Bulldogs Secure A Big Win For Homecoming
On an unseasonably warm October day, with it hitting 80 degrees around kickoff, UMD got ready to have a lot of homecoming festivities culminating in the football game vs. Northern State. Both teams came into the game at the lower end of the D2Football Top 25 poll, the closest equivalent to the AP poll for D1 college football for UMD. UMD came into the matchup ranked #18, while Northern State was ranked #22. Overall, this was expected to be a decently even matchup between the 2 teams, but the game would prove otherwise.
The Bulldogs started strong, receiving the kickoff and putting together a solid drive that ended with a touchdown by WR Catcher Lagness, putting them up 7-0. The Bulldog defense stood tall on the next drive, forcing a punt from NSU. QB Jacob Eggert threw a 44-yard pass to Peyton Menzel that set up a rushing touchdown by Nathan Litke to put them up 14-0 after the first quarter. NSU proceeded to go 4-and-out once again, giving the Bulldogs the ball to end the first quarter and start the second.
The second quarter started with a fumble recovered by NSU, but the Bulldog defence forced 2 incompletions and a resulting punt to give UMD the ball back with 14 minutes remaining in the second quarter. The Bulldogs got off to a decent start moving the ball, but eventually stalled out and chose to take a FG, ultimately made by Drew Henson. NSU started off promising, but Jayce Walrath sacked NSU QB Ty Engelhart for 8 yards, and their offense couldn’t recover and had to punt once again. UMD once again marched down the field, with a lot of run plays trying to burn the clock, got another FG right before halftime to put the Bulldogs up 20-0.
Coming out of halftime, the third quarter was more of the same, with NSU being forced into a 4th-and-short and failing to convert on the first drive of the quarter. This gave the Bulldogs great field position that led into a very quick drive capped by a 34-yard connection between Jacob Eggert and Catcher Lagness to make it 27-0. Outside of that, the third quarter was much cleaner defensively, with both teams forcing turnovers and punts until the end of the quarter. Notably on defense, after the game, Jayce Walrath earned NSIC Defensive Player of the Week. This is the Bulldogs’ second Player of the Week selection, with the first being Drew Henson for his performance in the 9-6 win over Winona State.
The Bulldogs started off the fourth quarter strong with their first drive, this time set up by another long pass by Jacob Eggert that connected with Ryder Patterson to ultimately set up the final Bulldog touchdown of the day by TE/RB Francis O’Malley on a 9-yard rushing touchdown. Other than that, it was once again a defensive battle, with NSU forcing a fumble and their linebacker Jake Adams recovering it. The Bulldogs did force them to go four and out on that drive. This resulted in another consecutive series of punts until NSU scored a touchdown just after the final 2 minute warning. The final score ended up being 34-7.
Overall this was a great game to cap off the week of homecoming celebrations that lead up to it! I really enjoyed the whole week overall and it’s definitely fun to have those sorts of events from time to time. The Bulldogs now enter their bye week 5-2 and their next game at home is at noon on Halloween vs the University of Jamestown. Their next game overall is away at The University of Mary on October 24th.