The UND football team had the tough task this weekend of flying into Cheney, Wash., to face the No. 6/7 ranked Eastern Washington Eagles.

UND would proceed to get beaten down 54-3.

“This is unacceptable what took place today,” UND coach Bubba Schweigert said. “I know they are a good football team, but we just have to compete better and play better against a team like this.”

Believe it or not, the team showed hope for a strong showing during the first quarter.

The Green and White’s defense came out ready to go in the beginning, only allowing the Eagles to score once.

At 7-0 going into the second quarter, UND had done a nice job against one of the best FCS schools in the country.

But in the second quarter, the floodgates opened.

It started innocently enough, with the Eagles scoring off a field goal to make the game 10-0, but then not two minutes later, Eastern Washington scored a 37 yard touchdown from quarterback Jordan West.

Eastern Washington ran in a touchdown, intercepted UND quarterback Keaton Studsrud for a score and passed for one more.

When the bloodbath of the second quarter was over, the Green and White were staring at an insurmountable score of 38-3, with two quarters to play.

“We just lost confidence,” UND linebacker Dayo Idowu said. “We let the scoreboard affect us. Coach Schweigert preaches every day, the scoreboard does not dictate how we play and guys let the scoreboard affect how we were competing and playing.”

For the rest of the game, Eastern Washington could have coasted in for the victory, but instead, the Eagles scored another 16 points to finish off the rout, 54-3.

“Eastern Washington is a good offensive football team,” Schweigert said. “They have a lot of explosive players and a lot of players that can make plays. As a defense, you have to go downhill and you cannot play on your heels and that was an issue for us today.”

The offensive woes continued for the Green and White on Saturday. With injuries to both Joe Mollberg and Ryan Bartels, UND was forced to start third-stringer Keaton Studsrud.

The freshman had a rough day, going 5 of 19 for 37 yards and three interceptions, two of which came in the second quarter.

“Offensively, we just could not get anything going there in the second quarter to keep our defense off the field,” Coach Schweigert said.

Amidst all the bad that happened on Saturday, was one bright spot.

UND runningback Jer Garman had another productive day in the starting rushing spot. The senior rushed for 92 yards on 18 carries (5.1 yards per carry).

This marks the second weekend in a row that Garman has been a light for a UND offense that cannot seem to get anything going.

While things look relatively bleak now for the New Era of UND football, there is nothing like a little home cooking.

The Green and White come home for the next two weekends, facing off against the next two Big Sky opponents, last place Weber State and third place Northern Arizona.

“These are going to be huge games for us, to get back on track in front of our home crowd,” Idowu said. “We need everyone to come out and support us, and we need to pick each other up.”

Alex Stadnik is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected].