Bison Turn Back Youngstown State 24-3 in Harvest Bowl

Saturday, November 5

Fargo, N.D.

2:30 p.m.

North Dakota State Athletics

8-1 , 5-1

Youngstown State

6-3 , 4-2

Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final F
Youngstown State	0	3	0	0	3
North Dakota State	17	0	0	7	24

Photo by: Tyler Ingham

Bison Turn Back Youngstown State 24-3 in Harvest Bowl

11/5/2016 6:20:00 PM | Football

Box Score

FARGO, N.D. - Fourth-ranked North Dakota State turned two first quarter turnovers into points and went on to a 24-3 victory over 13th-ranked Youngstown State in the annual Harvest Bowl game Saturday, Nov. 5, at Gate City Bank Field at the Fargodome.

North Dakota State improved to 8-1 overall and maintained a share of first place in the Missouri Valley Football Conference with a 5-1 record. Youngstown State dipped to 6-3 overall and 4-2 in the conference.

NDSU senior captain Chase Morlock rushed for a career-high 101 yards in the game, including a 71-yard touchdown burst on NDSU's second possession that gave the Bison a 7-0 lead. It was NDSU's longest play of the season.

"We had been lacking that," said NDSU head coach Chris Klieman. "Chase found a crack and he's got better speed than a lot of people think. He took it the distance and that was a big jump-start for us in the first quarter."

Four plays later, Brad Ambrosius had a strip sack that was recovered by MJ Stumpf at the YSU 25, and the Bison got a 36-yard field goal from Cam Pedersen to make it a 10-0 game.

Robbie Grimsley's fourth interception of the year gave NDSU the ball three plays later at the YSU 15, and the Bison found the end zone on the very next play when tight end Jeff Illies caught his fourth touchdown pass of the season for a 17-0 lead.

Zak Kennedy kicked a 32-yard field goal for YSU in the second quarter. The Penguins had chances later in the game, but missed two field goal attempts and failed to convert after a first-and-goal inside the NDSU 1.

"If people are kicking field goals I think you're going to win a lot of games," Klieman said. "You have to be able to hold people out. The crowd played a factor with them having some false starts that they probably wouldn't typically have."

NDSU rushed for 240 yards, the most allowed this year by YSU's defense that was holding opponents to 102.9 yards per game and had surrendered only one rushing TD all season. The Bison scored twice on the ground with Lance Dunn's seven-yard TD early in the fourth quarter making it 24-3.

Jaylaan Wimbush had a career-high 10 tackles, Matt Plank added 10 tackles and Tre Dempsey had nine stops for NDSU. The Bison tallied four sacks by Greg Menard, Brad Ambrosius, Aaron Steidl and Derrek Tuszka, and there were nine tackles for loss altogether.

North Dakota State, now 23-0 when wearing its gold jerseys and 4-0 in the green Harvest Helmet, returns home to face Indiana State on Saturday, Nov. 12. The Sycamores are 4-6 overall and 2-5 in the conference after a 39-6 home loss to Northern Iowa.