VCSU Football: Senior Day

Written By Luke Vaneps

If you were a senior on a college sports team and put in a full career of 4 or 5 years without scoring any points or even ever seeing the field how would you feel?  Well on Saturday all of the senior VCSU Vikings  were able to find the endzone and score.

On Saturday, the Valley City Vikings were able to find their second win of the season whooping on the Dakota State Trojans 54-10. Is this going to be the spark that helps lift the Vikings for the rest of the season? The next two weeks they will face the Mayville Comets and the Jamestown Jimmies, which are both away games. 

After the game Jordan Backstrom gave some very good input on this last home game of the season. Backstrom, a running back and wide receiver for the VCSU Vikings, is playing in what could be his final year for the Vikings. Backstrom grew up in Maddock North Dakota living and working on his family farm. Jordan was involved with sports at a young age and has been playing football for over 11 years.  He has contributed a touchdown in almost every game this season as well as closing in on his 1000 yards rushing in his college career. The opening drive proved to be very important and well executed.  “We had 0 penalties and drove the field quite well on the ground as well as in the air. Scoring on the first drive was very important for us at home to get the ball rolling. Letheo Proctor had a few big catches while making guys miss for big yardage”, stated Backstrom. People may have noticed in previous games that the defense will start out great and get quite a few stops but the offense has been slow to start which eventually tires out the defense.  A large portion of Valley City’s points came in the first quarter, while holding the opponent to only 10 points in the game is quite impressive. Consistency from the receiving and ground game from the start was one of the main keys to this explosive game from the Viking offense. 

Throughout the game it was all Valley City both on offense and defense who ending up winning 54-10.  However this game wasn’t only about winning.  The game was also “Senior day” where playing time was emphasized towards the seniors. This is something that Coach Mac has been known to do in previous years. “All three of the seniors that were on offense were able to play and score a touchdown in the game”, said Backstrom.  “It was so good to see them get a win out there today, everytime we lose or do bad I just want to get back in there and help out. It is always hard to see our team losing so seeing them win today was awesome”, Matthew Barba, an ex-D lineman for the Vikings commented. “ I am excited to see what they can do the rest of the season”.

This Saturday the Valley City Vikings will head to Mayville to take on the Comets to try and bring their record to 3-5 on the season.