Hillsboro, OR – Sometimes you are the hammer and sometimes you are the nail.
 
On Saturday afternoon at Hillsboro Stadium, Portland State Football was most definitely the hammer, defeating lower division North American from Texas, 91-0, in a non-conference game.
 
The Vikings were undoubtedly the heavy favorite going into the game, and they proved it right away, building a 21-0 first quarter lead, then took advantage of the Stallions mistakes in the second quarter to score 42 more and lead 63-0 at halftime.
 
The second half included virtually the entire available Vikings roster as Coach Bruce Barnum took advantage of the NCAA's redshirt rule and played numerous true freshmen and backups. In all, 91 Vikings saw action in the game.
 
"I'm glad we could do that," said Barnum. "The team works hard. I'm happy we got so many players in and got their feet wet."
 
At the same time, Barnum had to balance the action in a runaway game in the second half.
 
"I respect (North American), I respect the Head Coach. It got a little out of hand, but we tried not to let it get that way."
 
In fact, the Vikings, after scoring 28 more points in the third quarter, ran the play clock down as much as it could and did not score in the fourth quarter.
 
PSU's win improves it to 1-2 going into Big Sky Conference play next week. North American, an NAIA program from Stafford, TX, dropped to 0-3.
 
The Viking offense got on the board early and often. Running back Jobi Malary had a pair of first-quarter rushing touchdowns on PSU's first two series. Quincy Craig added a rushing score later and PSU was up 21-0 after the first quarter.
 
A third running back, Andrew Van Buren, scored the Vikings' fourth rushing TD on the first play of the second period. PSU was up 28-0 and the rout was on.
 
In the second quarter, NAU mistakes set up the Vikings on offense four times inside of the Stallions own 20-yard line. That led to short PSU scoring drives of two, 16, 18 and nine yards.
 
A bad punt snap gave the Vikings the ball on the NAU 3 - and that was soon to be a Christian Grubb rushing touchdown. On the Stallions next series, linebacker Parker McKenna intercepted a pass and returned it to the NAU 16. Jermaine Braddock caught a 16-yard touchdown pass – his first of the season – on the next play. Dante Chachere also completed an eight-yard touchdown pass to Semaj Bolin and another 16-yarder to Braddock for three passing TDs before halftime. He gave way to three different backups in the second half.
 
Through three quarters, Portland State had scored touchdowns on all 11 of its drives, in addition to the interception return for touchdown by Day Day Bright and a 60-yard punt return for a touchdown by Grubb.
 
Among PSU's 91 participants, nine different players scored touchdowns for the Vikings, 10 different players carried the ball and 34 different players had tackles during the game. The Vikings threw only 12 passes overall, completing eight for 134 yards and four touchdowns. PSU rushed 46 times for 285 yards and seven touchdowns.
 
Craig had 69 yards rushing, 27 receiving, 67 on a kickoff return and 59 on punt returns for 212 all-purpose yards.
 
On defense, the Vikings pitched their first shutout since a 24-0 win over Idaho on Oct. 12, 2019. PSU had 15 tackles for loss and two interceptions.
 
North American had -23 yards of total offense due to a -49 rushing total, setting a PSU defensive record.
 
The Vikings look ahead to their Big Sky Conference schedule, eight games in nine weeks, starting with Cal Poly at Hillsboro Stadium next week.
 
"Now it's real," said Barnum. "We will find out who we are next week."
 

GAME NOTES

• The 91 points rank as the most ever for a Big Sky Conference team… for the Viking program it ranks as the third most in school history. PSU had a 105-0 win over Delaware State and 93-7 win over Cal Poly Pomona in 1980.
• Portland State is 21-0 in games against lower division opponents since moving to Division I in 1996.
• The Vikings are now 22-5 in home openers since joining the Big Sky… PSU is 11-6 at Hillsboro Stadium since it became PSU's full-time home venue for the 2019 season.
• Jayden Brannan had a blocked punt for the Vikings… also scoring touchdowns for the Vikings were true freshmen Eric Denham (30-yard reception) and Delon Thompson (6-yard run).