JACKSON, Miss. - In their penultimate game of the season, the Vikings looked to show up and show out against the Millsaps Majors, but the Mississippi team proved to be persistent, and gave Berry their second straight loss as they fell 29-30.
Jake Turner had a great day on the ground, finishing with 103 yards and 3 touchdowns.
The Vikings won the coin toss, but chose to defer, giving the Majors the ball to start the day. Millsaps was on schedule, moving the chains down to Berry's 26 yard-line, but their drive was cut short when the ball was tipped up and found the hands of
Buie Crawford, giving him an interception to secure the first possession of the day for Berry.
With momentum on their side early, Andrew Hunter called his own number and broke away for a 56-yard run before being pushed out at the 4-yard line. He finished it himself to put Berry ahead early 7-0. Millsaps was unable to put together a response on the following drive, and the Vikings made them pay. The Vikings did it on the ground, and
Jake Turner ran it into the endzone to run the check up. Adding insult to injury,
Dalton Carnes found
Trey Lawrence on the two-point conversion, giving Berry 15 unanswered points as the first quarter came to a close.
Down by the two scores, the Majors needed to make something happen as they began the second quarter with the ball. Right on time, Millsaps found a man deep to set themselves up at Berry's 2-yard line and ran the ball in for their first score of the day.
Berry's offense sputtered on their first drive of the second quarter, and the Majors blocked the punt to put themselves within striking distance at Berry's 19-yard line. Fortunately, the Viking's defense stood their ground, and Millsaps was forced to punt after a holding penalty put them out of field goal range. Unfortunately, the Viking's offensive struggles continued, and the Majors immediately capitalized after the punt, putting together a 60-yard run to bring themselves within a point.
Millsaps had a chance to put themselves ahead before the half came to a close as the two-minute warning passed, but they backed themselves up to the fifty-yard line with three straight false starts and finished the possession looking deep and finding
Gian Traverzo down the field for an interception that gave Berry the ball back. By the end of the half, the Vikings remained ahead by a point at 15-14.
Receiving the ball first to start the second half, the Vikings looked to get back to their comfortable lead. The offense found its groove again, and marched down to Millsap's endzone, where
Jake Turner finished the drive to give Berry some breathing room as the quarter continued. The Majors looked to respond on their first drive of the half, but the piling flags proved difficult to overcome as they were backed up to their own 9-yard line and failed to move the chains, forcing them to punt.
With the momentum back on their side once again,
Andrew Hunter found
Grant Cook, who took it 20-yards to put Berry back at the 1-yard line, and
Jake Turner did the rest. The Vikings went back ahead by 15 points, and Millsaps struggled on the following drive to give Berry the ball back at the end of the third quarter, the score 29-14.
The deferment was working in their favor as Berry began the fourth quarter with the ball and a comfortable margin. The offense continued to work methodically through the early goings of the fourth quarter but stalled out on the Major's 46-yard line, giving the Majors the ball back with eleven minutes left to go.
There was plenty of time left for the game, but the Major's opted to strike quickly, turning in an explosive run up the middle, and converting for two points in two minutes, leaving nine minutes left for the game.
Still with the lead, the Vikings played conservatively and kept the ball on the ground, chewing up as much of the game clock as they could, but Millsap's defense stepped up to force Berry to punt with four minutes left. Riding the momentum from the previous scoring drive, the Majors moved the chains and found a man on a slant to get into the endzone. With blatant disregard for the analytics, they went for the jugular and hit paydirt for another two-point conversion to go ahead by a point with a minute and eleven seconds left.
With the lead gone and a minute to go, the Vikings got backed up to start their drive. They overcame the slight setback as
Andrew Hunter flexed his arm, completing two passes to get near the 50-yard line with 35 seconds left. Maneuvering through the air, the Huntsville native found
Zavion Plunkett to get Berry up to the 32-yard line with 16 seconds left.
The Vikings reached fourth down after missing the mark on two more pass attempts, 5 seconds left on the clock. With no other options, the game was placed in the hands of the kicking team as they came on for a 51-yard attempt, but the Majors put them on ice with their second timeout of the half. Following a brief break, Connor Hughes stepped onto the field with the win in the balance and left it short, allowing Millsaps to escape with the victory, the final score 30-29.
The Vikings will return home to Valhalla for the final game of the regular season next Saturday, November 14th. The game will tip off at 2:00p.m. as they look to celebrate their seniors against the Sewanee Tigers.
