Mayville State quarterback Matthew Donovan is fighting for his life in a Fargo ICU after surgeons removed portions of his skull to relieve dangerous brain pressure caused by a head-on-head collision during a game against Simpson University.
Donovan went down in the third quarter. The hit, a head-on-head collision, left him with a bleed on the brain severe enough to require a life-flight to Fargo, where a neurosurgeon operated for just over two hours. Surgeons removed portions of his skull to release the pressure building inside.
The team's Sunday night statement put the stakes in plain terms: normal brain pressure in an average person sits at about four. Donovan's was "many times more than that." He remains in a medically induced coma in the intensive care unit, which the team described as offering "some of the best medical care in the midwest."
By the morning after surgery, Donovan's eyes reacted to light in a normal manner. That single response prompted the neurosurgeon to call the overnight stretch "a win," the team's statement said.
"He is still in a medically induced coma and is fighting like crazy," the statement read.
"Your prayers are working and encouraged at this time."
No prognosis or expected recovery timeline has been made public. The hospital where Donovan is being treated has not been identified by name.
With their quarterback airlifted off the field, the Mayville State Comets played through the rest of the game and edged Simpson University 42, 41. Head coach Rocky Larson was overcome with emotion afterward.
Larson told KVRR Fox after the game:
"For our kids to bounce back and find a way to win that football game is why you do what you do."
He framed the moment as something larger than a scoreboard.
"Stuff is going to get hard in your life and we talk all the time about growing boys into men and I watched a lot of boys turn into men today... it felt insurmountable and our kids didn't quit."
A GoFundMe page set up to help Donovan's family cover medical costs has raised more than $54,000. Emergency brain surgery, an ICU stay of unknown length, and whatever rehabilitation follows will carry a price tag that dwarfs most families' resources. The fundraiser's total continues to climb.
Fans and supporters have flooded the page and social media with messages. "Prayers to him and the whole Comet family as they navigate this truly terrifying time," one commenter wrote.
Details remain thin. The exact date of the game, the venue where it was played, and whether any review of the collision itself is underway have not been disclosed publicly. Donovan's condition beyond the single positive sign, his eyes reacting to light, is unknown.
What is known is that a young man suited up for a college football game, took a hit in the third quarter, and hours later lay in a medically induced coma with pieces of his skull removed. His teammates finished the game for him. Now his family needs help paying the bills, and thousands of strangers are stepping up. That is community doing what institutions and insurance too often do not.
