MOORHEAD, M.N. (NewsDakota.com) – Valley City State University’s first road game of the season was a tale of two halves, but in the end they walk away with the 35 to 32 victory over the Concordia College Cobbers at Jake Christiansen Stadium.

First drive of the afternoon for the Vikings saw QB Jalen Pfeifer rush in the opening score from just 5 yards away to give VCSU the early lead. On the next offensive possession for the Cobbers, their offense was driving and gaining momentum. However, the Vikings defense had other ideas as defensive end Garrett Pemelton tipped disrupted a screen pass as well as intercepting the ball and running it back 55 yards for the touchdown to give VCSU a 13-0 lead.

In the second quarter, the Vikings offense extended the teams lead. Jalen Pfeifer capped off a 15 play 82-yard drive with a beautiful 11-yard TD pass to WR Michael Cornelious in the back corner of the end zone to give Valley City State the 19-0 lead. They would go for 2 but the attempt was no good.

To the second half and that is when the Cobbers showed life. Trailing 19-0, Concordia opted to go for the 29-yard field goal on a 4th and short opportunity deep in the VCSU side of the field. Kicker Damien Silus would make the field goal to make it a 19-3 VCSU lead. That field goal would give life to the Cobbers offense. On their next offensive series, they would go 51 yards in 8 plays and would see running back Ben Hoggarth complete the series with the 1-yard touchdown run making it a 19-11 ball game. Still in the 3rd, it was time for the Vikings offense to respond and that they did. Pfeifer leads the offense 80 yards in just 7 plays and finds Michael Cornelious in the end zone once again for his second touch down of the game and extending the VCSU lead to 25-11.

The Cobbers would get rushing touchdowns from Tanner Dubois and Ben Hoggarth to tie the game at 25-25 in the 4th quarter. After the Cobbers defense forced a punt, the offense came back on the field looking to take the lead for the first time on the day. They would in quick fashion as Concordia goes 80 yards in just 2 plays thanks to an 80 touchdown pass from Dubois to senior wide receiver Zach Wolf to give the Cobbers the 32-25 lead.

The Vikings, are battle tested and know when it is time to step up and they did late in the game. As with just 43 seconds left in regulation, Pfeifer finds WR Jacob Gottenborg in the end zone to make it 32-31 in favor of the Cobbers. After much deliberation, VCSU went for the 2 point conversion. Pfeifer would rush it in, however a holding called would wipe out the go ahead score and now make it a 29-yard PAT for freshman kicker Nico Magana. The freshman would make the PAT to tie the game up at 32-32.

On the ensuing offensive possession for the Cobbers, junior corner, Colton Taylor picked off a pass from QB Tanner Dubois giving the Vikings good field position already in Concordia territory. Vikings QB Jalen Pfeifer ran the ball to the left side on the next play and as he was stepping out of bounds he was his by a defender for the Cobbers resulting in a late hit penalty giving VCSU excellent field position with just 10 seconds remaining. Pfeifer went to the air on the next play, from the 23-yard line however to save time with no one open he did the smart play and just through the ball away.

Now with only 5 seconds remaining, Coach Dennis McCulloch showed great confidence in his freshman kicker Nico Magana. Last week the NSAA named Magana their special teams player of the week. As to not let his new title down, or his teammates, the freshman was called upon to win the game with a 40-yard field goal. That is exactly what he did. Nico Magana hitting the 40-yard field goal as time expires in the ball game to propel his team to the 35-32 win and send his team into the bye week at 2-0.

For the Vikings, they have next weekend off for their bye week and then they will be back in action at home taking on Waldorf University at Lokken Stadium on September, 18th and that will be a 1pm kickoff. You can hear the call of that game live on AM1490-96.3FM KOVC, and the pregame show will be at 12:30pm.