DURHAM, N.C. – The road ends here on Saturday, December 18^th as No. 2 Morningside University and No. 3 Grand View University will battle it out on the grid iron for the Red Banner. The 66th Annual Football National Championship will be hosted at Durham County Memorial Stadium with kickoff scheduled at 5:00 p.m. CST.

• For the first time in 66 years, two teams from the same state (Iowa) will be competing in the national championship game.
• Grand View (Iowa) and Morningside (Iowa) square off with undefeated records at 14-0 and 13-0, respectively. Morningside (Iowa) will be the home team in today’s contest as they were the second seed in the FCS.
• Newly named 2021 NAIA Player of the Year Joe Dolincheck will quarterback the home team – Morningside.
• This year’s matchup is the third time Morningside and Grand View have met in the Football Championship Series. In both previous occurrences, the winning team of the game went on to win the Red Banner. In 2013, GVU won 35-0 and in 2019, the Mustangs captured a 21-16 victory.
• Both teams can put up points in a hurry, so the key matchup will be the high powered offenses against stout defensive units. Grand View has held opponents to 11.9 points per game and scored 37.4; Morningside allows 17.3 per outing but lights up the scoreboard for 56.9.

Morningside Mustangs

• The Mustangs are looking to take home the trophy for the third time in four years after winning back-to-back championships in 2018 and 2019.
• Morningside’s signal caller is Joe Dolincheck, who averages 336.8 yards through the air and has totaled 42 touchdowns and nine picks.
• The running game for the Mustangs goes through Anthony Sims who averages 124.3 per game and has scored 29 touchdowns.
• Morningside’s receiver’s room is highlighted by Reid Jurgensmeier and his nearly 1400 receiving yards and 16 TD’s.
• They are in the FCS for a 17^th season and hold an overall record of 21-15 in postseason play
• Morningside advanced to the 2021 National Championship following a 28-19 win over No.4 Northwestern (Iowa) during the semifinals.
• The Mustangs have been the top offensive unit this year racking up 611.8 yards with 226 coming on the ground and 385 through the air.
• Defensively, Tyler Wingert leads the team with 145 tackles and is second on the team with 6.5 sacks behind Weston Schultz with seven sacks.  
• Jamal Jones has seven pass break ups and a trio of teammates - Drew Bessey, Weston Schultz, and Lonell Boyd Jr – have recorded six each.

Grand View Vikings

• Grand View reached the Championship by upsetting the top seeded and defending national champion Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) on the road at Columbia. Prior to that game, the Blue Raiders had not lost in the calendar year of 2021.
• The Vikings will once again play the role of underdog, despite having more wins than the Mustangs.
• GVU reached the NAIA FCS for the ninth time this season and boasts and overall win/loss of 11-8.
• This season, Grand View is averaging 407.6 yards per game with 200.8 coming from rushing and another 206.9 on passing.
• Grand View is guided offensively by Johnny Sullivan who has averaged 216.2 yards per game and totaled 27 touchdowns and only five interceptions.
• On the ground, they are led by Ali Scott who has tallied 15 touchdowns and over 1,000 yards.
• For the Vikings, Gerald Sama has the most receiving scores on the team with eight and is one of three WR’s to go over 500 yards this season.
• Kicker Nathan Hamilton is 18/23 on field goals, with his longest being 49 yards, and 63/65 on extra points.
• Defensively, Grand View is led by Nate Wieland and Cole Rollinger as they have recorded 70 and 62 tackles. Rocky Schoenfelder leads the team with 6.5 sacks.
• On the back end, the duo of David Tolentino and Demareo Luckett have broken up25 passes collectively.
• The Vikings rank in the top five of the NAIA this season in 12 different categories including games played (14), field goals (18-23), second in red-zone scores (62-70), third in red-zone touchdowns (49-70), and defensive interceptions (22), fourth in scoring, first downs (338), rushing attempts (547), 3rd down conversions (83-183), fumbles recovered (15) and fifth in total offense (5,707), and red zone percentage (89%).