#9/10 UND football to host Northern Iowa for a conference battle

GRAND FORKS, ND (KVRR) – The #9/10 UND Fighting Hawks football (4-2) program are taking on Northern Iowa (2-4) this Saturday for a Missouri Valley Football Conference battle. North Dakota is coming off a bye-week looking to get back into the win column.

“As you look at Northern Iowa this team has always been really tough and physical. What you think of when you think of of the Missouri Valley Football Conference.” said UND Head Coach Bubba Schweigert.

UND used the open week to get some players healthy and get some of the younger guys reps in practice. They will take on a UNI Panthers team that has had some ups and downs this season. They have two running backs in Tye Edwards (6.1 yards per carry) and Amauri Pesek-Hickson (5.3 yards per carry) that have been very efficient for this program when running the ball.

“Both guys are really capable of running downhill and running hard.” said Coach Schweigert.

It will be up to UND’s front seven to help control the tempo of the game. While UNI can get their running game going, they’ve also had struggles in the passing attack. North Dakota will look to make it a one-dimensional game for the Panthers and shutdown the rush.

“Our biggest thing right now is we make sure we stop the run early and limit any kind of explosive runs they have early on,” said UND defensive lineman, Elijah Beach (Gr.). “Just being able to tee off on their passing offense would be good for us and we have a lot of guys that can attack in that form.”

This conference battle is set for Saturday at 1 p.m. as UND takes on the Panthers at the Alerus Center in Grand Forks.