VALLEY CITY, ND (NewsDakota.com) Valley City State showed strengths at times Saturday, but struggled with ill-timed mistakes in a 31-21 loss to Rocky Mountain College.
The Battlin’ Bears used a 98-yard kickoff return by Darius Haskin to erase an early lead, then took advantage of a defensive delay-of-game penalty against the Vikings to reclaim a lead at the break. After the Vikings tied the game with a second scoring drive of over 90 yards, Rocky Mountain tacked on a field goal and a late score for the final margin.
Valley City State scored the first points on a scoop-and-score from a fumbled Battlin’ Bear punt snap, with freshman defensive back Fafo Lefano taking the ball in from 16 yards in the opening quarter, but it was quickly erased by the Haskin kickoff return, something head coach Dennis McCulloch said was a mistake on the Vikings part.
“We shouldn’t have kicked it to him. He hadn’t done much kickoff returning coming in, and we stopped him the first time. But we shouldn’t have given him the chance,” McCulloch said.
Rocky Mountain then rallied behind a running attack against the Vikings defense, which was in nickel sets most of the game, dime the others, racking up 137 yards rushing. But McCulloch was quick to point out that, outside of one drive, the Viking defense stood up.
“I know it will look like we were hurt by the run, but about 70 yards of that came on one drive. You take that out, and I thought we were pretty good against the run while missing some guys that are hurt and being in three down lineman most of the game,” said McCulloch.
Highlighting the Viking day were two long scoring drives, freshman defensive back Lefano, and a finally healthy DeVyne Pearson.
The first offensive drive game from 92 yards. Jake Deutsch grabbed a fourth-down catch to extend the drive, then grabbed a touchdown grab to end the drive.
Valley City State then drove 96 yards to start the second half, scoring on a pass from Jake Cave to Trent Finney, which tied the game at 21-21. The drive took over half the third quarter.
Pearson amassed 121 all-purpose yards, catching four balls for 44 yards, and rushing for 77 more. Lefano added two interceptions to his scoring fumble return.
The Vikings fall to 3-2, 0-1 in Frontier East play. They host Mayville State next Saturday.