NDSU Wins Battle In The Trenches Over UND

Bison snap Fighting Hawks 12-game home win streak

GRAND FORKS, N.D. — North Dakota State wins the battle in the trenches over North Dakota running the ball 47 times for 223 yards and holding them to just one score in the first quarter to win 16-10.

The Bison defense came in the clutch stopping the Fighting Hawks on fourth down twice including one on their own 20 and the second stop leading to the game clinching score by QB Quincy Patterson.

For NDSU,  that part of their game is something they take pride in while taking chances, that ending up not working, will make it hard for head coach Bubba Schweigert to sleep thinking about it.

“Coach Braun and his staff do a tremendous job and it’s one of these situations. Money down,” NDSU head coach Matt Entz said. “Fourth down that we need to be prepared for. Try to win every week. The interception was also a huge and critical play in the red zone for Dawson Weber.”

“It’s something as a defense that we take a whole lot of pride in. We practice,” linebacker Jackson Hankey said. “We emphasize getting off the field on third down. Getting off the field when we need to on fourth down. Getting the ball back to our offense and letting them go to work and watching them wear people out. When we execute that well, it feels pretty good.”

“They were probably the two biggest plays of the game. That just shows how important defense is,” safety Michael Tutsie said. “At any given moment you have to be on the field and stay on the field and get the offense off it and did our job doing that.”

“It was very huge. We pride ourselves in those fourth down stops and fourth down situations to buckle down,” safety Dawson Weber said. “We know our defensive line will get pushes up front and everyone just finished from there.”

“We practice all week knowing who we are at that we can put up points. Even though we only had nine going up until that last touchdown, we knew that anything was possible at that point,” quarterback Quincy Patterson said. “Our job was just showing that will and we scored.”

“Get the first down. Keep our offense on the field because we hadn’t moved the ball yet,” UND head coach Bubba Schweigert said. “Quincy Vaughn hadn’t been stopped yet this year and the next one, we get five yards so we just didn’t get it. I’ll second guess it. No doubt I’ll second guess it because it didn’t work. I just thought we could get it. 20 yard line regardless. Far ref had us getting it. The other ref said he had a better look. That’s the way the game is played. You have to live with it.”

“When I was out there running. I just tried to get to the edge and thought I couldn’t so I cut up to try and get the two yards,” receiver Bo Belquist said. “I thought I got it but it came down to the official’s hand and said I didn’t so it’s just the way it went.”

NDSU snaps UND’s 12-game home win streak here at the Alerus Center and now takes an undefeated 4-0 record back to the FargoDome next Saturday while UND heads on the road to take on South Dakota.