Grand Valley State University was Goliath to Winona State University’s David.

No, the difference wasn’t that big. It was more like Goliath versus David on steroids.

The Warriors stood up to the best team in the country, and went punch for punch until the final whistle blew, and it was fun to watch.

Even though the Warriors didn’t win, they put on one heckuva show and gave the almost 4,000 fans that showed up a great game.

For those of you out there that didn’t come to the game, I ask you why not? Tickets were cheap, the weather was GORGEOUS, the game was huge and the opponent was tremendous.

The walls of Maxwell Field at Midwest Wireless Stadium were practically overflowing with people, but there could have been more and the crowd could have been even more of a factor.

Maybe I’m wrong though. Maybe the crowd was as big a factor as it could have been.

I bet if you ask the Grand Valley players, they’d tell you the crowd made a difference by the goal line, right in front of the student section.

The two ultimate highs for a fan are when an opposing player jumps early and gets a penalty and when the opposing team has to call a timeout.

The students made both those things happen Saturday.

The fans down there were nuts. A few got kicked out, a few were painted, a few were shirtless, but everyone was loud. When they had the chance, they did their best to make an impact.

So I guess I’d like to say even though we didn’t get 5,000 like I was asking for, I’m not disappointed. The WSU faithful did a great job, and for about eight minutes of football, it looked like the Warriors and their fans had the upper hand.

The Warriors weren’t overmatched our outplayed, but Grand Valley definitely had a few advantages.

In the first half, Winona State was practically unable to run the ball. The Warriors’ leading rusher at the half, Bounthavy Khamratthanome, had

11 yards or so, and as a team, Winona State as a team had something like minus-4 yards.

Grand Valley was a great team, and the game was a lot of fun to watch.

The Lakers were big, strong, and fast and they didn’t give up when things got rough.

But so were the Warriors. Winona State may have been a little smaller at the line of scrimmage, but coach Tom Sawyer got his guys going for the second half and the Warriors came out swinging.

They landed two blows, a touchdown pass to Chris Samp and a touchdown run by Alex Wiese to take a 13-9 lead, but the Lakers got the knockout punch with a touchdown drive in the fourth quarter.

And please Warrior fans, don’t blame the loss on the kicker. I know the game was in his hands at the end, but it wasn’t his fault.

He was asked to make a very tough kick in one of the toughest situations he could have faced, and things just didn’t go his way. Not his fault.

But now that football is over, it’s time to focus on the new important sport…basketball.

No offense to Mike Leaf, Scott Ballard, or any of the Winona State basketball players, but I hate basketball.

Well, that’s a bad way to put it.

I don’t hate basketball. I just like it way less than football.

One thing I do enjoy about basketball is watching Winona State play.

The Warriors may not be great, although the men’s team is shaping up to be something special this year, but my school spirit keeps my interest.

So farewell to football for the next 8 months. I shall miss thee, but we will meet again in August. Until then, I’ve got no problem cheering on the basketball, baseball and softball teams. I’ll just picture everyone in helmets and wish it was football season again.