VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – In the 74th edition of the Paint Bucket Game, the home team Valley City State University came out victorious over their biggest rivals the Jamestown Jimmies 24-7.

It was the first game of the season for both teams as the 122nd all-time meeting between the two teams was played at Lokken Stadium in Valley City. After the win the Vikings improve to 64-53-5 in the head to head match up.

In the first quarter, the Vikings already leading 3 to nothing thanks to a field goal from kicker Nico Magana, Jalen Pfeifer fires a strike to Jacob Gottenborg for the 30-yard touchdown to extend the lead to 10-0. After a scoreless 2nd quarter, VCSU struck again when this time Pfeifer hit Michael Cornelious down the seam for the 30-yard touchdown and extending the lead to 17-0.  Pfeifer would toss his 3rd TD pass of the game in the 4th quarter, this time to running back Justice Bice for 25-yards. Bice made a great catch on the play to complete the touchdown putting Valley City State up 24-0.

The lone highlight for Jamestown came midway through the 4th quarter when the defense forced a fumble that was scooped up and ran back 57 yards for a touchdown by Jordan Olson to make it a 24 to 7 game. However, that is all Jamestown could get on this night as the Vikings win this game and improve to 1-0 on the season, Jamestown falls to 0-1.

For the quarterbacks, first for the visiting Jamestown Jimmies. Cade Torgerson was 20 for 46 for 223 yards and 1 INT. For the Vikings, Jalen Pfeifer was 20 for 32 for 266 yards, 3TD’s, and 2 INT’s.

Valley City State is back in action next Saturday when they travel to Concordia-Moorhead for a 1pm game. You can hear the call of that game on KOVC, with the pregame show at 12:30pm.

For the University of Jamestown Jimmies, they are on their bye week next week and will return to game action on Saturday September 11 when they face Mount Marty at 1pm.