The Grand View Vikings won a thrilling game Saturday in some brutal winter weather conditions. Jordan Cole and I were on hand to report live on the game. It took us until Sunday night to unfreeze and have the ability to write this column, and you had to be an absolute hard core football fan to sit in that weather…but if you did brave the weather, you caught an amazing football game.
In a great back-and-forth game, the Vikings came up with stop after stop in the 4th quarter in their end. Three huge stops in a row with the strong wind in their face. The Benedictine Ravens played hard nosed, tough physical football in a classic NAIA game that could have gone either way. Kudos to the Ravens, whose fans were great and loud and drove through some tough weather from Kansas City to brave the cold and cheer for their team that played their hearts out.
The snow finally stopped sometime in the first half of the game and the referee team the NAIA assigned was from Tucson, AZ.
The conversations the refs had (they did an excellent job) on the way home had to be something, as they got thrown from the desert into the deep freezer for this semi-final contest.
How cold was the game…
It was so cold, we caught fans wearing Luchardores style wrestling masks in the stands…to beat the frostbite.
The game had a back-and forth feel with neither team getting up more than one score. The Ravens took the early lead, and then the Vikings struck back to tie at 7-7.
It was 10-10 at the half and then the wind picked up and it got more frigid. We did not think that was possible to get more frigid, but man it was cold.
The Vikings finally put up a score in the 3rd quarter with the wind, and then rolled out some of the most clutch defense inside the red zone you will ever see. The Raven just kept coming with everything they had to try and get that tying score.
The final stop of the game by Defensive Player of the Year in the Heart of America from John Argo was on 4th and Goal. The Davenport Assumption grad made his last play on Duke Williams Field a memorable one with a diving pass knockdown.
Grand View is headed to Fort Worth, Texas for the NAIA National Title game against Keiser University (FL) who they defeated in last year’s title game. The Vikings will be trying to go back-to-back undefeated years (Grand View has a 28-game unbeaten streak) and bring the hardware (and the Red Banner) back to Des Moines.
The title game is this Saturday, December 20th. The weather forecast calls for some wind and 74 degrees (that is about 85 degrees warmer than the wind chill for the semifinal game)….we hope the Grand View faithful enjoy Texas.
As always, we appreciate your support and comments.
