Had it not been for Yusuf Jama being his typical dominant self, all the talk would be on Minot High’s Jalen Gunville’s performance filling in for the injured Blake Anderson.

The junior running back had a career night, carrying the ball 22 times for nearly 150 yards and a pair of touchdowns, accounting for nearly 75 percent of the Magi’s offensive yardage.

Unfortunately for Gunville and the Magicians, Jama had an even bigger night running the ball. The all-state senior rushed for more than 200 yards on 17 carries, scoring three touchdowns in fourth-ranked Bismarck Legacy’s 41-12 victory over Minot on Friday, Oct. 3, at Sanford Sports Complex. The loss drops the Magicians to 0-6 for the first time dating back to 1975. It’s the Magi’s first six-game losing streak in a single season since 1985.

The bright spot for the Magicians (0-6 overall, 0-2 West Region) was Gunville, who entered Friday’s game with just 43 yards on 20 carries. He ripped off five runs of 10-plus yards and provided both of the Magi’s touchdowns on a night where Legacy’s defense shut down the passing game. Gunville scored his first touchdown of the season with 8:02 remaining in the second quarter on a 6-yard run to cut Legacy’s lead to 7-6 after the Sabers blocked the ensuing extra point.

“Our O-line did some good things and Jalen found the holes,” Minot High coach Chauncy Hendershot said. “He ran hard and finished forward. It was his best game at running back.”

Gunville’s second trip to the end zone came in the opening minute of the fourth quarter on his final carry of the contest, which also happened to be his longest. Gunville scampered 14 yards through the Sabers defense to give Minot a fighting chance trailing 28-12 with 11:55 remaining in the game.

“We did a better job at the line of scrimmage,” Hendershot said. “We still shoot ourselves in the foot with some fundamental stuff, but at the line of scrimmage we did a better job.”

Jama and the rest of Legacy’s running attack proved to be too much. Jama provided Legacy’s first two touchdown runs, the first from seven yards and the second from 12 to give the Sabers a 14-6 lead with 4:52 left in the first half.

The Sabers (5-1, 2-0) only big play in the passing game came a few minutes later, when quarterback Brody Weigel zipped a ball to his favorite target, Jack Julson, across the middle of the field and Julson did the rest, running untouched 39 yards to the end zone. The Sabers took a 21-6 lead into halftime.

While Jama provided a hearty amount of the Sabers’ yardage on the ground, he was still only responsible for about half of the total output. The rest of the team accounted for approximately 200 more yards on the other 19 carries. Beckham Presley-McKay provided 72 yards on the ground on just five carries, with two of those touches going for touchdowns. His first carry of the game went for 28 yards and the second resulted in a 7-yard touchdown on Legacy’s first drive of the second half. Presley-McKay capped off Legacy’s big offensive night with 7:17 remaining on his final carry of the game, a 13-yard run to the end zone.

“They have a senior class that’s played a lot of football and a lot of them have been playing since they were sophomores,” Hendershot said. “We’ve gotten to know them. They work very hard and it’s a good program and when you play Legacy, it’s going to be a challenge.”

Sandwiched in between Presley-McKay’s pair of touchdowns was Jama’s third touchdown of the game and 12 on the season. Jama’s biggest runs of the night went for 35 and 50 yards. Weigel added close to 70 yards to the ground total on eight carries and Griffen Zins chipped in 36 more on two carries.

With the victory, the Sabers are off to their first 5-1 start in program history.

Minot was unable to find much production in the passing game. Sophomore quarterback Ryder Sutton completed 7 of 19 passes and tossed an interception in the fourth quarter. His longest completion was under 10 yards.

“It’s kind of the nature of the game,” Hendershot said. “It had to do with what they were giving us and where we saw opportunities, but we got ourselves in some situations and our execution was just a little off and it comes down to just playing clean football.”

Weigel completed 4 of 10 passes for 80 yards and a touchdown. He targeted Julson on all but two passes. One of his completions was a 33-yard connection to Bennet Lonn. Julson had two receptions for 47 yards and a touchdown.

Minot High continues its road tour of Bismarck when the Magicians go to Century on Friday, Oct. 10, for a 6:30 p.m. kickoff.