SPEARFISH, S.D. - It was the Yellow Jackets who prevailed in the 50-48 triple-overtime victory over the visiting Western State Colorado University Mountaineers on a cold Saturday afternoon from Lyle Hare Stadium in the Jackets final game of the season.
The victory gave the Yellow Jackets their third win on the year overall and in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference as head coach, John Reiners, pointed to his 11 senior's perseverance and his team's no-quit attitude throughout the year that pushed them to the win today.
"We had to fight, scratch, and claw and that's what our kids did. It came down to a two-point conversion they didn't convert it and we did. I'm just so proud of our guys and the resiliency they showed all year with their now quit, no die attitude and it showed bright today," Reiners said.
With the Jackets' backs against the wall in the triple overtime, it was junior captain quarterback Ward Anderson who answered the call from the WSCU 15 yard line on 1st-and-10 while needing a touchdown to tie the game with the Mountaineers up 48-42, after failing on their 2-pt conversion in the previous possession.
Anderson took the shotgun snap and ran behind the left side of his offensive line before picking up key blocks from his wide receivers down field as he ran into the end zone for a 15-yard touchdown run and his third score on the ground. By rule, the Jackets had to go for a 2-pt conversion given they were in the third overtime period.
On the next play after a BHSU timeout, it was only fitting to have a senior close-out it out as running back, Drew Nielsen, ran to the right-side flat and caught Anderson's pass inside the five yard line to run into the end zone untouched in his final play as a Yellow Jacket. Jackets won by two and the team then rushed the field to celebrate in the corner of the end zone with the rest of the BHSU offense.
"It came down to the last play and Ward was able to step up and hit Drew on the two-point conversion to win the game for us. It was a tail of different games, we got down early then came back to take the lead, then they came back to tie it up and all of the sudden we were in overtime. It was then like a whole new ballgame at that point," Reiners said after the game.
"We were struggling to stop each other, it was like a 15 round heavy-weight fight and fortunately we were the last team standing."
The game was entertaining all day long as both teams showed how bad they wanted it after having previously having to cancel the original match-up scheduled for Oct. 5, 2013, before moving it to Saturday after Storm Atlas dumped upwards of four-feet of snow nearly seven weeks ago.
Throughout the four quarters and three overtime contest, there were seven lead changes and six ties along with 1,014 yards of total offense (651 pass, 363 rush), 98 points, and 63 first downs in what was tabbed the "Storm Atlas Bowl" as the game was the only NCAA Division II game in the country that took place on the day, as both teams will miss the playoffs this season.
Yellow Jacket quarterback, Ward Anderson, showed possibly a glimpse of what's to come next year in his senior season as he completed 80.4-percent of his passes after going 37-of-46 for 327 yards, 6 total touchdowns (3 pass), and zero interceptions. His 37 completions tied his own personal record in a game as he remains second in school history for completions in a game behind only Kelly Merager, who completed 38 passes twice in 1992 vs. Dakota Wesleyan and in 1993 vs. Rocky Mountain College.
Anderson proved to be a dual-threat quarterback once again as he had 19 rushes for 107 yards (5.6 avg) on the ground (99 net rush yds) for three more touchdowns.
After missing five games due to a broken hand, sophomore wide receiver Jerome Krysl, came back to notch a season-high for the team, 14 catches for 138 yards and a touchdown. Junior wide receiver and tight-end, Luke Whalen, had six grabs for 59 yards and two more touchdowns to give him six for the year.
"Krysl had a phenomenal game and has just seen some special teams work since coming back from his injury," Reiners said. "Now all of the sudden he steps up for over 130 yards so I'm very proud of him heading into next year."
Outside of scoring the game-winning 2-pt conversion, Nielsen was effective all game long with 17 rushes for 44 net yards and a touchdown as he also reeled in eight catches for 40 yards.
While the defense still allowed 48 points on the day, they did provide clutch plays when the team needed it and that's all that matters when securing the victory. Sophomore, Trent Boner, honored his older brother and teammate, Scott, by wearing his home green No. 30 jersey which inspired him to a game-high 20 tackles (8 solo). Scott sustained a head injury in the preseason that sidelined him for the entire year and has served as an honorary team captain and was at the cointoss to represent his team on Saturday.
Defensive back, Brian Baldwin, stepped up towards the end of the fourth quarter with a diving interception after jumping a slant route to give him four picks on the season as the Mountaineers were entering the BHSU red zone while needing a score to tie the game.
WSCU used a handful of players on both sides of the ball to get them back to tie the game after the Jackets ripped off 21 unanswered points beginning in the second quarter before the Mountaineers finally tied the game at 28-28 to force overtime with just :07 remaining in the game.
Quarterback, Brett Arrivey, led his team on 40-of-56 passing for 324 yards and three touchdowns as the WSCU offense was without the RMAC's second leading rusher, Austin Ekeler, who has ran for 1,049 yards on 182 carries (5.8 avg) and seven touchdowns this year. Therefore, freshman Vince Grasso stepped in to get the majority of the carries as he had 30 rushes for 104 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Mountaineers rushing attack.
The Yellow Jackets finished the game with 476 yards of total offense (327 pass, 149 rush) and seven touchdowns as they went 8-of-15 on third down (53%). WSCU managed to run 108 plays for 538 yards. Overall, the game was a clean game with only four penalties per team and ended up possibly the most entertaining RMAC contest of the 2013-14 season.
"There were a lot of key plays in the game, but our guys had that no quit attitude and I'm just real proud of them. This is a great way to end the season for our seniors and send our veterans coming back into the off-season on a positive note," Reiners said.
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