JAMESTOWN – The 120th meeting of the storied Viking-Jimmie football rivalry was a classic matchup Saturday, going down to the wire before Jamestown held on for a 28-26 victory.
Valley City State’s game-tying 2-point conversion attempt in the final minute was blown up by the Jamestown defensive line as the Jimmies sacked Viking quarterback Jalen Pfeifer to seal their first victory in the series since 2013.
Trailing 28-20 with 4:03 remaining, the Vikings took the ball and methodically marched down the field towards a potential tie and overtime. Louis Quinones’ 4-yard touchdown run with 43 seconds to go cut the deficit to 28-26, but VCSU’s 2-point conversion attempt went awry immediately after the snap as Pfeifer had no time to get a pass off.
Valley City State drops to 0-1 on the season. Jamestown moves to 1-0. The Jimmie victory snaps an eight-game losing streak against VCSU, dating back to the 2014 season. VCSU leads the all-time series 62-53-5 and leads the Paint Bucket Series 41-31.
“It was another great rivalry game today,” said Viking head coach Dennis McCulloch. “We just came out on the short end. We had a great drive there at the end, but we just came up short. I give it to the Jimmies, they did a great job and got it from us.”
The Vikings could not have asked for a better start to the game. After Jamestown received the opening kickoff, the Viking defense forced a three-and-out by the Jimmie offense. On VCSU’s first offensive play from scrimmage, Pfeifer connected with receiver Jake Peterson for a 52-yard touchdown on a flea-flicker play.
Pfeifer and Peterson hooked up again later in the first quarter for a 13-yard score, putting the Vikings up 14-7. A 42-yard field goal by VCSU’s Landon Arredondo gave the Vikings their largest lead of the game at 17-7 with 13:47 remaining in the first half.
The Jimmies cut the deficit to 17-14 at halftime and then deployed a heavy dose of their running game on the first drive of the second half, scoring another touchdown for a 21-17 lead. Another field goal by Arredondo brought VCSU to within 21-20 late in the third quarter, but the Viking offense was unable to get over the hump in the fourth quarter. An impressive 10 play, 73-yard drive by Jamestown ended in a 1-yard touchdown run by Jordan Mann, putting Jamestown ahead 28-20 with 4:03 left in the game.
VCSU’s final drive started on their own 34 as they went 66 yards in 10 plays, capping it with Quinones’ 4-yard touchdown up the middle.
Quinones finished with 86 yards on 25 carries for VCSU, which totaled 130 rushing yards in the loss. Pfeifer completed 21 out of 33 passes for 212 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. Peterson hauled in 10 of those passes for 134 yards and two scores.
Travon Smith led the Viking defense with 11 tackles. Steven Lopez had six tackles and a first-quarter interception that set up Arredondo’s first field goal.
Jamestown’s offense did most of its damage on the ground, racking up 231 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns. Jamestown finished with 362 yards of total offense while VCSU had 342 yards.
“We had a lot of opportunities to be successful today, and we just didn’t take advantage of them all,” said McCulloch. “You gotta brush it off because we’re playing a Top 10 team next week against Northwestern College.”
Up next: Valley City State (0-1) hosts No. 7-ranked Northwestern College (Iowa) on Saturday, Sept. 1, at 1 p.m.