Oct. 17—GRAND FORKS — It didn’t look good all week.
The UND football team went to Northern Iowa last Saturday and turned the ball over five times in a disappointing loss.
To add to the angst, the Fighting Hawks were looking at a brutal stretch: No. 1 South Dakota State, No. 9 South Dakota and No. 6 Youngstown State.
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If that wasn’t enough, UND didn’t know who would start at quarterback.
Pressure? What pressure?
UND rebounded Saturday behind the return of quarterback Jerry Kaminski and edge Lance Rucker and took down the Jackrabbits — the favorite to win the FCS national championship — 21-10 at the Alerus Center.
UND’s win over the No. 1-ranked team in the country was the first against a No. 1 team in the FCS poll.
“The message our staff has had since we got here was to hunt,” UND head coach Eric Schmidt said. “We’ve been hunting people. I thought the last month we were almost getting hunted. We were counter-punching too much. It felt like we were playing like there was pressure.
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“This week, I was like, hey, it wasn’t as much fun this last month, even when we won games. I don’t think they got the enjoyment out of the wins. I said I want to see a passion and a joy of just going out there and competing. You have nothing to lose.”
After consecutive weeks of brutal starts, UND turned the tables on SDSU. The Hawks took a 21-0 lead with just under four minutes left in the first half.
Kaminski, who finished last Saturday’s loss at UNI on crutches and a protective boot, connected with Cam Weir on a 35-yard touchdown pass late in the first quarter.
Charles Langama busted off a 49-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter and Deng Deng finished the flurry with a 12-yard touchdown catch with 3:54 remaining in the first half.
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“I wouldn’t say there was any pressure or negativity … I just felt like there was an urgency that you wanted to lock in and do our jobs,” said UND linebacker Mike Devereaux, who had 2.0 tackles for loss and a sack. “I think it showed that’s what it took, and I’m glad we came out with the win.”
A key sequence for the UND defense came late in the half. Langama fumbled on the first play of the drive with a little more than two minutes left in the second quarter at UND’s 34.
The UND defense, though, limited the Jacks to a field goal as Tristan Alvano connected on a 30-yard attempt to make it 21-3 at halftime.
The Jacks started the second half with the ball and needed little time to score. The Jacks’ lone touchdown came on a James Basinger 63-yard run to cut the UND lead to 21-10 with 13:35 left in the third quarter.
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UND’s defense held strong from there. The Jacks finished with 326 yards of total offense, with starting quarterback Chase Mason ending 14-for-33 for 169 yards.
The Jacks’ final effort came with about three and a half minutes left in the fourth quarter. SDSU drove down to the UND 28, where on third-and-10, UND edge Braden Mohr was able to get Mason in his grasp to aid an incompletion.
On fourth down, the Jacks attempted a 45-yard field goal. This time, Alvano missed with 2:22 remaining.
UND was able to ice the win on offense from there, as Matt Lawson rattled off a 6-yard run on third-and-3 with less than two minutes to go.
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Lawson finished with 24 carries for 99 yards. Kaminski ended 10-for-16 for 116 yards and two touchdowns.
The Hawks limited SDSU’s talented ground game to 157 yards on 33 carries. Top back Josiah Johnson had 17 carries for 54 yards. Basinger had 11 carries for 101 yards.
UND’s defense was also playing without starting nickel Jonnie Wiltshire, who was denied a preliminary injunction days earlier in an attempt to take the NCAA to court to seek a fifth season of eligibility.
“I’ve been hard on everybody just because I feel like I knew that we needed our defense to be able to play better,” Schmidt said. “Our guys have been through the battles now, and they’ll keep going through the battles, and they’re starting to play more and more consistent.”
