After a difficult loss in its Big Sky opener against Montana State last weekend, North Dakota picked up a narrow 28-26 win against Idaho State to claim its first conference win of the season and send the Bengals home disappointed during their homecoming game.

UND improved to 2-3 on the season (1-1 in conference play) while notching its first Big Sky road win in two years.

“We’re excited for the win,” UND coach Chris Mussman said. “I’m happy for the guys. Defensively, we created some turnovers and that was nice to see. That side was on the field a lot in the second half and stepped up and made big plays.

North Dakota’s offense was slow to start the contest as the first quarter ended without a score. UND’s only scoring opportunity was shot down after kicker Zeb Miller missed a 28-yard field goal.

Of North Dakota’s four touchdowns in the game, one was a forced fumble returned by Dayo Idowu for the score, and the other came off of the special teams when Greg Hardin returned a kick-off for a 99-yard touchdown run.

“Offensively, we played well in the first half, but struggled stringing drives together in the second half,” Mussman said. “We also had 14 penalties and usually you don’t win games when you do that, but it was nice to be on the other side of it today.”

Despite UND’s offense taking a slow start, the defense came up with three big, second-half turnovers to keep the Bengals out of reach of the game, the biggest of those being Idowu’s touchdown off of a fumble return.

Idowu also had his first interception of his career in the third quarter and added two tackles for a loss in what turned out to be a huge performance for him.  Senior Dominique Bennett also had a big game for the defense, netting two sacks and finishing with seven tackles.

New records

Freshman Joe Mollberg assumed duties as the Green and White’s sole quarterback — a job he did not take lightly on Saturday afternoon. Mollberg completed 18 of 27 passes for 234 yards.

Saturday played witness to school history as senior receiver Greg Hardin hauled in eight passes for 126 yards to break the UND all-time receiving yards record. Hardin broke the record set by Weston Dresslor after he pulled in two passes for 46 yards on the opening drive. The feat came just a week after Hardin was held to no receptions for the first time in his collegiate career against Montana State.

Senior running back Jake Miller also had a career afternoon in Pocatello as he picked up 67 yards on 17 carries to catapult himself over the 2,000 rushing yard milestone. Miller also finished the contest with a rushing touchdown and now sits on 2,012 rushing yards in his career.

Following the win, the North Dakota football team will return home to Grand Forks next weekend for its own homecoming game against No. 6 Eastern Washington. Kick-off is scheduled for 2:35 p.m. Saturday in the Alerus Center.

David Butz is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at david.butz@my.und.edu