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DULUTH, Minn. — Minnesota-Duluth started its defense of the NCAA Division II football championship with a 42-7 rout of the University of Nebraska at Kearney Saturday at Joe Maloskty Stadium in Duluth.
“We played our best football game of the year,” Minnesota-Duluth coach Bob Nielson said. “We knew we were going to hav to play our best game and I’m really pleased with the way we executed both offensively and defensively. We beat a good football team today.”
Minnesota-Duluth (11-1), riding a 10-game winning streak, advances to play Grand Valley State in the Super Region 3 final. The Lakers avenged their only loss by beating Hillsdale on Saturday.
For UNK (11-2), the loss snaps an 11-game winning streak, the longest single-season streak in school history.
The Bulldogs won on both sides of the ball. Running backs Isaac Odim and Brad Foss eclipsed the 100-yard mark and the defense controlled the Lopers’ offense -- at least what little time UNK had on offesne.
In the first half, UNK ran 19 plays, had negative yards passing and threw two interceptions.
“Obviously, we’re disappointed with the loss. We didn’t play very well, we don’t think,” UNK coach Darrell Morris said. “We came here to win a ballgame and we weren’t successful in doing that.”
A fumbled pitch that was recovered stalled UNK’s first possession, and the time the Lopers had the ball, Duluth’s Brandon Wood intercepted a Jake Spitlberger pass and returned it to the Kearney 13-yard line, setting up a 3-yard touchdown run by Odim, one of three touchdowns scored in the game by the Harlon Hill Award finalist.
“Turnovers like that and plays like that early in the football game are extremely important and we talked about that in pregame that we needed to make some big defensive plays like that,” Nielson said.
While UNK struggled early, the Bulldogs found their game right away. And it wasn’t what everyone expected. A run- oriented team, Duluth passed on the first five plays of the game, completing all five, which were quick out patterns, swing passes or wide-receiver screens.
“We used our passing game to set up the run,” Nielson said. “A lot of those plays, (freshman quarterback Chase Vogler) checked us into because we had a guy uncovered … and because they had a lot of people in the box.”
The passes opened up the running lanes, Nielson said.
Odim, who gained 102 yards on 17 carries, scored on a 6-yard run to cap the first drive and added a 20-yard touchdown run to open the third quarter. Foss, who gained 103 yards on 18 carries, scored on a 9-yard run at the end of the third quarter.
“Every little mistake we made, they made us pay for it,” said UNK safety Pat Ackerman, who finished with 10 tackles.
One big mistake came when the Lopers threw an incomplete pass on a fake punt in the second quarter that gave UMD the ball at the Loper 32. Morris said the fake punt was the result of miscommunication — “it wasn’t supposed to be a fake punt” — between the coaches and punter Brennan Johnson.
Vogler scored on a 9-yard run to take advantage of that mistake. Then before halftime, threw a 32-yard touchdown pass to D.J. Winfield on fourth-and 10.
The Bulldogs were 2 of 3 on fourth-down conversions.
“We wanted to be aggressive and we wanted to keep the ball away from them,” Nielsen said.
Consider that mission accomplished.
The Bulldogs finished the game with more than 40 minutes in time of possession. Duluth ran 72 plays to Kearney’s 42 and finished with 428 yards of total offense to the Lopers’ 158.
“We struggled to get some momentum going. We’d make a couple plays, then something would happen,” Morris said. “This is a momentum sport, an up-and-down kind of thing. We struggled to get momentum going and they had quite a bit going. Once that tide turns on you, it’s kind of difficult.
UNK avoided the shutout when sophomore tailback Rustin Dring scored on a 36-yard run,. Dring ran for 89 yards on 16 carries.
UMD (11-1)...............14 14 14 0—42
UNK (11-2).................0 0 0 7—7
UMD: Isaac Odim 6 run (Dave Nadeau kick)
UMD: Odim 3 run (Nadeau kick)
UMD: Chase Vogler 9 run (Nadeau kick)
UMD: D.J. Winfield 32 pass from Vogler (Nadeau kick)
UMD: Odim 20 run (Nadeau kick)
UMD: Brad Foss 9 run (Nadeau kick)
UNK: Rustin Dring 36 run (Jordan Alegria kick)
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