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By Keith Peters
Palo Alto Online Sports

If one were to gauge the importance of the Palo Alto-Mitty football game, based on fan votes on KTVU's High School Football Game of the Week, that lack of interest would be staggering.

As of Thursday morning, the Sonoma Valley-American Canyon titanic had 39,575 votes to be televised. The more interesting El Cerrito-Campolindo game had 35,381 votes. Next was Tennyson vs. Acalanes with 210 and then Bethel-Concord with 90.

The Mitty at Palo Alto game, set for Friday at 7:30 p.m., had just 60 votes holding off Los Gatos-Oak Grove (48 votes) for last place.

While fans in the East Bay obviously could care less and South Bay fans obviously could care less about voting, the Palo Alto-Mitty matchup is significant, nonetheless.

The teams have played five times (including twice in 2010) since beginning the rivalry in 2008, with Palo Alto winning three times despite scoring 94 points while allowing 120.

Paly coach Earl Hansen said starting the series was a no-brainer.

"No one wanted to play us on that date," he said of the second week of the season. "And, I wanted an 'A' league team to play."

Prior to starting up with Mitty, the Vikings played Burlingame three straight years in Week 2, beat Mountain View in 2004 and Sequoia in back-to-back seasons. The last time Paly lost the second game of the season was in 2000 to South San Francisco.

Hansen said top teams from out of the Central Coast Section have shown interest in a two-year, home-and-home series with the Vikings including schools from as far away as Atascadero.

"I'm not interested in making those kind of trips," Hansen said.

Mitty has provided plenty of competition for Palo Alto, which lost to the Monarchs in 2011 by 27-21. The teams, in fact, have traded victories during the regular season since '08. This is Paly's year to get back in the win column.

"We've got to pick up our defensive speed, and our offensive speed," said Hansen. "Just be more consistent. The younger players need to understand what kind of game we're going to be in."

Hansen expects a tougher test than in last Friday's season-opening 40-21 victory over host San Benito.

The Vikings gained 541 yards on offense (248 passing, 293 rushing) while pulling away in the second half after some early jitters.

Senior co-captain Matt Tolbert rushed for a career-high 201 yards on 15 carries and junior Keller Chryst completed 12 of 30 passes for 248 yards to lead the Vikings.

Tolbert averaged 13.4 yards per carry in addition to catching two passes for 33 yards and leading the defense with 6.5 tackles. Davis caught six passes for 116 yards while Erik Anderson and Jayshawn Gates-Mouton had 5.5 tackles each on defense.

In other games in Week 3:

Gunn (2-0) goes for a third straight victory against visiting Capuchino on Friday at 7:30 p.m. On Saturday, Sacred Heart prep (2-0) will host Los Altos at 1 p.m., Priory (1-0) will host El Sobrante Christian School at 1 p.m., and Menlo-Atherton (1-1) will visit St. Ignatius at 2 p.m. Menlo School has a bye.

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