Bison defense stifles the Lumberjacks
With the Bison offense not firing on all cylinders, the pressure was squarely on the defense. When the final horn sounded, there was no doubt they could handle it.
Stephen F. Austin State University was unable to score a touchdown against the stingy Bison defense and North Dakota State picked up their second consecutive road win, this time by the score of 17-9.
“ It was a challenging win because we were playing a team that I think had their backs against the wall,” Bison head coach Craig Bohl said. “They had good players and we knew that. They’re young and athletic and anytime you go on the road and pick up a win that’s good.”
Stephen F. Austin (0-5) rushed for more yards in this game than the other three Bison opponents combined this season. The problem for the Lumberjacks was the fact that they still only rushed for 71 yards.
The Bison (4-0) running game got off to an unusually slow start as Kyle Steffes had six carries for -1 yards through the first three drives.
In the second quarter, freshman Pete Blincoe stepped up and gained 20 yards on three carries to jumpstart the first touchdown drive.
“ He added a new dimension,” Bohl said. “It’s always good to have another back in there.”
Steffes was able to get back on track in the second half and finished with 24 carries and 100 yards, his 15th career 100-yard game.
The big momentum swing came at the end of the second quarter for the Bison in the second consecutive week. The Bison offense came on the field with just under one minute to play. After a Kyle Steffes 4-yard run, the Lumberjacks called a timeout with 27 seconds left with the ball at the Bison 28 instead of allowing the clock to run out on the first half.
Three plays later, the Bison were in the end zone after a 14-yard Steffes run and long completions to Kole Heckendorf for 34 yards and Jeremiah Wurzbacher for the 24-yard touchdown.
“ Turnabout’s fair play,” Bohl said. “We felt once we popped the pretty good sized run that we were in scoring zone mode so we heated it up and got one in the end zone.”
The Bison were unable to score in the second half but they didn’t need to. The Lumberjacks picked up field goals in the third and fourth quarters but the NDSU defense was solid when it mattered the most.
Stephen F. Austin had the ball at the end of the game at the Bison 48 but quarterback Danny Southall threw three straight incompletes with the final Hail Mary attempt knocked out of bounds by safety Nick Schommer.
“ Coach knew they were going to have to air the ball out so we put two safeties over the top, played two-man coverage and depended on those safeties,” said defensive back Nate Agbetola, a Texas native.
Steve Walker, coming off last week’s record setting performance against Ball State, had a solid game on Saturday, going 20-24 for 217 yards and one touchdown.
“ They were giving us a lot of quick stuff on the outside so we took advantage of that,” Walker said.