UND quarterback Keaton Studsrud dives into the end zone for the Green and White’s only score against NDSU on Saturday. Photo by Nick Nelson/ The Dakota Student

Saturday started off with a lot of promise for UND’s fan base. The Green and White faithful flocked to the Fargodome excited to see the rekindling of the famed UND-NDSU rivalry.

“It’s all about the in-state rivalry. It’s the passion, it’s the excitement, it’s anger, happiness, sadness, it’s the butted heads,” UND fan Daniel Hansen said. “I love the confrontation and the local competition. The whole town gets buzzing, I mean people talk about it and prepare for it and talk about it weeks after, it’s just a good time.”

Unfortunately though for UND fans, the good times would end at the pregame festivities. After a competitive start, NDSU showed why they are one of the best teams in the FCS, trampling UND 34-9.

Contrary to the final score, the first quarter was a closely matched affair.

The UND defense came out firing against the Bison’s high-powered offense. Dayo Idowu got things going with a monster sack on Carson Wentz and forced NDSU off the field.

After a huge return by Josh Seibel on the punt return, Keaton Studsrud and the offense had prime field position to make an impact early on. The Bison’s defense locked down as they would the rest of the day and held the visiting team to a field goal.

That’s right. UND led in this game 3-0.

From there though, it was all North Dakota State for the rest of the game.

Carson Wentz commenced surgically dismantling the UND passing defense. It did not matter what down or distance it was as the NDSU quarterback always seemed to find the open man.

“I think with Carson at quarterback, you will see him on Sundays one day. I mean, he just read our defense, he knew what to do and there is not much you can do against a quarterback like that,” UND free safety Cole Reyes said. “You don’t see him every Saturday. I think he led the team well and they fed off him.”

NDSU would go onto a halftime lead of 24-3, with Wentz throwing for three effortless touchdowns and the Bison defense holding UND to five total yards of offense and zero first downs.

“We were battling but we needed to get in the end zone and we needed to find a way to get first downs and try to keep our defense off the field a little bit.” UND coach Bubba Schweigert said. “It was a real issue in the first half, and we couldn’t get anything going offensively. They are just good on defense.”

The second half would get a bit better, but NDSU continued its roll over UND.

Keaton Studsrud found the end zone with his legs after special teams recovered a muffed punt by the Bison but would miss the two-point conversion.

When the final the whistle blew, NDSU had shown that it was the best football program in the state.

Now let’s put this game in perspective. NDSU has been the best football team in the FCS for the last five years and just because it lost its first game of the season to Montana does not change that.

UND, on the other hand has been going through rebuilding years and did some good things against the superior Bison. NDSU has been averaging 216.3 yards a game this season and the Green and White held them to 115 on the game, and while they were bailed out by the referees, UND’s special teams had another solid game.

“I thought our guys fought and kept fighting when things could have gotten away from us after that second quarter,” Schweigert said. “That is something you want to see from your team. Each week is a new week and we can learn from this as we start thinking about UC Davis and our Big Sky opener.”

UND is taking a 2-1 record into the home game against a struggling, 0-3 UC Davis team that has been rocked in each of its three games. As much as the loss to NDSU stings, UND players know that it is time to move on.

“None of us are happy, we just lost the game,” UND linebacker Will Ratelle said. “But we’re 2-1 right now, and I don’t think we’ve been 2-1 since I have been here, so we’ve come a long way but we still have a lot to get better at.”

The Green and White will look to rebound from the loss next Saturday against UC Davis at home in the Alerus Center at 1:00 P.M.

Alex Stadnik is the sports editor for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected]