Portland State’s first game of the Chris Fisk era started with a bang — but landed with a thud.
The Vikings were outstanding in a dominant and shocking first half against a nationally ranked team. PSU led UC Davis, 21-0, at halftime, but lost the game, 31-24.
“We’ve got a lot of growing to do as a program where we have to learn how to handle the pressure and win those games,” Fisk said. “That’s a playoff team [UC Davis] that’s been in this situation before, and we haven’t. We'll go back and learn from that situation and hope to get better."
Bob Dunning worked as the sports columnist and writer at the Davis Enterprise for 54 years. He’s still covering UC Davis and made the trip to Hillsboro to cover Saturday’s game for his own publication.
Dunning provided JohnCanzano.com with his analysis and assessment of the Big Sky Conference game:
“Portland State came out loaded for bear. Creative on offense and really aggressive on defense. Clearly not intimidated by UC Davis’ reputation or No. 6 national ranking in what everyone thought would be a walk for the Aggies. Huge momentum shift in the second half after a safety on a bad snap on the punt attempt.
“Even though it was only two points, you could sense a real shift. But boy did Portland State fight. Even after UC Davis took the lead with 27 seconds left, PSU got two quick completions to the Aggie 36 before a Hail Mary reached the end zone, but fell incomplete.
“The Vikings are going to be decent. I just hope the program gets the support it needs. Really a modest crowd (official attendance: 2,367) on a beautiful day.
“Portland sideline was really alive all game. Looks like the new coach is doing a good job molding them into a team.”
Dunning’s son, Mick, was at the game, working as a photographer.
His photo gallery is worth your time:
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Heartbreaker for Portland State but nice to see them battle a top 10 program down to the wire. Chris Fisk was great at Central Washington, might be very good at Portland State, too. Good hire.
John, thanks for this story about the PSU game, I was pleasantly surprised to see it. I was at the game with my 8 year old daughter who “devoured” the game and had a ton of fun. And I had a great time too!