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CITY (NewsDakota.com)–While Viking football has had it’s changes since Jeremy Peschel was dancing through pressure and throwing bombs to Steve Battle, one part of the program remains the same.
Post-season dates with Carroll College.
The NAIA released it’s football championship series matchups today, and #12 Valley City State will head on the road to face #2 Carroll College in Helena, MT, Saturday.
It’s the third straight Viking playoff game that pits them against the Saints. The Vikings lost a 24-21 matchup in the Fargodome in 2000, and dropped a 45-27 decision in Helena in 2001.
Ten years have moved by since the Vikings were a playoff-bound team, and head coach Dennis McCulloch was upbeat about the draw.
“If they would have told us we were playing a game in Norway, we would have played it. It’s been 10 years, and I’ve been doing this rating thing for eight years without our team being in the conversation. We’re excited,” said McCulloch.
It appeared that the stars were lining up to send the Vikings to Sioux City, IA for a second go-around with Morningside College over the last few weeks. Ironically, it was a different variety of Vikings that may have sent VCSU to Montana.
The Vikings of Grand View, IA didn’t receive a single vote in the national poll after their 17-9 loss to St. Ambrose, IA on October 1st. It appeared they would not make a playoff push at all.
They then ripped off five straight wins to end the season, beating then #9 St. Francis, IL 24-21 on October 29th for their third straight win, moving Grand View to #23, and dropping St. Francis to #16.
Yesterday, Grand View, still #23, upset #8 William Penn 14-13, scoring on a 23-yard touchdown pass with 47 seconds left, then making a missed PAT by the Statesmen on their first score pay dearly, kicking an extra of their own for the win.
The win by Grand View moved them to #18, and dropped the Statesmen to #16. Grand View also won the conference title with the win. The NAIA allows conference champions an automatic bid to the playoffs if they are ranked in the top 20, and they bump the lowest-raned top-16 team to make room.
Since Grand View was the conference champion, they bump the #16 team, which was William Penn. The missed extra point cost the 9-2 Statesmen a playoff bid. They were also bumped last year with a 10-1 record.
The game had implications on Valley City State as well. With the #8 team losing, it allowed #9 Asuza Pacific to move up one spot, putting them in position to host a playoff game. Had they not moved up, they likely would have been sent to Carroll College.
Instead Asuza Pacific will host Ottawa, KS, and the Vikings are on the way to Helena.
Carroll College is the defending national champion, and is 10-1 this season and won the Frontier Conference championship with a 9-1 league mark, losing to Eastern Oregon in the second week of the season. The Saints lone non-league game was a 35-6 win over Dickinson State University.
The Saints are second in the Frontier in scoring, averaging 34.2 points per game. They led the league in rushing, averaging 259.6 yards per game on the ground. Chance Demarais (Jr., Malta, MT) led the nation in rushing with 1422 yards overall and 142.2 per game.
The Vikings will leave Thursday afternoon, stay in Billings, MT Thursday night, finish the trip Friday, and play a 1:07 Central Time kickoff, 12:07 Mountain Time, Saturday.