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Spartans Fall to Minnesota West 35-33 in Overtime

By Craig Olson, 10/17/21, 7:00PM CDT

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The M State football team outgained Minnesota West 519 (281 passing, 238 rushing) to 197 (153 passing, 44 rushing) on Saturday, however, the Blue Jays outlasted them Spartans in overtime, winning the game 35-33 in Worthington.

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.