After suffering a heartbreaking loss one week ago, the University of Minnesota Duluth football team bounced back Saturday with a statement 43-7 road win over the University of Mary in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference action at MDU Resources Community Bowl in Bismarck, ND.
In a game where the Bulldogs never gave up the lead, UMD went into the half with a 14-0 lead and held the Marauders scoreless until the fourth quarter. The Bulldogs were clicking on both sides of the ball, and extended their all-time winning streak against UMary to 17 consecutive victories.
The Bulldog defense got off to a hot start with Cassius Rohadfox, Mac Strand, and Landon Carter all collecting sacks to force an early three-and-out from UMary. UMD would force the Marauders to punt on both of their first two drives of the game before breaking things open on offense. After driving down the field from their own 43 yard line, Kyle Walljasper would find an open Jimmy Durocher for a quick 2 yard receiving touchdown with four seconds left in the first quarter.
The UMD defense didn't slow down, and Jonathan Shrum came up with his first interception of the season to turn over the Marauder's opening drive of the second quarter Another punt set up the Bulldogs at the UMary 48-yard line, which was capped off with a 24-yard rushing touchdown from Walljasper to put UMD up 14-0 at the 6:48 mark before the half.
Both teams came out into the second half with scoreless drives before a 57-yard drive for the Bulldogs would end in a 15-yard receiving touchdown from Walljasper to redshirt freshman Ryder Patterson with 6:16 left in the frame. The fake extra point attempt would turn into a carry for Logan Kobus to convert the two point attempt and give UMD a 22-0 lead with six minutes left in the quarter. A huge 34-yard reception from Durocher from Walljasper would set up a 15-yard rushing touchdown from Alex Riley at 2:32, closing out another 50+ yard drive and putting UMD up 29-0. On the very next drive, Kenneth Stevenson collected the pick six and gave UMD a 36-0 lead with just 50 seconds remaining as it headed into the fourth.
The UMD offense kept their foot on the gas with substitutions in the final quarter, and increased the scoreline to 43-0 on a 30-yard receiving touchdown from Jacob Eggert to Tanner Schmidt at 9:07. The Bulldogs forced a turnover on downs on the following UMary drive, but would let up a fumble recovery touchdown in the final two minutes that allowed the Marauders their only score on the day and 43-7 final score.
UMD compiled 365 yards of total offense, while it held UMary to just 92. The Bulldogs had 181 rushing yards on the ground and 184 in the air, while the defensive side kept the Marauders to -8 rushing yards. Walljasper had a season-best 138 yards on the ground with one TD to pair with135 passing yards and two passing touchdowns. Walljasper's main target was again Ames, who had 49 yards on the day.
Andrew Klopp led the defense with five tackles, including a team-best three solo efforts and 1.5 sacks and 2.5 TFL for 18 yards. Stand added four tackles (three assists) and a sack. Three other players logged sacks, including Carter Landon (1.5), Cassius Rohadfox (1.5) and Matt Weerts (1.0).
The Bulldogs (2-1, 1-1) return home to Malosky Stadium next Sunday to host Southwest Minnesota State University, game time for the NSIC tilt is 12:00 p.m.
BULLDOG NOTES: UMD is now averaging 47.8 points against UMary in 17 all-time head-to-head showdowns … the 17 wins the Bulldogs have on Marauders stands as the program's fourth-all-time longest unbeaten streak and third-longest winning streak.
