MINOT, ND – There are no changes in this weeks Class 11AA football poll, but there is a new #1 in Class 11A. The polls are voted on by the North Dakota Associated Press Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association.

 

 

Team (First Place Votes)        Record    Points    Last Week
1. West Fargo Sheyenne (14)   7-1          94           1
2. Mandan (6)                             7-1          86           2
3. Fargo Shanley                        6-2          56           3
4. Fargo Davies                         6-2           44           4
5. Minot High                              5-3           15           5

 

Others receiving votes: Bismarck Legacy (5-3)

 

 

 

Team (First Place Votes)          Record Points Last Week
1. Grand Forks Red River (10)    6-2        87         2
2. Valley City (9)                           7-1        83         1
3. Jamestown                              6-2        57         3
4. Fargo South (1)                       5-3        51         4
5. Fargo North                              5-3        21         5

 

Others receiving votes: Grand Forks Central (3-5)

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MINOT, ND – Scores from Monday:

 

 

Class B
#3 Kenmare-Bowbells def. Berthold (3-0) 25-5, 25-17, 25-11
Des Lacs-Burlington def. Bottineau (3-0) 25-20, 25-11, 25-18
South Prairie-Max def. Velva (3-1) 27-29, 25-21, 25-14, 26-24
Surrey def. Nedrose (3-0)
Glenburn def. Tioga (3-1) 25-21, 18-25, 25-23, 25-23
Drake-Anamoose def. St. John (3-0) 25-14, 25-9, 25-9
Beulah def. Killdeer (3-0) 25-20, 25-19, 25-22
Stanley def. Trenton (3-2) 25-17, 19-25, 25-18, 22-25, 15-6
Ray def. North Shore-Plaza (3-0)

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MSU SOCCER-STORR HONORED

 

MINOT, N.D. (MSU) – The Minot State soccer team continues to shut down opponents, and those efforts continue to earn the Beaver players awards.After recording back-to-back shutouts on the road over the weekend, Minot State freshman defender Rebecca Storr was honored by the league on Monday as she was named the NSIC Defender of the Week.Storr played all 180 minutes on the defensive line for the Beavers, who came home with a 0-0 draw at 14th-ranked Minnesota State, Mankato on Friday, and a 0-0 draw with Concordia, St. Paul, on Sunday.While helping anchor the Minot State defense in the two shutouts, Storr also helped out offensively with a shot in each contest.The Beavers (7-2-6 overall, 7-1-4 NSIC) now have posted five straight shutouts and as a team have not allowed a goal in 533 minutes, 52 seconds, a run stretching back to the opening seven minutes of their 2-1 road win at Northern State on Sept. 30.Storr joins teammate and Minot State goalie Maddie Kindred in earning NSIC weekly honors as Kindred has been named Goalie of the Week twice, on Sept. 19, and last Monday.Minot State, which also is on an 11-game unbeaten streak, plays at home Friday at First Western Bank Field at Herb Parker Stadium, hosting Minnesota Crookston at 7 p.m. for Senior Night.

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UND HOCKEY-POLLS

 

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (UND) – After a thrilling 5-5 tie on Friday night followed by a 6-2 loss on Saturday, North Dakota dropped to No. 7 in the DCU/USCHO and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls on Monday. UND’s next opponent, Minnesota, took over the top spot in both polls after having an idle weekend. The Golden Gophers last split with Minnesota State on Oct. 7-8 in a home-and-home series. The last time North Dakota played a team ranked at the top of either poll was Nov. 15-16, 2019 at Denver. In that series, UND and the Pioneers played to a 1-1 tie on Friday night before the Fighting Hawks rolled to a 4-1 victory on Saturday night.
North Dakota and Minnesota begin the series on Friday night at 7 p.m. in Minneapolis.

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FCS POLLS

 

FARGO, N.D. – North Dakota State slipped three spots to No. 4 in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25 media poll and the FCS Coaches poll. The Bison (5-2) had been No. 1 all season until their 23-21 home loss to South Dakota State (6-1) this past Saturday. The Jacks received 51 of 54 first-place votes and earned its first No. 1 ranking in program history. Sacramento State (6-0) moved up three spots to No. 2 in the FCS poll followed by No. 3 Montana State (6-1). The Big Sky Conference has four teams in the top 10 including No. 5 Weber State and No. 7 Montana. The Missouri Valley Football Conference has four teams in the media poll. Southern Illinois moved up two spots to No. 14 with a win over Western Illinois and North Dakota remains No. 20 after a bye week.

The FCS Coaches poll has South Dakota State at No. 1 with 26 first place votes, followed by Montana State, Sacramento State was third with one first-place vote. Weber State rounded out the top five.

 

North Dakota State is idle this week before returning to action at home next Saturday, Oct. 29, hosting Illinois State. The UND Fighting Hawks will host the top-ranked Jackrabbits this weekend inside the Alerus Center. Kickoff between UND and SDSU is slated for 3 p.m on Saturday.

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WILD-AVALANCHE

 

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Colorado’s stars have picked up where they left off last season, even with the captain sidelined. The defending champion Avalanche are a lot to defend, a vital trait that has so far eluded the division rival Minnesota Wild. Mikko Rantanen scored the go-ahead goal midway through the second period and Nathan Mackinnon and Valeri Nichushkin each had a goal and two assists for the Avalanche, who beat Minnesota 6-3 on Monday night to keep the Wild winless. Ben Meyers and Samuel Girard scored in the first period for the Avalanche to put the first start for Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson with his new team in immediate trouble. Josh Manson added an insurance goal for the Avs in the third period. Mackinnon (two goals and five assists), Nichushkin (four goals, two assists) and Rantanen (one goal, five assists) have combined for 19 points in three games. The Avs have won twice, with captain Gabriel Landeskog still out with a lower body injury.

