Studsrud and the rest of the offense looks to get back on track against UC Davis

There’s no place like home for the UND football team.

After a tough loss to rivals North Dakota State, the Green and White will look forward to getting back in the win column against the University of California-Davis Aggies.

“We know games are going to be close and going to be competitive,” senior linebacker Will Ratelle said. “So it got us ready for games that are competitive further down the road.”

UND currently sits at 2-1 while UC Davis is looking for its first victory of the season. The Aggies are continuing their struggles from the season before, sporting an 0-3 record after thorough defeats from Nevada, South Dakota and Hawaii.

Even though the Aggies have struggled, their record does not accurately show how good UC Davis is on offense. They have been showing signs of potential, averaging just over 20 points a game, compared to UND, which is averaging just 18 points a game.

Luckily for the Green and White, the best offense is a good defense, which gives UND a large advantage, holding opponents to an average of 21 points per game while UC Davis has let the floodgates open, letting opponents score 35 points a game.

Last week UND was handed its first loss of the season by NDSU. The final score was 34-9, but the score of the game only scratches the surface of the matchup.

This was the first matchup in more than a decade between the two teams. The main difference between the two storied rivals was the second quarter when NDSU tacked on 21 unanswered points. After an ugly second quarter and third quarter, the Green and White defense played a bit better, holding the Bison to zero points in the fourth quarter.

While the defense had some high points, the offense had its worst game of the season, only gaining 61 total yards and three first downs.

“Our offense struggled last week but they’ll pick it up,” Ratelle said. “Defense didn’t do so hot either we got to pick our game up too.

For UC Davis, it found itself in a good position to win last week. Visiting the University of Hawaii, the Aggies were down 13-10 at the half looking for their first victory. It wasn’t until Hawaii went off, winning by a score of 47-27 over the Aggies.

There’s no place like home for UND. After winning its only home game against Drake, UND will look to continue its wellplayed football at home.

“That’ll be good for us for sure,” Ratelle said. “We won our first game here so hopefully we can continue to have some good environments for our games at home, too.”

Ratelle mentioned how much of an advantage having a home field advantage in saying, “We’ve played in some good environments out in Wyoming and against NDSU.”

UC Davis will be on the road for the third time this season being outscored 78-34 when in hostile territory.

It will be a hard fought effort Saturday when the two teams look for redemption at 1 in the Alerus Center.

Jack Harvey is a sports writer for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected]