Sheyenne Mustangs win first-ever state championship
FARGO, N.D. (BVM) — For the first time in school history, the West Fargo Sheyenne Football team has won the NDHSAA 11AA state championship.
“It feels good, happy with the season that we had, the kids had a great year and it was certainly a lot of fun,” Mustangs’ head coach Jeremy Newton said.
It’s the team’s first-ever state championship and it comes during its third straight appearance in the state championship game. The Mustangs have made it to the final game of the season in the Fargodome every year since 2019, their first ever state championship appearance, but lost the last two state championships to Bismarck Century.
“You have to knock on the door a few times, you can’t just run through it,” Newton said.
This year was not only different due to their win, but also because of their opponent in the state championship. Crosstown rivals, West Fargo, had beaten Century 15-0 to make it an all Fargo state championship.
“They have a lot of good athletes we had to try and contain and that was our thinking going, ‘How do we try to contain all those athletes?’ But we were able to do a pretty good job of it,” Newton said.
The Mustangs had already done that against the Packers earlier in the season, when they beat them 28-7, and their rematch would end in almost identical fashion with the Mustangs winning 27-7. West Fargo did make it a one–score game early in the third quarter after being down 14-0 at halftime, but that was short lived as the Mustangs marched down the field to score yet again.
“We knew we had to get the ball back and score again and that’s what we did,” Mustangs’ senior running back Josh Henriks said.
Along with scoring the touchdown that put them up 21-7, he also had two other touchdowns to go with his 39 carries for 238 yards. It was a dominant showing from a team that had been dominant all season and had come up big when they needed to.
In the state semifinal game against Fargo Shanley, Sheyenne scored 15 straight points in the fourth quarter to win 36-21 and punch its ticket to the state championship.
Before that, they had finished the regular season undefeated with five shutouts and only one game in which they gave up more than seven points. One of those shutout wins was also against Bismarck Century.
“That gave us a huge amount of confidence and it also put a chip on our shoulder that we were the top team in the state,” Henriks said.
They not only beat the team that had shut them out in the past two state championships, but they also put an end to Century’s 29-game winning streak in their 14-0 win.
“It was important for us,” Newton said.
That momentum carried them all the way to the Fargodome, but the journey had begun long before that win in mid October.
“We worked really hard during the offseason,” Henriks said.
Henriks and the other seniors who had watched their team make it to the state championship only to lose in heartbreaking fashion were not going to repeat the past. They took what they had learned from the seniors that had gone before them and made sure the Mustangs finished with a win.
“I think the senior group as a whole did a good job of stepping up and taking responsibility and everything we put on them they accepted,” Newton said. “That’s one of the reasons we were able to have a successful year was because of how our seniors performed.”
These seniors represent what Sheyenne has been building towards. They first get to the championship for the first time ever, then make it back the next two years and win their first ever championship on their third try. Now it’s time to defend their state title for the first time.
