It was ready for South Dakota State in Grand Forks. It was ready for its first road test in Macomb.
It wasn't ready for the Fargodome.
No. 4 North Dakota State won its 32nd-straight home game thanks to Hunter Luepke's 190 rushing yards and three touchdowns as the Bison beat No. 2 UND 34-13 on Saturday afternoon in front of 9,121 at Gate City Bank Field at the Fargodome.
The Bison (4-1 in spring, 5-1 overall) have now won all three meetings with UND in the NCAA Division I era, with UND's last win in the rivalry coming in the final matchup of the Division II era in 2003.
"We have got to do a really good job of getting over this, just like we've got over our wins," UND coach Bubba Schweigert said. "We have to get over this game. Learn from it. Then get back to work. We're learning every week and have to try to keep improving our football team."
UND, which dropped to 4-1, ascended the national rankings thanks to a run defense giving up just more than 85 yards per game, but the Bison had no problem finding traction in the ground game with a fullback playing in his first game of the season.
The 6-foot-1, 245-pound sophomore carried 28 times to lead a Bison attack that rushed for 316 yards as a team.
"(Luepke's surprise workload) was tough to deal with, but I think we came out slow, and we knew they would run the ball, and they did a great job doing that today," UND linebacker Jaxson Turner said. "Regardless of who was at running back today, we needed to fill our gaps better. They played better than we did today."
Trailing 21-6 at halftime, UND looked to find its third-quarter magic, as the Fighting Hawks entered the game outscoring teams 59-10 in the third quarter. On its first drive of the second half, redshirt freshman quarterback Tommy Schuster hit true freshman wide receiver Bo Belquist for a 21-yard scoring strike to cut the lead to 21-13 with 12:01 left in the third quarter.
The Bison, though, countered with a deflating, 14-play, 75-yard drive, punctuated with a Luepke 5-yard score to push the lead back out to 28-13.
"We didn't plan for him," Schweigert said of Luepke, who hadn't dressed this spring yet due to an injury. "He's a good football player. We saw him warm up, but we didn't know how they'd use him. He was a big factor in the game. They ran him and worked him a lot."
The big question for the Bison leading up to the game was at quarterback, where NDSU coach Matt Entz didn't announce a starter pregame between Zeb Noland and Cam Miller.
NDSU played both quarterbacks, starting Noland, but the Bison didn't really need to throw the ball much. Noland was 5-for-13 passing for 127 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. Miller was 3-for-6 for 13 yards.
The biggest pass play of the day was Noland's 63-yard pass to Christian Watson down the sideline with 1:06 remaining in the second quarter.
"Playing great defense, being able to run the football and our special teams being able to win the field position," Entz said. "It has been our recipe and will continue to be our recipe for success here at NDSU."
The Bison set a tone to start and end the first half. NDSU scored on its first drive with a 55-yard Luepke run.
"We really never had momentum," Schweigert said. "The big play right before half was disappointing. We didn't go to the locker room down one score, knowing we'd get the ball (to start the second half). That was a big swing in the game."
Carrying most of the load for UND was Otis Weah, who ran 13 times for 129 yards -- including a 74-yard touchdown run to make it 7-6 in the first quarter.
UND's passing game couldn't find a groove. Schuster, who lost for the first time in his six-game career, was 13-for-26 passing for 143 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
He couldn't find a rhythm with wide receiver Garett Maag, who had one catch in eight targets for 20 yards.
UND was 1-for-10 on the third and 0-for-3 on fourth down.
The Hawks now travel to play at Youngstown State in Ohio at 11 a.m. next Saturday. The Penguins beat South Dakota 28-10 on Saturday, picking up the team's first win of the season.
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No. 4 North Dakota State's run game too much for No. 2 UND in 34-13 defeat - Grand Forks Herald
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