FARGO, N.D. – No. 2-ranked North Dakota State held North Dakota to 61 yards of total offense and
Carson Wentz passed for 262 yards and four touchdowns to guide the Bison to a 34-9 victory Saturday, Sept. 19.
A crowd of 19,044 was on hand at Gate City Bank Field at the Fargodome for the 111th meeting between the longtime rivals, who hadn't played since 2003 when both teams were Division II members. It was the fourth largest home crowd in NDSU history.
The teams traded field goals in the first quarter before Wentz connected with
Darrius Shepherd for 18 yards,
RJ Urzendowski from 14 yards and
Chase Morlock on a 22-yard scoring play all in the second quarter to give the Bison a 24-3 lead by halftime.
Wentz completed 18 of 27 passes and
King Frazier led the ground game for North Dakota State (2-1) with 14 carries for 80 yards. Shepherd caught six passes for 76 yards and Urzendowski finished with five catches for 88 yards and two touchdowns.
North Dakota (2-1) didn't manage a first down until late in the third quarter and finished with three first downs in the game. Quarterback Keaton Studsrud was 6 of 17 for 57 yards and Brady Oliveira ran six times for 16 yards to lead UND.
UND's four rushing yards was the fewest by an NDSU opponent since 2013 when the Bison contained Zach Zenner and South Dakota State for minus-32 in Brookings. The 61 total yards allowed was the fewest allowed by NDSU since at least 1990 (as far back as complete records are available).
MJ Stumpf led the Bison with six tackles,
Pierre Gee-Tucker and
Greg Menard had five apiece.
Jordan Champion,
Aaron Steidl,
Stanley Jones and
Brian Schaetz each had sacks and the Bison totaled eight tackles for loss.
UND scored its only touchdown in the third quarter after NDSU fumbled a punt at its own 35. Keaton Studsrud connected with Josh Seibel on a 28-yard pass for the first UND first down and Studsrud ran in from the 1 on third-and-goal.
Will Ratelle made 11 tackles and Cole Reyes had 10 to lead the UND defense, which also totaled four sacks and eight tackles for loss.
North Dakota State is off next week before opening Missouri Valley Football Conference play Saturday, Oct. 3, at South Dakota State.
