A new coach, new offense and depleted depth due to a split of students with Fargo Davies weren't enough to derail the Bruins from capturing their first state title since 2007 Saturday night.
Senior quarterback Griffin Neal passed for 243 yards and three touchdowns to lift South to a 28-14 victory against Bismarck in the North Dakota Class 3A championship game at the Alerus Center.
"It's huge. I'm very excited right now," said Neal, whose team was defeated by Bismarck in the last two Class 3A title games. "We are a very emotional team. We are all so close. Everyone on this team plays as brothers."
South (11-1) pulled away with a dominant second half in which the offense pull out all the stops, and the defense locked down one of the top running backs in the state.
The Bruins broke a 14-14 tie on a surgical 15-play, 91-yard drive that took up much of the third quarter.
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South converted a pair of 4th-down conversions, and Neal completed 6 of 7 passes for 71 yards. Senior running back Adam Boe gave the Bruins a 21-14 lead on an 11-yard reception with 5:59 remaining in the third.
"We just came out and we couldn't execute in the second half," said Bismarck senior running back Channing Mann, who had 170 yards on 27 carries. "That's what they were doing. They executed on every play so they came out on top in the end."