 

Kirill Kaprizov’s second score of the game brought the Wild back within one a few minutes later, but Alexandar Georgiev stayed strong down the stretch in Colorado’s net and finished with 36 saves. After Freddy Gaudreau missed an open net on a short-handed rush, Mackinnon scored on the power play on the other end to seal it. Joel Eriksson Ek had the tying goal on a power play redirection in the second period and Calen Addison had three primary assists, but the Wild (0-3-0) saw their goals-against total spike to 20. Gustavsson stopped 32 shots. After allowing 14 goals over their first two games, the most in any such stretch in franchise history, the Wild badly needed every skater to sharpen their play and improve their decision-making in the defensive zone. Facing the defending Stanley Cup champion Avalanche was far from the ideal scenario for this test.

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MINNESOTA UNITED

 

FRISCO, Texas (AP) — Alan Velasco scored the game-winning penalty in a shootout on Monday night and Dallas advanced past Minnesota 5-4 on penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw in the MLS playoffs. Dallas moves on to play at second-seeded Austin on Sunday in the Western Conference semifinals. Dallas goalkeeper Maarten Paes dove to his right to deny Wil Trapp on Minnesota’s second penalty attempt. The teams played two 15-minute overtime sessions after ending regulation tied at 1-all. Emanuel Reynoso opened the scoring in the 53rd minute for Minnesota. Bongokuhle Hlongwane was first to a long ball over the defense and he found an open Reynoso at the top of the box for a strike from distance. Facundo Quignon tied it in the 64th by heading in a corner kick. Minnesota appeared to score a few seconds later, but Reynoso was ruled to be in an offside position. Minnesota goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair tied a career-high with eight saves.

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VIKINGS-DEFENSE

 

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell sat for a minute in his office space in the visitor’s locker room after his team’s sweat-it-out victory in Miami, reflecting on which performances by the defense he wanted to highlight in his postgame address to the players. The names kept popping in his head: Patrick Peterson, Harrison Smith, Za’Darius Smith, Danielle Hunter, Dalvin Tomlinson. He decided to scrap the script. “You know what?” O’Connell thought to himself after the Vikings beat the Dolphins 24-16 to improve to 5-1 in his first season on the job. “Everybody gets a game ball.” The prizes this time weren’t actually awarded, the gesture merely symbolic, but after the offense — and special teams — largely drove the three previous victories this game provided a glimpse of how this defense can deliver when needed, too.

 

The Vikings allowed 385 net yards passing — the fourth-most in the NFL this year and the most against them in 47 games since a win at Dallas (393) on Nov. 10, 2019 — in a total inflated a bit by Miami being in catchup mode late. The most telling data was the season-high six sacks, three turnovers forced and only three points allowed over the first 49:56 of the game. This came on an 86-degree afternoon in a stadium where the visitor’s sideline always runs hotter on a Sunday when the offense punted a whopping 10 times to continually send the defense out on the field for more. The Dolphins ran 73 plays, netting 458 yards. “You guys were our backbone,” O’Connell said to them.

The Vikings currently rank eighth in the league in sacks per pass attempt (8.2%), but they only tackled the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage a combined four times over the previous three games. Za’Darius Smith had two sacks, as did backup outside linebacker Patrick Jones II for the first two of his career in an elevated role with D.J. Wonnum sidelined by an illness. “We harped on this all week of getting pressure on the quarterback,” Smith said. “We’ve been lacking a little bit on that, but today we brought that pressure.” Despite all the room Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle found to run after the catch, the secondary was plenty sharp, too.

 

Harrison Smith hung onto an interception at the Miami 41 with 18 seconds left before halftime to set up a field goal and forced a fumble at the Minnesota 26 that fellow safety Camryn Bynum recovered with the Vikings leading by six points with about four minutes left. Peterson had an interception and three pass breakups. “He was all over the place and really kind of set the tone defending two premier wideouts,” O’Connell said Monday. “All day long, he was one step ahead making some critical plays.”

 

WHAT’S WORKING

The Vikings lead the NFL with an average starting field position differential of 7.5 yards better than their opponent, as sure of a sign of stellar kick coverage and return units as there is. The next-closest team is Philadelphia (5.2).

 

WHAT NEEDS HELP

The pass protection for Kirk Cousins must be better. He was sacked three times by the Dolphins and nearly took a safety on a third-down throw he just barely unloaded for an incompletion under pressure by Trey Flowers at the end of the second possession.

 

STOCK UP

Tomlinson doesn’t accumulate any eye-popping statistics from his 3-4 defensive end spot, but his interior rush helped set up Smith, Jones and Danielle Hunter for their pressure from the edges. “I know our opponents probably feel it, but I hope around the league he starts getting some accolades just for the impact he has on games both on the run and pass,” O’Connell said.

 

STOCK DOWN

Kicker Greg Joseph missed an extra point that could’ve been costly, leaving the lead at 16-3 early in the fourth quarter. He has missed four field goals, all from 50-plus yards, and two extra points over the last four games.

 

INJURY REPORT

The Vikings entered their bye week remarkably injury-free. Wonnum was the only player not healthy enough to play in Miami. The only significant season-ending injury has been to rookie safety Lewis Cine, who was only playing on special teams.

 

KEY NUMBER

26.5% — Percentage of three-and-out possessions by the Vikings, the fifth-highest in the league. They’re 14th in scoring with an average of 23.2 points per game, but they’ve punted 27 times to tie for the sixth-most in the NFL.

 

NEXT STEPS

The week off will give O’Connell and his staff more time to work on ways to try to keep the offense from stalling so frequently, ideally with more long completions for Cousins. The Vikings host Arizona on Oct. 30.