The Vikings football team hosted the Thunderhawks in the section semi final on Saturday.
Though both teams had focused in on this game, neither of them had forgot about their regular season meeting in which Grand Rapids won 29-28.
The Vikings certainly wanted to get some revenge of the Hawks from their regular season loss.
The game couldn't have started much better for the Vikings, early in the 1st quarter London Olson put his team on the board first with a 33 yard run. With a 7-0 lead it was now the defense's turn to defend. And they did just that forcing a Rapids punt. Both teams were limited on possessions in the 1st half, due to alot of running and not much reason for the clock to stop. So after a quick opening quarter, the Vikings had the ball back to begin the 2nd. North Branch struggled to find any success moving the ball and were forced to punt it back to Rapids. The Hawks however had found running room and moved the ball close midfield. North Branch's defense quickly knocked the Hawks out of rhythm and made some stops to force them to punt. This time on offense the Vikings hit paydirt on a run from Tyler Minke to put them ahead 14-0. The Hawks had one more chance before half but couldn't get into scoring position. Everything was going the Vikings way in the first half. Their offense was moving the ball well while also taking a bunch of time off the clock. Their defense was also making plays and holding Grand Rapids to very little.
If the 1st half was any indication of what the Vikings could and would do, the 2nd half looked to be a lock for North Branch. But the Hawks had other plans, they came out firing on all cylinders. They changed up their gameplan and decided to put the ball in the air, which opened up the rush lanes for them to score on a 53 yard rush. With the lead cut to 7 North Branch knew they needed a long drive and try and to answer with a score of their own. But the Hawks defense was ready and closed any running lanes. Grand Rapids got the ball back and wasted no time tying the game this time on a 70 yard pass.
With the game tied it appeared everything was in Grand Rapids favor. But the Vikings defense made some adjustments and began to slow the offense of the Hawks. the 4th quarter came and both offenses had stalled, which is a credit to both defenses. With under a minute to go the Hawks had the ball and were putting a drive together. They even put themselves inside the Vikings 10. North Branch needed 3 stops to force a field goal, and they did just that. Now with under 30 seconds left Grand Rapids lined up for a short field goal. The snap was good but the kick was blocked and the Vikings were getting the ball back. With no timeouts, North Branch had to drive the length of the field. On their first play they ran a running back pass that Minke completed to Jacob Knoespel to set them up near midfield. The next play Minke lined up a QB to try and chuck a pass into the endzone. While the pass was completed to Nathan Edwards-Gaona it was short of the endzone and the game was headed to overtime.
North Branch won the coin toss and chose to play defense first. And the defense made it worth it. On 2nd and goal the Hawks QB tried to run it in for a score but Nolen Volner knocked the ball free and the Vikings recovered. All they needed to do now was score. And Tyler Minke would do that two plays later to give them the win 20-14.
The Vikings will play in the section championship on Friday against Hermantown at 7PM.
WCMP will be there with coverage of that game!
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