quarterback Kevin Pham—he had pinpoint precision, connecting on 21 of 27 attempts for 233 yards and two touchdowns. Or it could have been the legs of running back Daniel Weller—he ran over and through the Vikings for 124 yards and a touchdown in 25 efforts. Or it could have been the hands of wide receivers Casey Modiri—he pulled down seven catches for 91 yards—or Ryan Kanzaki—he snagged touchdown catches of 25 and 19 yards.

Defensively, it could have been defensive back Chantz Staden, who stole two interceptions in the end zone to prevent Viking scores. Or it could have been Kelly Peterson, who returned an interception 85 yards for a touchdown to put the game on ice for the Warriors late in the fourth quarter. Or it could have been linebacker Arthur Esterkin, who pulled down an interception to thwart another Viking threat. Or it could have been the corps of Warrior defensive backs—Connor Quin, Stefan Fowler, Staden, and Peterson—that faced a barrage of 40 passes thrown at them by the Vikings and allowed only one touchdown.

The Warriors showed that team effort right from the start of the game. Palo Alto took the opening kickoff and was met by Weller and a gang of Warriors at its own 16. Three plays later, the Vikings were forced to punt with the ball going off the side of the punter's foot and giving Westmont possession at the Viking 39.

Four plays later, Pham dropped back to pass and, under pressure, scrambled 12 yards into the end zone but the score was nullified when the Warriors were flagged for holding. That could have been a real setback for Westmont, but Pham fired a 25-yard bullet to Kanzaki on the very next play as he raced across the middle on a post pattern and across the goal line for the score.

Palo Alto lost one of its starting running backs on the next series and was forced to concentrate its offensive attack mostly through the air. Westmont took advantage of that, limiting the Vikings to seven yards on only seven rushes in the first half and a total of 32 yards in 13 attempts for the game. The strong defensive effort was led by Esterkin with seven tackles and D.J. Jackman with six. The Vikings were able to pile up 246 yards through the air but only one big play for a touchdown.

"Our defense would bend but it didn't break," Santos said. "Our defensive backs were big in the end, plus we put pressure on them and forced their quarterback to throw on the run."

Westmont hit a bump in the road early in the second quarter when Pham was burned for his second interception. The Warriors had just kept a drive alive with a fake punt when Weller took the short snap from his upback position on a fourth and one situation and plunged 10 yards around the corner for the first down. Pham was errant two plays later and the Vikings had the ball near midfield. It took them two plays and 48 seconds to score on a 57-yard touchdown bomb. The PAT was good and Westmont was looking at a 7-6 deficit.

The Warriors answered with a 10-play, 80-yard march down the field that featured the hard-nosed running of Weller. The drive culminated with Weller punching it in from a yard out and then barreling across on the two-point conversion to give Westmont a 14-7 lead it never relinquished.

Weller was impressive all night with his ability to squirt through the line of scrimmage and put his head down to meet tacklers head on for the extra yards. He had the luxury of running through nice holes created by the excellent blocking of linemen Jeff Andrews, Tyler Porras, Ramsey Habib, Kyle Portus, and Will Evans.

Westmont would get one more score on the board in the first half off the toe of sophomore Kevin Blakely. After controlling the ball for more than four minutes prior to the half, Westmont was looking at a second and five from its own 25 with no time outs left and 16 seconds on the clock. Pham hit Staden for a 19-yard shot and a first down, but Staden was unable to get out of bounds. The clock stopped momentarily to allow the chains to move, which gave the Westmont field goal team just enough time to get on the field and snap the ball with two seconds left. Blakely stepped forward and nailed the 23-yarder as time expired, giving Westmont a 17-7 halftime advantage.

The second half saw the Vikings come out with a strong aerial attack but the Warriors met that challenge. Palo Alto was able to come up with only a 28-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter that brought them to 17-10. But Pham and Weller kept the mixture of throwing and running working and the Warriors were able to control the ball in the fourth quarter.

After the Viking field goal, Pham took the Warriors 59 yards in four plays, hitting Kanzaki for a 19-yard score to extend the lead to 24-10. Then came Peterson's interception return for a touchdown that put the game out of reach.

The never-say-die Vikings were knocking on the door again when defensive lineman Ben Prevedelli came crashing through on the rush with a crushing shot in the face of the Viking quarterback just as he released the pass. The ball floated downfield where Peterson was waiting at the 15-yard line.

"I just did what my coach had taught me to do," Peterson said. "The quarterback had been doing that all night and I read it and broke on it and when I grabbed it I was thinking touchdown all the way." Peterson raced 85 yards down the sideline and his thoughts became reality as he crossed the goal line for the Warriors' final score.

Weller led the ground attack but got support from Staden who picked up 23 yards on five carries. Pham added 20 yards on nine attempts, mostly on scrambles and Fowler contributed 10 on three efforts.

In addition to Modiri, Pham had several other targets he zeroed in on during the game. Kanzaki ended the night with four catches for 69 yards and Staden grabbed eight for 67. Weller got in on the action, pulling down two for six yards.

The Warriors face a formidable task when they square off against Woodside in the championship game on Friday night. The Wildcats are undefeated on the season and the No. 1 seed in the Medium School Division.

"They are 12-0 and we know they are tough," Santos said. "We are just going to try and play our game and let the cards fall where they may.