WILMINGTON-Hoggard's dreams of a second consecutive state high school football title ended Friday night in an improbable fashion.

In last year's state title run, the Vikings were superb on special teams, and they were also good again this season.

But the Vikings' season ended on Joey Powell's 22-yard blocked punt return with 1:17 left as Apex rallied for a 6-3 victory in a second-round 4AA game at Hoggard Stadium.

'We had been pretty good in special teams and punt teams,'' Vikings coach Scott Braswell said. 'It is disappointing because we just didn't execute the blocking up front. It ends up being the difference in the game.''

Apex coach Bob Wolfe said the Cougars didn't work on blocking kicks in practice. He said it just kind of happened on Marcus Lee's rugby style punt.

Hoggard's offense mustered only Ian Durham's 27-yard field goal with 1:55 before intermission, but late in the fourth quarter, it appeared Durham's kick would hold up. The Vikings were one first down from securing victory, and on third-and-2 Brad Busby fell forward for three yards. However, Hoggard was whistled for a holding penalty, and a subsequent run netted zero yards.

'We had the first down, but had a holding call on a backside block,'' Braswell said. 'That's a tough call there. I will leave it at that.''

On fourth down, the Vikings also were called for a false start, forcing Lee to punt from his own 34.

'Not being able to finish out drives has been a little bit of story for us lately,'' Braswell said. 'One of the differences was our inability to score points.''

Busby and Rashaad McDonald combined to rush for 203 yards.

"We feel like we had a pretty good defensive line,'' said Wolfe, a former Laney coach. 'We felt like we could play with them. With Busby running the ball, they do such a good job. He is such a competitor. He does so many great things, but I think our defensive guys did a super job.''

Wolfe also understood the magnitude of the upset, handing the Vikings a defeat on their home field for the first time in three years.

"It has sunk in because I told them that a minute ago,'' Wolfe said afterwards. 'We talked about that because they are the defending state champions. The year we beat Laney in 2002, they had been in the state finals the previous year, too. Our kids just hung in there against Hoggard.''