Vikings

"It's March Madness!" Pennsbury girls' basketball coach Donna Nicholson exclaimed, talking excitedly about the challenges that lie ahead for her Falcons. The best teams in Southeastern Pennsylvania will start competing Friday against the best from around the state across four classes in hopes of making it to Hershey for the state championships. Pennsbury is one of 10 District 1 Class AAAA schools vying for an opportunity to play for the state title. The Falcons qualified for the state tournament for the first time in seven years.

Gabriel Chandler reinjured his finger. Dayshawn Reynolds hurt his back. Isiah Graves made a key layup, then immediately committed his fifth foul by drawing a costly technical. But adversity for the Atlantic City boys' basketball team is nothing new, and neither is finding a way to succeed despite any and all opposition. "There's just something about this group," coach Gene Allen said after his Vikings emerged with a 51-49 victory over East Brunswick in a pulse-pounding Group 4 state semifinal Wednesday night at Egg Harbor Township.

It was Group 4 against Group 2. That's not always an advantage in size and strength for the larger school. But it was when Eastern played Haddonfield in the Cherry Hill East Invitational on Saturday. "That was the game plan," Eastern coach Joe Murphy of his team's physical play in a 52-41 victory in the second game of the two-day, 12-game showcase of most of South Jersey's top boys' basketball teams. Eastern (18-5), the No. 7 team in The Inquirer's South Jersey rankings, dominated the backboards and flexed its muscle on defense, holding the Bulldogs to their second-lowest scoring total of the season.

After leading the Minnesota Vikings to a surprising playoff berth last season, Leslie Frazier has reached an agreement on a contract through 2014. The Vikings exercised the fourth-year option on his contract Wednesday, helping Frazier avoid what would have been a lame-duck season in 2013. He was entering the final year of his deal, and talks of an extension started to become an issue publicly as the Vikings mounted a stunning December run to the playoffs. Stuck at 6-6 and without injured receiver Percy Harvin, the Vikings rode running back Adrian Peterson to four straight victories, including a thriller over Green Bay in the regular-season finale to thrust them into the postseason.

Libby Lannon had a one-track mind all week: foul shots, foul shots, foul shots. After missing crucial free throws in Cardinal O'Hara's one-point loss to Neumann-Goretti, the senior guard relentlessly practiced shooting from the stripe leading up to her squad's showdown Friday night with Archbishop Wood. In what was a serendipitous occurrence, Lannon found herself at the line, shooting two, with a little more than two minutes remaining and her team up by four. She converted both, giving the Lions some needed cushion as they defeated the Vikings, 30-27, in a Catholic League game.

It's easy for a player or team to get amped up for a league game or one against a long-standing rival, but what if your schedule looks like Archbishop Wood's? The Vikings opened the girls' basketball season against Bishop Ford, which had reached the Brooklyn/Queens Division I championship game last season. Then they traveled to Arizona, where they competed in the Nike Tournament of Champions, featuring some of the top teams in the nation. The next challenge for the Vikings was Archbishop Molloy, considered one of the best teams in New York state and boasting three Division I recruits.

GREEN BAY, Wis. - Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers showed how dangerous they can be when they are at full strength on Saturday night, overwhelming the Minnesota Vikings, 24-10, in an NFC wild-card game that was never really close. John Kuhn scored two touchdowns, DuJuan Harris added another, and Rodgers connected with an NFL playoff-record 10 receivers as he threw for 274 yards in his first playoff victory at home. Defensively, the Packers (12-5) finally managed to contain Adrian Peterson and were all over Vikings backup quarterback Joe Webb, pressed into service because of Christian Ponder's elbow injury.

MINNEAPOLIS - Adrian Peterson came up 9 yards shy of breaking Eric Dickerson's single-season rushing record, but he still powered the Minnesota Vikings to a 37-34 win over the Green Bay Packers Sunday. Peterson had 199 yards to pick up the Vikings and take them to the playoffs, where the first stop will be . . . Green Bay, in a rematch next weekend in a first-round playoff game. Peterson finished with 2,097 yards, becoming the seventh player in NFL history to reach the 2,000-yard mark.

MINNEAPOLIS - Adrian Peterson picked up the Minnesota Vikings and gave them a thrilling ride to the playoffs, where the next stop on this improbable journey is, yes, Green Bay. This game was so full of action, intrigue and tension they're going to stage it again next weekend. Peterson finished 9 yards shy of breaking Eric Dickerson's single-season rushing record, but he still powered the Vikings past the Packers, 37-34, on Sunday with 199 yards to set up a rematch at Lambeau Field in a first-round playoff game.