College Football: Bulldogs top Northern State, run NSIC winning streak to 27

ABERDEEN, S.D. -- For its 27th straight conference win, Minnesota Duluth put up an unfashionable 27 points.

The Bulldogs scored a season-low in points, but still managed to defeat Northern State 27-7 on today at Clark Swisher Field in a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference game.

"I think Northern is a vastly improved football team," Minnesota Duluth coach Bob Nielson said. "I think (NSU) coach (Tom) Dosch and his staff did a great job. I thought their kids played very hard."

UMD has now won 27 straight NSIC games overall and 19 in a row on the road, both school records. UMD, which is ranked No. 2 in the latest American Football Coaches Association poll, came in averaging the most points per game in Division II (49.5) and had scored 35 or more points in each game this season, including a 62-point outburst earlier in the season against Upper Iowa. The Bulldogs did not have that kind of offensive explosion on a windy and drizzly afternoon in Aberdeen.

"You have a lot of adversity just with the weather out here," said UMD running back Brad Foss, referring to a steady rain for most of the game. "It was definitely really difficult to hold onto the football, but for the most part, us only scoring 27 points is a little bit of a step back from what we have been doing."

Foss scored the first points of the game. After the teams exchanged three-and-outs to start the game, UMD took over on its own 34-yard line after an NSU punt. Chase Vogler connected with D.J. Winfield for a 48-yard completion to the Wolves' 18-yard line. Two plays later, Foss scored on a 14-yard touchdown run with 10 minutes, 36 seconds left in the first quarter. The point-after-attempt was blocked by NSU's Lincoln Smith.

UMD was threatening to score another touchdown in the first quarter when the Bulldogs were deep into NSU's territory, but Adam Carvajal forced a Foss fumble -- one of four UMD fumbles the Wolves fell on. But they could not capitalize on them.

The Wolves also had trouble keeping the ball. NSU quarterback Joei Fiegler threw two interceptions and lost a fumble.

"Obviously Duluth is a good football team," Dosch said. "Nobody can question that. We threw a couple (interceptions) to them and we had three turnovers (total). That is hard to do against a good team and expect to win the game."

After an interception, Vogler scored six plays later on a quarterback sneak from 1-yard out, and the Bulldogs went ahead 13-0 with 8:09 before halftime. The big play of the drive was Foss busting loose for a 44-yard run.

"On defense we had to limit their big plays," Dosch said. "We were not able to do that. Part of that is certainly a credit to them. They have some good personnel. They do a good job up front running the football, and the other thing is us missing tackles and not being in the right position at times."

UMD made it 20-0 in the third quarter following an eight-play, 84-yard drive capped by a Brian Hanson 8-yard TD run. The Bulldogs scored again on a Winfield 39-yard pass reception from Jon Lynch to put them up 27-0 with seven minutes left in the game.

The score came just one play after NSU quarterback Joei Fiegler fumbled while scrambling.

"Today we lost position of the football three times and gave them too many big plays in their play-action, boot pass," Dosch said. "And those are things we identified that we had to stop and we weren't able to do it. That makes it frustrating when is your effort is good. I felt we really played hard. Our kids really lined up and competed. We went toe-to-toe and competed with a good physical football team, but then you have to execute and finish plays, and we weren't able to do that."

Fiegler connected with Trevor Mau for a 15-yard touchdown reception with 3:10 left in the game for the Wolves' lone score.

Minnesota Duluth 6-7-7-7--27

Northern State 0-0-0-7--7

First Quarter

UMD -- Brad Foss 14 run (kick blocked), 10:36

Second Quarter

UMD -- Chase Vogler 1 run (David Nadeau kick), 8:09

Third Quarter

UMD -- Brian Hanson 8 run (Nadeau kick), 6:24

Fourth Quarter

UMD -- D.J. Winfield 39 pass from Jon Lynch (Nadeau kick), 7:00

NS -- Trevor Mau 15 pass from Joei Fiegler (Thomas Parrott kick), 3:10

UMD NS

First downs 23 13

Rushes-yards 55-431 23-24

Passing yards 163 196

Comp-Att-Int 8-15-0 15-34-2

Kickoffs-yards 5-263 2-115

Punts-yards 4-144 8-298

Fumbles-lost 5-4 5-1

Penalties-yards 7-86 2-10

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- UMD, Brad Foss 23-165, Nate Bauer 3-65, Chase Vogler 10-77, D.J. Winfield 4-62. Northern State, Matt Anderson 14-39, John Michael Migdal 2-6, Joei Fiegler 7-16.

PASSING -- UMD, Vogler 7-14-0 124, Jon Lynch 1-1-0 39. Northern State, Fiegler 15-34-2 196.

RECEIVING -- UMD, Winfield 3-112, Collin Stinogel 2-17, Noah Pauley 1-12. Northern State, Trevor Mau 6-74, Migdal 3-44, Trent DesLauiers 3-36, Anderson 2-26.