VALLEY CITY – The Valley City State football team led from start to finish Saturday as the Vikings scored 14 early points and held on for a 21-14 victory over Dakota State University.
After Dakota State trimmed the VCSU lead to 21-14 with 8:37 remaining, the Vikings spent the rest of the game on offense. VCSU ran out the clock with an impressive 15-play drive that gained four first downs and finished with the Vikings in victory formation.
"That last drive of the game was huge," said VCSU head coach
Dennis McCulloch. "We took it all the way down, marched it off. That's a huge statement for the offense to finish the game off."
VCSU led 14-0 at halftime, getting a pair of first-quarter touchdowns – including a 1-yard run by
Avery Thorsgard and a 7-yard touchdown pass from Thorsgard to
Trent Finney. Dakota State opened the second half with a touchdown drive, finishing with a 48-yard scoring connection from Tray Hettick to Michael Hybertson.
Valley City State put together a 7-play, 80-yard drive later in the third quarter, taking a 21-7 lead on
Justice Bice's 28-yard touchdown run. Dakota State responded with another touchdown drive – capped by an 8-yard run by Preston Iverson – trimming VCSU's lead to 21-14 with 8:37 remaining.
Dakota State's ensuing kickoff went out of bounds as the Vikings started their game-clinching drive from the 35-yard live. Quarterback
Noah Chambers hit
Justin Cruz for a critical third-down conversion early in the drive, and then
Avery Thorsgard converted a 4
th-and-inches with a quarterback sneak.
Justice Bice had the last big first down, gaining 8 yards on 3
rd-and-2 as he brought the ball down to the 4-yard line. From there, VCSU took three kneel downs to clinch the victory.
Viking senior defensive end
Riley Gerhardt became the school's all-time sack leader during the game, finishing the day with 12 tackles, two forced fumbles and 1.5 sacks. His 35.5 career sacks set a new school record at VCSU, breaking the old mark of 34.5 sacks held by Lloyd Joseph (1987-90).
VCSU's defense forced two turnovers Saturday, getting an interception by
Micah Olson and a fumble recovery by
Georgia Mageo.
Bice had a big game offensively with 175 all-purpose yards, including 132 yards and a touchdown on the ground along with four catches for 43 yards. The Vikings rushed for 143 yards on 37 carries.
Noah Chambers started at quarterback for VCSU and was 14-for-24 passing for 142 yards. He also rushed six times for 15 yards.
Avery Thorsgard played several snaps at quarterback, rushing and throwing for touchdowns in the first quarter, along with picking up a huge fourth down with a QB sneak late in the game. Domonic Sotomayor had four catches for 28 yards, and
Trent Finney caught a first-quarter touchdown.
Dakota State outgained the Vikings 347-292 in total offensive yards but the Trojans were hampered by a pair of turnovers.
Dakota State quarterback Tray Hettick completed 18 of 31 passes for 252 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Michael Hybertson caught four of those passes for 103 yards and a score. Preston Iverson was the leading rusher for Dakota State, gaining 58 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries.
"They did a good job the second half," McCulloch said of Dakota State. "It would be easy for them at 0-7 to come in here and not play hard or work hard, but they're down 14-0 at the half and they came back and battled hard in the 2
nd half. Credit to coach Anderson and his guys."
Valley City State improves to 5-2 overall and 4-1 in conference play. The Vikings are still in the race for the conference title as they play road games at Mayville State (Oct. 28) and Dickinson State (Nov. 4) before finishing the season at home Nov. 11 against Waldorf.
Dakota State drops to 0-8 overall and 0-6 in conference play.
Up next: Valley City State plays Oct. 28 at Mayville State while Dakota State will have bye week.
