UND crawls back from a 0-14 deficit against Bowling Green, but ultimately falls 26-27

The Fighting Hawks lost in another heartbreaker this week falling to the BGSU Falcons, 26-27.

After losing last weekend to Stony Brook on a blocked punt, the Hawks looked to take on the lone FBS team on their schedule. Last year, they defeated Wyoming, but this year, a win against a school from the higher division was not in the books.

Following last week’s performance, UND’s offense started the game on an offbeat. They recorded a three-and-out on their first drive again this week and sputtered on their first few drives.

The Hawks’ defense forced a three-and-out against the Falcon’s offense on their first possession. The next drive, BGSU’s high-powered offense was able to get a quick strike touchdown on their first play of the possession. Scott Miller caught a 71-yard touchdown pass

The game started to look bleak for UND after BGSU scored another touchdown on their next drive to make the score 0-14.

The Hawks came alive in the second quarter as UND Kicker, Reid Taubenheim, hit a 36-yard field goal. Deion Harris then promptly intercepted a pass on BGSU’s ensuing drive and brought it back to the house to erase all but four points of the Falcon 14-point lead making the score 10-14.

“I wasn’t expecting this game to be so close. But a win is a win,” BGSU sophomore wide receiver Scott Miller said. “I think that moment when we went up 14-0 we thought we had it in the bag and we were going to blow (North Dakota) out, and then it shows to how resilient they were.”

Once again, the Falcons would strike quickly. After getting the ball back with under two minutes on the half remaining, Miller would haul in another long pass, this time for a 51-yard touchdown to make the score 10-21 going into the half.

After a down opening week, Santiago was back to his old form. After a 32-yard scamper on the first drive, Santiago was able to finish the drive himself with a 21-yard touchdown run bringing the score to 17-21. Santiago would finish the game with 122 yards and a touchdown.

The Hawks got the ball back on the next Falcon drive after Tyus Carter recorded his first career interception setting up Taubenheim for a 44-yard field goal. This brought UND within one point of a victory at 20-21.

BGSU drove down the field once again. Miller hauled in his third touchdown of the game to extend the Falcon lead, but BGSU missed the extra point. This made the score 20-27 nearing the end of the third quarter.

The defenses held each other scoreless for much of the fourth quarter. In the final minutes of the game, Keaton Studsrud led the Hawks down the field to score a touch down on a three-yard pass to Stetson Carr with 13 seconds remaining. UND went for two points, and failed as Carr was not able to haul the pass in. The final score was 26-27.

“We had a chance to win it there at the end. I felt like we had the momentum and it was the right call to make at the time,” UND head coach Bubba Schweigert said. “We just have to make a play there.”

While some fans may look at the missed two-point conversion as what lost the game, Studsrud didn’t think that was the lone reason for the loss.

“Stuff like that happens in football,” Studsrud said. “We had a lot of other opportunities that we could have capitalized on earlier in the game that probably wouldn’t have put us in that position.”

UND returns to North Dakota for their home opener and the 51st Annual Potato Bowl. They will take on rival South Dakota University. This is the first meeting since 2011 when UND defeated USD in a thriller 38-37. Kick off at the Alerus Center, saturday, September 17th at 4 p.m.

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