The St. Cloud State University Huskies hosted one of the biggest conference games of the seson Thursday night.  The University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs and Huskies came into the game undefeated at 2-0.  UMD is known as one of the power houses of the NSIC, and the Huskies were looking to upset the #16 team in the nation.  Unfortunately for the Huskies, UMD had other plans in mind.

 

Duluth won the toss, but decided to defer giving St. Cloud the ball.  The Huskies first two plays of the game looked promising, but on the third play, Dwayne Lawhorn threw an interception to Tareq Abulebbeh, who was later ejected.  The two teams then traded three and out drives, but UMD would soon break the zeros on the scoreboard as Bryce Heim would run the ball in from the two-yard line.  The Bulldogs led 7-0 at the end of the first quarter.

 

Toward the end of the first quarter, UMD started a drive that would result in another seven points for the Bulldogs.  On this drive, Duluth went 59 yards in seven minutes.  The Huskies had the Bulldogs stopped multiple times on this drive, but Curt Wiese and the UMD staff went for it on fourth down twice converting both times.  Scoring on this drive, UMD star running back Wade Sullivan to make it 14-0 Bulldogs.

 

The Huskies looked to have had the Bulldogs stopped at third and long at about midfield.  The Huskies defense could not find astop as reigning NSIC Offensive Player of the Week, John Larson, lobbed up a ball to his favorite receiver, Jason Balts, to connect for a 48-yard touchdown. 

 

For the first time all night, the Huskies were able to spark some life into Husky Stadium on their second drive of the second quarter.  The Bulldogs defense had the Huskies on their own 25-yard line with a third and long, but the Huskies picked up the first down on a 42-yard rush by Gregory Lewis.  The referees had a big part in this drive going forward as there was a pass interference call and a personal foul to get the ball up to the 9-yard line.  Once the Huskies hit the red zone, Dwayne Lawhorn threw to Nathan Gizma for a touchdown. The Huskies were then down 21-7.

 

After the touchdown, the Huskies defense came out and stopped the UMD offense and forced a  punt.  It seemed the Huskies had all the momentum, but on the first play of the drive, Curtwan Evans had the ball knocked loose and UMD came out of the pile with the ball.  Two plays later, John Larson scampered in from the 9-yard line for a touchdown for the Bulldogs.  UMD’s kicker, Dan Branger, missed the extra point keeping the score at 27-7.

 

On the first play of Duluth’s next drive, Larson threw an interception brought in by Jack Horter. The Huskies would have the next three minutes to make something out of this Bulldog mistake. Two players for the Huskies jumped backing the Huskies up five yards where the Huskies were then held up for the next two plays. This forced the Huskies to bring out reigning NSIC Special Teams Player of the Week, Adam Stage for the 32 yard field goal attempt.  Stage put the ball through the uprights to make the score 27-10 going into halftime.

 

The Bulldogs started the second half with the ball. Quarterback John Larson showed his elusive skill of running the ball by scrambling around for two first downs, but the Huskies ended up stopping them around midfield.  On the punt, a Husky on the punt coverage team hit the punter after the punt was out giving the Bulldogs a first down.  This gave the Bulldogs a lot of momentum as the drive ended up with another 7 points on the board as Larson threw a 20-yard dot to Nate Ricci which made it 34-10 Duluth.

 

After the Huskies held the ball for four minutes, they ended up punting where Ricci almost got loose on the return. UMD controlled ball around midfield.  The Bulldogs took only two and a half minutes to put another seven on the board with the biggest play of the drive being a 32-yard pass from Larson to Ricci to put the ball in the red zone.  After they got the ball in the red zone, Wade Sullivan put the ball in the end zone for his second touchdown of the day.  The Bulldogs led 41-10 at the end of the third quarter.

 

The Huskies got the offense going right at the beginning of the fourth quarter as Lawhorn threw to Anthony Carver for a 38-yard pass to get SCSU into the Bulldogs half of the field.  The Huskies decided to go for it on fourth down on the 28-yard line and it ended up working out for them. Lawhorn threw to John Pass for 12 yards to get the ball inside the red zone.  Curtwan Evans ran the ball up the middle for a touchdown.  Stage completed the PAT to make the score 41-17.

 

The teams ended up trading possessions throughout the last ten minutes of the game.  The Huskies could not get anything going against this powerful UMD offense as they continually brought the ball down the field and scored.  There was not much that our defense could do to stop Larson and Co.  When the Huskies got the ball, they would make some progress, but ended up punting on the majority of drives.  The Huskies gained under 200 yards on offense.  This Duluth team is just straight up better than the Huskies.

 

FINAL SCORE

#16 University of Minnesota-Duluth 41

St. Cloud State University 17

 

What’s next for the Huskies?

 

Next week the Huskies will travel to Aberdeen, South Dakota, to face the Northern State Wolves.  The Wolves are currently 1-1 and play Minnesota State-Moorhead on Saturday afternoon.  This should be a good test for the Huskies, but they will have to watch out for the Northern State running back duo of Kelly and Maxwell.  They combine to average over 150 yards per game.  The Huskies will also have to watch out for the combo of Trautman throwing to Streit.  This connection has scored in each of their first two games and this duo averages around 80 yards per game through the air.