The No. 25 University of Minnesota Duluth football team fell just short of comeback against No. 16 Bemidiji State University Saturday afternoon after the Beavers held on to a 38-31 win at James S. Malosky Stadium.
The highly anticipated Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference game was every bit as good as advertised, billing two of the league's best offenses and defenses against each other for the first time this season.
"We have to hand it to Bemidji, they played a good game and we couldn't get off the field on third down in the first half and just got too far behind," said UMD head coach Curt Wiese. "I thought we had an opportunity there in the fourth and ended up giving it up, so it's a tough loss."
For the first time this season, the Bulldogs found themselves trailing by two touchdowns in the first quarter. BSU struck with a receiving TD at 10:17 and then a 30-yard rush to take a 14-0 lead at 5:51 of the first frame. But the Bulldogs responded with a single second left in the quarter, a eight yard pass from redshirt sophomore quarterback Kyle Walljasper to redshirt senior Sam Pitz to cut the deficit in half. Pitz's touchdown was his eighth of the season, and it doubled as Walljasper's 16th passing TD.
At 8:06 of the second quarter, UMD pulled within three points on a Curtis Cox 27 yard field goal, his eighth of the season, to make it a 10-7 contest. The Beavers responded with two touchdowns just over five minutes apart to close out the half and stretch their lead to 28-10.
After being outscored in the first half, the Bulldogs flipped the scoring in their favor in the second, putting a total of 21 points up while they held BSU to 10. After the Beavers hit a 21 yard field goal at 9:13 of the third quarter, a mere minute later, UMD scored its first of three TDs in the half.
The first was a 78 yard touchdown pass from Walljasper to DaShaun Ames right up the middle of a wide open secondary that made it a 31-17 contest at 8:13. BSU answered with a 74 yard run by Sage Booker at the 3:24 mark of the third, a TD run that eventually helped the Beavers stave off a late offensive onslaught from Walljasper and the Bulldogs.
Walljasper pounded in back-to-back rushing touchdowns from a yard out at 13:43 and 9:29 of the final quarter to put the Bulldogs back within just a single score of BSU, but UMD's offense was finally forced to punt late in the frame. The Beaver offense took the ball back over with 3:56 left in regulation and never relinquished the possession, holding off any final attempt by the Bulldogs to pull even.
The game featured two of the best quarterbacks in the conference, and both players under center delivered. Walljasper was responsible for four total TDs – two in the air and two on the ground, and threw for 135 yards and ran for 131, while Ames posted a career-best 86 receiving yards along with his touchdown, his second of the season and first out of the air. Super senior BSU QB Brandon Alt threw for 271 yards and two touchdown passes, and got 120 yards of rushing and one TD from Booker.
BSU had 483 yards of total offense on 66 plays, while the Bulldogs recorded 355 total yards of offense on 54 plays. UMD ws perfect in the red zone at 4-for-4, while the Beavers went 4-of-5.
On the other side of the ball, fifth-year senior defensive back Marcus Glodowski led both sides with 10 tackles, while Ty'Rhae Gibson registered the second most tackles in the game for either team with eight.
The Bulldogs will play hosts one more time this regular season next Saturday when Concordia University, St. Paul visits Malosky Stadium for Senior Day. Kickoff is scheduled for 12:00 p.m.
BULLDOG NOTES: Kyle Walljasper's 78 yard TD connection to DaShaun Ames was the longest passing touchdown so far of the season … Logan Kobus averaged an impressive 40.4 yards in five punts Saturday despite wind and 30 degree temperatures … Kobus' longest punt was 54 yards … Walljasper has now recorded four or more touchdowns five times this season, and now has 17 passing TDs to pair with 15 rushing touchdowns for a total of 32 TDs this season … the last UMD QB to turn in 30 or more touchdowns in a season was Drew Bauer, who was responsible for 36 in 2016.
