By Kyle Mayhugh
Williston Herald
The Watford City Wolves fell behind early and their second-half comeback never materialized as they lost to the Velva Aggies 24-14 on the road in the state Class A football semifinals on Saturday afternoon.
Watford City, which had been ranked No. 1 all season to Velva's No. 2, finishes its season at 10-1. "I think the difference was turnovers," said Watford City coach Fred Fridley. "That definitely hurt us. We gave them field position, especially there in the second half. We had a hard time stopping their running game, I thought they ran the ball very well on us. And we had a hard time running. I think we got outplayed today, and congratulations to Velva."
The Wolves fell behind quickly in the first half.
After taking the opening kickoff, Watford City lost the ball on a fumble at their own 18 yard line two plays into their first series.
Velva almost returned the favor with a fumble on a botched handoff on their first play. The ball fell forward to the line of scrimmage, where a pile of players fell on it and Watford City coaches believed their team had the ball. A whistle blew, and a split-second later the ball popped loose from the pile while referees waved the play dead. After a huddle among the officials, the ruling was that an inadvertent whistle had blown and the down would be replayed.
The Wolves stopped the Aggies' offense for no gain on the next three plays, but on 4th and 10 - and what amounted to the fifth play of the series - Velva scored on an 18-yard touchdown pass at 10:06 remaining in the first quarter.
Velva got a short field a few minutes later after the wind knocked down a Watford City punt, and the Aggies made it 14-0 with 4:16 left in the first quarter on a 24-yard touchdown run from Michael Wiest.
Watford City's offense continued to struggle to find running room in the second quarter, but with 3:15 remaining in the half, a strong punt return from junior Nick Liebel sparked a 59-yard touchdown drive that included some strong runs from Brady Lund and a key 13-yard pass from quarterback Trey Jacobson to Liebel. Jacobson punched it in on a keeper with 51 seconds left in the half, and Watford City trailed 14-7 heading into halftime.
The momentum seemed to be swinging the Wolves' way when it suddenly turned, a theme in the second half. Watford City fumbled the opening kickoff with Velva recovering, setting up a field goal to make it 17-7.
Tyler Flatland's 10-yard touchdown catch with 3:37 to play in the third quarter made it 17-14, and this time it was Velva's turn to fumble a kickoff.
But momentum again suddenly turned on a dime when Wiest intercepted a Jacobson pass that had went through the hands of a receiver, giving Velva the ball at their own 11 less than a minute after the fumbled kickoff.
Velva ground down most of the fourth quarter with a 38-yard touchdown drive that managed to eat up 6 minutes, 14 seconds and put them up 24-14.
Watford managed to drive down to the Velva two-yard line with less than a minute to play, but they never scored and that's how the game ended.
Velva will advanced to the Fargo Bowl on Friday to play Landgon for the Class A championship.
"You can't take this season away from us," Fridley said. "We're 10-1, and I'd take that every year. But we sure would have liked to get to the championship game, but it just wasn't meant to be today."
Velva 24, Watford City 14
Velva 14 0 3 7
WC 0 7 7 0
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