“First of all hats off to a pretty good Pelican team they just kept on battling back especially in the first half when we had a couple of chances to put them away,” said Underwood Head Coach Chuck Ross.  “We were just lucky enough to have the ball last.  Zane Swanson (16 carries, 144 yards, 1TD) and Tim DeVaney (14 carries, 148 yards, 1TD) really ran hard tonight and the entire offensive line did agree at job of blocking score them,” said Coach Ross.

Underwood got on the board at 9:45 of the opening quarter when DeVaney scored on a 45-yard run and Nik Gardin hit Wyatt Thorson on a two-point conversion pass to make it 8-0.  McHale Korf connected with Hunter Williams on a 9 yard TD pass at 5:15 and Jayden Rutherford tied the game at 8-8 with a two-point conversion run.

At 11:45 of the second quarter Nik Gardin got loose for a 25 yard touchdown run, giving Underwood a 14-8 lead.  Chase Janu then ran the ball in from the three yard line with 10:25 remaining.  Janu also scored the two-point conversion.  Korf then tossed his second TD pass of the game when he delivered a strike to Rutherford who scored from 16 yards out, cutting the Underwood lead to 22-14.  Swanson went 52 yards and ran in the two-point conversion to make it a 30-14 Underwood lead.  Korf’s third TD pass was to Logan Fahje for 56 yards.  Korf connected with Rutherford for the two-point conversion and Underwood had a 30-22 lead.  The Rockets tied the game with just fifteen seconds left in the half when Korf ran the ball in from 4 yards.  Rutherford scored on a two-point conversion run.

The Vikings took a 36-30 lead at the 6:30 mark of the third quarter when Korf hooked up woith Johnny Ziebell for a five-yard touchdown.

Korf connected with Fahje on a 35-yard TD pass on the first play of the fourth quarter and then the two got together for the two-point conversion pass, bringing the score to 44-30, Pelican Rapids. 

“With 9 minutes left Nik Gardin threw a perfect 35-yard touchdown pass to Winston Heifort who made a great catch to pull us within 6 at 44-38,” said Coach Ross.  “We made a great defensive stand on our own 20 yard line with 3 minutes left and scored with 30 seconds left on an 8 yard run by Janu, tying the game and setting up Janu’s two-point conversion run for the winning points.  It's been a long long time since I've been a part of just a back and forth high scoring game like this and the coaches are really proud of our guys for hanging in there and never giving up. It was a great team win.”

Both teams had high octane offensive performances on the night.  Underwood ran for 405 yards and had 440 total yards of offense, while Pelican Rapids finished with 444 total yards, 266 through the air and 178 on the ground. 

Pelican Rapids was led by a huge night from Korf (12 completions, 17 attempts, 266 yards, 5 TDs, 10 carries, 39 yards, TD).  Rutherford had six carries for 75 yards and caught three passes for 91 yards.  Fahje was the Vikings top receiver with six catches for 136 yards.

“We couldn't stop their running game and they struggled with our passing game,” said Pelican Rapids Head Coach David Haugen.  “It was a great night for offense as you can tell by the score and the stats.  I was proud of our guys to be able to back from a first half deficit and go into halftime tied.  Unfortunately, the 14 point lead we got early in the 4th quarter wasn't enough to hold on for a win.  Credit a very good Underwood team for the patience they had as they stuck with their game plan and put together a great drive to claim the victory.  This was a crazy game and unfortunately we came up a little short.”

Defensively, Swanson led Underwood with 6 solo tackles and 1 assist, and Slade Moore had 3 solo tackles and 5 assists.  Swanson and DeVaney each recorded a sack. Leaders for Pelican Rapids were Fahje (9 solo tackles), Korf (7 solo tackles, 2 assists) and Matt Ziebell (7 solo tackles).