GRAND FORKS, ND (NewsDakota.com)  At the 11-A level, nothing is automatic this season.

Grand Forks Central used a 10-yard coffin-corner toss from quarterback Dylan LaMont to Leo Strandell on the first play of double-overtime to hand Valley City it’s first loss, a 24-21 decision at Cushman Field Friday night.

Central entered the night with as the eighth-ranked team based on the state’s QRF rating for postseason play, a ranking that put them on the playoff bubble.  Meanwhile, after last weeks win over Jamestown, Valley City entered the night as the state’s unanimous top team according to the media, as well as the top team in QRF points.

Penalties and the Knight’s passing game, the top passing game in the Eastern Dakota Conference (EDC) undid the Hi-Liners night.  Central running back-turned receiver Jack Simmers caught 10 balls for 154 yards and the game’s first touchdown, a score from 40 yards out to hand Central a 6-0 lead at the end of a quarter.

Valley City responded with a Bryson Heck 37-yard strike to Ethan Miller, a perfectly thrown ball by the sophomore quarterback to a receiver that had just a step on Central’s coverage, and the extra point tied the game early in the second.

But the Hi-Liners would go the next 10:55 without the ball.  Central chewed up the second quarter with a plethora of passes to open receivers that led to a Ross Wilber field goal with just 31 seconds till the break, and Central led 9-7 at the break, a score that would be unchanged until the final minutes of the game.

The Hi-Liners put together a determined drive late in the fourth, with standout runningback Gavin Gerhardt racing in from five yards out with 2:15 to play.  Gerhardt’s two-point conversion run pushed the Hi-Liners’ lead to 15-9.

Penalties were a factor all night for the Hi-Liners, with chunks of yardage, including an early Gerhardt run to the Central one-yard line called back on a holding call.  On Central’s final drive, a penalty would again be the springboard, with a horse-collar tackle call adding 15 yards to a 9-yard Central completion to Jayden Haake, moving the ball to the Central 47.

After a 24-yard toss from LaMont to tight end Tray Kuntz, the Knights were at the Hi-Liner 12, and LaMont capped the drive with a one-yard plunge at 32 seconds to play, tying the game at 15-15.  The Hi-Liners would block the extra point try, and overtime awaited both teams.

The teams traded field goals in the first overtime, with the Hi-Liners setting for three after holding the Knights to a field goal on the first possession, but then stalling out at the Central three.  After another Heck field goal to start the second overtime, LaMont hit Strandell for the game-winner.

Gerhardt finished the game with 114 yards on the ground and 11 on two catches.  Miller caught two balls for 57 yards and a score.  Zach Sykora finished with 53 yards.  Linebacker Connor Suhr won Ivy Real Estate Group Player of the Game honors for a key sack of LaMont for an 11-yard loss when Central threatened to take a two-score lead in the fourth quarter after a first-and-goal at the Hi-Liner four.

Valley City finishes the regular season next Friday night at home, hosting Fargo South.