VALLEY CITY, N.D. -- Tyger Frye and Riley Linder each scored first-half touchdowns to help Dickinson State to a 26-14 North Star Athletic Association football win over Valley City State on Saturday.
Frye, the former Billings Senior standout who is rewriting the receiving record books at Dickinson State, got the Blue Hawks on the board in the first quarter on a 14-yard pass from quarterback Drew Boedecker. Boedecker, a first-year starter from Sheridan, Wyo., completed 18 of 27 passes for 168 yards and two touchdowns in the game. He added 68 yards and another TD on the ground.
Linder's score came early in the second quarter on a 3-yard run. That put the Blue Hawks up 14-0, and they would take that lead into halftime.
Valley City State stormed back in the third quarter, though, putting two touchdowns on the board -- a 9-yard pass from Jalen Pfeifer to Ben Carter and a 2-yard run from Taylor Simmons -- to knot the game at 14-14 going to the fourth.
Boedecker sealed it in the final 15 minutes for DSU, hitting Jaret Lee for an 18-yard touchdown and scoring on a late 1-yard run.
"Really proud of our players for getting it done," Dickinson State coach Pete Stanton said in a media release. "Winning isn't easy. The conditions were brutal. Our backs were against the wall in that third quarter and we were fortunate. Our guys made some championship plays in the fourth quarter. A great team win."
Linder, who played his high school football at Scobey, finished the game with 46 rushing yards and the one TD on 17 carries. Frye had 26 yards on four catches, and Conor McCarvel, a former Helena Capital Bruin, had four catches for 34 yards. Lee had six catches for 101 yards, both game highs.
With the win, Dickinson State improved to 8-0 this fall and clinched the NSAA conference championship. The NAIA national playoffs are scheduled for the spring of 2021, culminating with the national championship game on May 10.
The Blue Hawks close out their fall schedule back home at the Biesiot Activities Center against Presentation College at 1 p.m. on Nov. 7.
