Minnesota West scored the first touchdown on a 3 yard run by Rashard Anderson and a Mike Peralta kick, taking a 7-0 lead. LaRontay Standard then returned a fumble 55 yards for the second Minnesota West TD and a 13-0 lead with 8:11 remaining in the first quarter.
A 3 yard run by Rondarius Gregory with 6:27 left in the second quarter got M State on the board and a Carsen McKnight kick made the score 13-7. The Spartans cut the lead to 13-10 on a McKnight 47 yard field goal with 43 seconds remaining in the half.
McKnight brought the Spartans even with a 32 yard field goal with 6:10 to play in the third quarter.
The fourth quarter saw Minnesota West score with 11:23 left on a 25 yard pass from Willard Carl Holm to Ian Stammer. The two point conversion pass was also successful and the Blue Jays held a 21-13 lead. Gregory’s one yard run cut the lead to 21-19, but M State failed on their two point conversion try. Duvaughn Williams returned a fumble for a touchdown giving Minnesota West a 27-19 advantage, but they failed to convert on the two-point attempt. Gregory scored on a 3 yard run and Isaiah Griffin ran the ball into the end zone for the two point conversion to tie the game at 27-27.
The Spartans scored an overtime touchdown on a one yard run by Gregory but failed to convert on their two-point try. Minnesota West answered with a 25 yard pass from Willard Carl Holm to Ian Stammer and then won the game on the two point conversion pass to Bailey Cowell.
M State had 23 first downs to 13 for Minnesota West and the Spartans ran 85 offensive plays to 62 for the Blue Jays.
Gregory had a monster game, running for 226 yards on 26 carries and scoring four times. He also caught 6 passes for 80 yards. Jallah Zeze hauled in four passes for 75 yards, Jonathan Griffin caught four balls for 55 yards and Isaiah Griffin had 4 catches for 53 yards. Quarterback Nate Hayden completed 20-of-44 passes for 281 yards. Defensively, Joey Demarco had two interceptions and Jordan Medreno recovered a fumble. Will Derrick (2.5), Logan Burress (2), Ellias Treloggen (2) and Preston Puni (0.5) combined for 7 sacks on the day. Wesley Hollie had a team high 7 tackles (4 solo, 3 assisted).
Minnesota West was led by Ian Stammer (5 receptions, 68 yards, 2 TD’s), Rashard Anderson (16 carries, 56 yards, TD) and Willard Carl Holm (16 completions, 33 attempts, 153 yards, 2 TD’s). Kendrick Gordon and Kent Lais had interceptions and each forced a fumble. Gordon had a team high 9 (5 solo, 4 assisted) tackles and Lais added 8 (5 solo, 3 assisted) tackles.
The Spartans received the number four seed in the MCAC playoffs and will host fifth-seeded Central Lakes at 1:30pm Sunday, October 24 at M State in Fergus Falls.
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