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Portland, OR - Portland State played as near to perfect a half of football as you can Saturday afternoon at Providence Park, building a huge lead against Northern Colorado and cruising to an easy 35-14 victory in the Homecoming game.
A week after a monumental win against Montana, the Vikings carried all sorts of confidence and momentum into their own Homecoming game. The defense stifled Northern Colorado's offense, the quarterbacks combined for four rushing touchdowns and the special teams made key plays to pin the Bears deep in their own territory all game long.
Portland State won its second straight Big Sky Conference game, improving to 2-2 in league, 3-4 overall.
Davis Alexander scored the first three touchdowns of the game on his feet and finished the day with 72 yards rushing. The running attack from the Vikings led to the success all game long as Alexander attempted just nine passes and had 90 yards through the air.
Carlos Martin and Jalani Eason each ran for a touchdown while Sirgeo Hoffman and Darian Green combined for 94 yards on the ground. The rushing success translated to a perfect day in the red zone, with Portland State scoring a touchdown on all five trips inside the 20.
Northern Colorado outgained the Vikings by 85 yards in the game, but big plays by the Portland State defense made the difference in the blowout win. The Vikings forced three turnovers, all interceptions, and scored 14 points off of them.
"We had short fields the whole first half. But what I enjoyed is we weren't kicking field goals, we were scoring touchdowns, and that makes life a little easier," said Viking Coach Bruce Barnum.
Portland State also stopped Northern Colorado on three fourth-down attempts in Viking territory. The defensive line dominated all game long and recorded five sacks and nine tackles for loss. A pass-first team, Northern Colorado managed just 16 yards on 31 rushes.
UNC quarterback Conor Regan started off the game 4-of-5 passing, leading the Bears down the field. He lobbed a pass to the end zone, but Portland State's Anthony Adams made an incredible leaping interception on his own one-yard line to give the ball to the Vikings.
Alexander and the Vikings offense had the entire field to go, but a methodical 13-play and nearly seven-minute drive was capped off by a nine-yard Alexander run put the Vikings in the lead 7-0.
Northern Colorado threw another interception on just the second play of the drive. This time, Montre Brown stepped in front of a short route to make a diving catch and set Portland State up with the ball on Northern Colorado's 17-yard line.
The ground game found paydirt for the Vikings again. Three plays, all rushes, led to Alexander's second touchdown of the game and put Portland State on top 14-0.
The Vikings continued the domination on the ground in the second quarter. After a three-and-out for Northern Colorado that gave Portland State the ball with a short field, Alexander picked up his hat trick of rushing touchdowns. The Vikings went 45 yards in five plays and with 14 minutes remaining in the half had taken a 21-0 lead.
There was no doubting the confidence of the Vikings on their fourth drive of the game. Facing a fourth and one from the two-yard line, a field goal would have been a fine result. Instead, the Vikings went for it, picking up the first down and scoring one play later. This time Jalani Eason, who had been taking intermittent snaps at quarterback, finished off the drive with a rushing score that made it 28-0.
The only real mistake the Vikings made in the first half was on Northern Colorado's final offensive possession. A roughing the punter penalty extended the Bears' drive, but the Vikings made a stop on fourth down inside their own red zone to maintain the shutout through halftime.
On the second drive of the half Alexander and the offense went right back to the dominating ground game that built the lead. They carried the ball nine times to score their fifth rushing touchdown of the game. This time, Carlos Martin bowled through the defensive line to put Portland State ahead 35-0.
"It was fun on both sides of the ball," said Barnum. "I got conservative, but when you are up that many scores, I'll go conservative to get the "W". I don't need statistics. Good for this crew; offense, defense, special teams."
Northern Colorado put together a decent drive on the next possession, getting as far as the Portland State 18 before Montre Adams intercepted Regan's pass on the one-yard line.
In the fourth quarter, the passing attack finally produced a score for Northern Colorado. Regan found Alex Wesley for a 42-yard touchdown. They tacked on a late score for a 35-14 final.
Brown led the defense with eight tackles and the interception. In all, the Vikings had five sacks and 10 tackles for loss.
GAME NOTES: Portland State has allowed only 18 points per game in its last three contests… the Vikings are off next week, then travel to Sacramento State on Oct. 27.
