Football advances to 4-1 for the first time since 2008

The popular perception at UND is that it is all about hockey and that all the other sports are just background noise.

Those people have not been watching their football team this year.

In year two of head coach Bubba Schweigert’s return to UND, his team has matured and improved in almost every way, a sentiment echoed by Saturday’s result.

The Green and White walked into Portland, Ore. as the underdog against No. 16 Portland State.

What resulted was a thrilling defensive bout in which the Green and White ran over the Portland State’s defenders and upset the undefeated Vikings 19-17.

“That was a gutty win right there,” UND coach Bubba Schweigert said. “We overcame a lot of adversity and some of it was self-inflicted, but our guys responded and found a way to get a big road win here against a really physical football team.”

Some would have written off UND before the game even started but anyone who has been following the team this year knew that this was actually going to be a great way to measure where the Green and White stood in the Big Sky Conference.

Both teams are very similar in that they pride themselves on running the ball and playing hard-nosed defense. But for at least one game, UND showed that they could do both better than the home team.

The game did not start out great for UND as PSU jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead on their first possession. From there though, the Green and White settled in and started to do what it does best.

While the offense had trouble finding the endzone to finish drives, quarterback Keaton Studsrud and the rest of the offense did enough to let kicker Reid Taubenheim get in position to put points on the board.

At half, Portland State led 10-6 even though UND was running all over the Vikings.

UND would take the lead for the first time in the second half after another Taubenheim field goal and an impressive Studsrud touchdown run for 32 yards, putting the Green and White up 16-10.

Portland State would not go away though as the Vikings responded with a touchdown to put them up one at the end of the third quarter.

Taubenheim would give the Green and White a 19-17 lead with his fourth field goal of the day.

After the defense did their job on PSU’s last drive, the offense would be called on yet again to run the clock out and finish the game.

In what would be the play of the season on a crucial third down, Studsrud would use a fake to Santiago that fooled almost every PSU defender and even the camera man as the quarter rushed for the first down and more, icing the game.

John Santiago continued to show maturity beyond his years running the ball. The true freshman strong-armed Portland State’s defenders all afternoon and finished with 111 yards for an average of five yards a carry.

Keaton Studsrud would also get in on the rushing, as the sophomore also ran for 107 yards on 6.7 yards per carry and the only UND touchdown of the game.

Defensively, UND continued to impress as the Green and White held PSU to 97 yards rushing and only allowed the Vikings to pass for 150 total yards.

With this upset, UND moves to 4-1 for the first time since 2008. The Green and White look to continue proving people wrong this Saturday as they welcome the lowly Idaho State Bengals for homecoming at the Alerus Center at 1 p.m.

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