Mayville N.D. - The Comets Football team hosted their longtime rivals the Valley City State Vikings in a North Star conference game. In a defensive-focused game, Valley City pulled away late in the fourth quarter to win 24-7.

The first half was a battle of running games and field position. Mayville State's first drive lasted seven minutes but resulted in a punt. The Vikings went on a six minute drive of their own and resulted in a 31 yard field goal. Just like that, the first quarter was complete.

The second quarter continued this trend. The Comets turned the ball over on downs early on a missed offside call deep in Viking territory. The Comets did recover a fumble with three and a half minutes left, but the Viking defense stiffened and prevented Mayville State from scoring. The Comets went into halftime trailing 3-0.

The first play of the second half proved pivotal. Valley City's QB got loose on a keeper play and sprinted 70 yards for a touchdown, bumping their lead to 10-0.

The Comets responded with a 15 play 80 yard drive that consumed nine minutes of clock and culminated in a Mason Ollman 1 yard touchdown run. Ollman carried the ball nine times for 42 yards on that drive. This touchdown sliced the lead to 10-7, Marcellus Moore picked off a Viking pass late in the quarter, which gave the Comets a chance to take the lead heading into the fourth.

Once again, the Vikings defense stiffened and forced a turnover on towns with 12:40 remaining. Valley City then went on a seven minute drive that resulted in a 32 yard touchdown pass, which made the score 17-7 with under six minutes to play.

Needing two scores quickly, the Comets went looking for big gains in the passing game. Unfortunately the Vikings picked off a pass and raced 60 yards to the end zone to make the score 24-7.

Ollman paced the Comet offense with 127 yards rushing and a touchdown, and Daniel Nevil added 50 yards on the ground. Devon Woods and Richard Shelton collected eight tackles each, with Woods notching two tackles for loss. Shelton, Jared Gay, Braulio Tello and Jordan Richardson racked up three total sacks, and Moore picked off his second pass of the season.

The loss drops the Comets record to 2-7, 2-5 in the North Star. Mayville State wraps up their conference schedule at Dakota State next Saturday, kickoff is at 3:00pm.

For full schedule details visit: https://msucomets.com/sports/football/schedule