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After losing their last four games by the slimmest of margins, the North Branch football squad figured it was due for a win, and it didn't matter who was standing in their way.

Last week, Robbinsdale Cooper happened to be the unfortunate team that the Vikings finally turned the corner on. With the Hawks at 3-3 heading into the game and North Branch at 1-5, it looked like a bit of a mismatch on paper, but it was quickly evident that it was going to be a slugfest from both teams.

DJ Herbert, Cooper's athletic quarterback, started the Hawks' first drive with a bang. The sophomore weaved his way through the North Branch defense for a 47-yard gain, but he ran closer to 130 yards as he zigged to one side of the field, only to zag back to the near side, leaving a steady wake of North Branch defenders behind him.

The Vikings quickly bottled him up though on the ensuing plays and forced a turnover deep in their own zone. After they couldn't get the ball out of the shadow of their own end zone, the Vikings had a disastrous turnover at their own seven yard line, though.

A few plays later, Herbert scored the first touchdown of the game on a one-yard quarterback sneak. Their two-point conversion attempt failed and the Hawks had an early 6-0 lead.

The teams traded possessions for the rest of the first quarter, but in the beginning of the second quarter, North Branch started putting together a strong drive. Quarterback Scott Bossard and running back Zack Smith were the main catalysts, finding holes in the Hawk defense and burning through them for big chunks of yardage.

Bossard capped the drive when he delivered a 13-yard strike to senior Sean Franks in the corner of the end zone. Brian Grand had a very rare miss on the extra point, and the game was knotted at six.

On Cooper's next drive, they had good field position again after a nice kick return. Herbert took advantage by calling his own number on an option play and slicing upfield untouched for a 38-yard touchdown run, stretching the lead to 12-6. This time, Cooper made good on their two-point try and extended the lead to 14-6.

With short time left in the half, Bossard again went to work, moving the Vikings down the field swiftly with time to spare even. With just under one minute left, the junior quarterback finished the drive off when he plowed through Cooper's interior line for a sneak one-yard touchdown. A failed two-point conversion left the game at 14-12 in favor of the Hawks going into halftime.

Whatever Head Coach Justin Sawyer and his staff said and did at halftime for the Vikes, it worked. Both the offense and defense came out swarming and aggressive. The 'D' forced a three and out on Coopers first possession of the half, and the offense made good on the momentum swing.

A few quick strikes from Bossard and some punishing runs by Smith, paired with great blocking from fullback Luke LeVasseur led to a short field for the Vikings to work with. The drive was finished off with a 12-yard touchdown run from Smith.

Only up by four after the touchdown, it didn't make too much sense to go up by only five, so Sawyer sent his offense out for the two-point try to push the lead to six. However, a Bossard pass hit the turf before it was caught and the Vikings failed to convert their extra-point try for the third time in the game.

After another big defensive stand from the visiting Vikings, they took over with a short field to work with leading 18-14. North Branch used a very familiar recipe to move the rock down to the goal line. A dash of Smith, a pinch of LeVasseur, mix in some Franks and Kyle Grote and top it off with some Bossard, and all of a sudden the Vikings had a perfect mix for scoring.

Smith was the topping, though, on this drive for the second time in the game. He smashed the ball in from four yards out to bulge the lead to 24-14. Grand was finally able to redeem himself when he booted his first extra point of the game to leave the game at 25-14 in the third quarter.

The two squads traded possessions again to close out the third quarter and enter the fourth. With a two-score cushion, the Vikings were just playing the clock game with Cooper until one big series of events almost sent the Vikings into a huge tailspin.

Down by 11, the Hawks were driving mid-way through the last quarter when they stalled on fourth and 16 from the Vikings 40-yard line. Since they needed points and were moving deep into North Branch's territory, Cooper decided to go for it. However, a penalty pushed them back to a next-to-impossible situation of fourth and 21 from North Branch's 45. Still, the Hawks needed the points so they went for it.

Herbert dropped back to pass as his receivers strafed down the sideline. As he launched the ball up, Cooper receiver Elijah Swen made a great adjustment on his route and got in front of the North Branch defender to catch the ball in stride and blow past the rest of the defenders for a 45-yard touchdown.

If that didn't deflate the sideline enough, back at the line of scrimmage, a North Branch player was ejected for throwing a punch at a Cooper offensive lineman. Not only did the Hawks pull of a miraculous completion that went for a touchdown, they were also going to be kicking off 15 yards closer to the NB end zone to pin the Vikings back in their own territory when field position was of the utmost importance.

Trying to trim the lead to a field goal, Cooper missed the two-point conversion and the game stood at 25-20 with just over six minutes left. Although the Hawks didn't have the lead, they had all the momentum at the field as the North Branch sideline was still stunned from the touchdown and ejection.

If the sideline for North Branch was flat-lining, however, it was Smith who was the proverbial jolt of electricity. On the ensuing kickoff, when the 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty was assessed, the Cooper kicked still failed to put the ball into the end zone for an automatic touchback. Smith made them pay when he cut through the Cooper coverage team and out-ran the rest of the defenders on his was to a 95-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.

Just like that, the Vikings were back in total command of the game, and the sideline was again abuzz with optimism. Grand booted the extra point to make the lead 32-20.

On their own senior night, though, Cooper wouldn't go quietly. They quickly marched down the field and scored on a four-yard touchdown run by Neko Kyles. An extra point by Josephat Onuoha shrank North Branch's lead to 32-27. The drive took nearly three minutes off the clock, though, and left the Vikings in control of their own destiny.

Cooper only had one timeout, and if they wanted the ball back, they were either going to have to try an onside kick, or boot it deep and hope they could stop the Vikings on three straight downs. They decided on the latter and kicked it deep to Smith.

The offense went to work knowing that one first down would do wonders for them, but anything over one first down would essentially seal the game.

North Branch didn't just settle for a few desperation plays here and there on their drive, though. They took the ball and marched right down the field, killing clock the whole way. The moved the ball so effectively that by the time they were ready to take a knee to run the clock, they were inside Cooper's five-yard line.

For the game, Bossard had the best game of his young career by going eight-for-12 through the air with 93 yards and one touchdown. He also ran 21 times for 179 yards and a score.

Smith had 83 yards and two scores on 18 carries. He also had the huge kick return for a touchdown late in the game.

Franks and Grote both had strong receiving games. Both grabbed four balls with Franks accumulating 53 yards and a touchdown and Grote gaining 40 yards with his opportunities.

On the defensive side of the ball, Franks led the way with eight tackles, including some great plays against Cooper's tough option offense. Erik Chouinard, Smith and Zack DeAdder each had seven tackles. Sean Graff had a pick on defense, his fourth of the year.

The win moved the Vikings record to 2-5 on the season heading into their last regular season game of the year. They played St. Francis on Wednesday night, who also sports a 2-5 record and is coming off a huge upset of Fridley two weeks ago.

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