CEDAR CITY, Utah — The Fighting Sioux football program had been waiting and waiting for a victory like the one the team left Eccles Stadium with on Saturday. The game, which felt much more like a raging roller coaster at times, was not over until redshirt freshman Daryl Brown (Plymouth, Minn.) came down with an interception in the end zone with 11 seconds left on the clock. And, the elation felt afterwards was worth the wait. 

Brown's game-saving pick secured the biggest win for No. 24 UND at the Football Championship Subdivision level, sending the Fighting Sioux (3-2, 1-0 GWC) to a 26-20 victory over No. 19/17 Southern Utah (3-2, 0-1 GWC) and an early lead in the Great West Conference standings. 

  

“Our guys just played their hearts out,” UND head coach Chris Mussman said. “We had some adversity – the fumble there (at the end) and things were not looking good, but I tell you what, I'm so proud of this group and our coaching staff. 

“I told them all week it was our time. It was our time to get one of these games. It was our time to take care of these (types of) games and we just showed that here against a darn good football team.”

The Sioux held on for the six-point victory over the defending GWC champions thanks to a stout run game and a defense that would not surrender even when its backs were up against the wall with one of the best quarterbacks in the FCS barreling his squad down the field for a potential game-winning touchdown drive in the closing minute. 

Brown and the Sioux defense came up with yet another big play in a contest that featured several by the unit throughout the gut-wrenching 60 minutes of action. His second interception of the season clinched the victory and sent the Sioux sideline and the more than 200 UND faithful who made the trip to the Beehive State into a frenzy. 

“The coaches told us the game play and we trusted it,” senior linebacker Dan Hendrickson (Minot, N.D.) said. “Everyone just tried to do their job and we came out on top and made a few more plays than they did.” 

Hendrickson led all players with a career high 13 tackles and he helped the UND defense prevent a pair of huge fourth-down conversion attempts by the Southern Utah offense. Classmate Justin Belotti (Kenosha, Wis.) added a career high eight stops to help a UND defense yield only 23 yards on the ground. The Sioux also sacked SUU quarterback Brad Sorensen three times in the second half to help stave off the home-team rally.

“That was probably the most fun I've had in a win and probably the biggest win I think we've had since I've been here,” Hendrickson added. 

The Sioux jumped out to a 16-0 lead and, offensively, rode the legs of sophomore running back Jake Miller (Bismarck, N.D.) for the third consecutive game. He churned out 161 yards and two touchdowns, including one in the fourth quarter that provided the final margin of victory. Miller toted the rock 32 times, including 14 efforts for 63 yards in the final quarter.

 “We just got back to that smash-mouth football that North Dakota has been doing forever,” junior offensive guard Emmett Lynch (Winstead, Minn.) said. “We finally got back to it and just proved it (to ourselves) today. We went up against a team that was supposed to beat us and we won.”

A wild first half saw the Fighting Sioux take a 16-6 advantage into the locker room. The visitors took advantage of a pair of bad snaps by the SUU special teams and turned those miscues into nine points, while senior Dominique Hawkins (Plymouth, Minn.) came up with one of those big fourth-down stops as he stuffed a SUU run with under a minute to play in the half on a fourth-and-1 from the 12-yard line. 

The Sioux got on the board thanks to a safety that came after a 63-yard punt by junior Brett Cameron (Winnipeg, Manitoba) pinned the Thunderbirds deep in their own territory. After a three-and-out, SUU punter Tate Lewis had the snap go off his hands and through the back of the endzone for the first two points of the game.

Miller, who is the two-time reigning GWC Offensive Player of the Week, found the endzone for the third straight game with a 34-yard run in the opening quarter to extend UND's lead to 9-0. 

“I can't give enough credit to the offensive line. You cannot run the football unless someone is blocking for you,” Miller said. “All the credit goes to them and we got the job done. It's a great feeling.”  

After another SUU punt, sophomore Joey Bradley (Issaquah, Wash.) found classmate Greg Hardin (Bellevue, Neb.) for a 26-yard scoring strike on the next drive late in the first quarter that put UND ahead by 16 points. Bradley finished 10-of-22 for 92 yards, while his counterpart, Sorensen, completed a school record 38 passes (54 attempts) for 354 yards.

Sorensen and the high-powered aerial attack came out firing in the third quarter as they cut the deficit to just 16-13 with a 10-yard scoring pass to Daryl Brown midway through the stanza. After the teams traded non-scoring drives, the Sioux took advantage of another poor play by Tate, whose 13-yard punt gave UND prime field position on the SUU 20-yard line. 

But, after a sack and two incompletions, sophomore Zeb Miller (Ankeny, Iowa) was forced to boom a 45-yard field goal through the uprights to make it a 19-13 contest. The Sioux defense held again and Bradley and company engineered a nine-play, 60-yard drive that saw Miller find paydirt again. This time, Miller's score came from three yards out and his eighth touchdown of the campaign put the Sioux ahead 26-13 with 12:23 on the clock.  

The T-Birds would not go away without a fight thanks to the only turnover of the day by the Sioux offense. Miller scampered towards the sidelines during what had a chance to be a potential game-ending, clock-grinding drive, but as he went to dive in order to stay in bounds, the ball was somehow jarred loose, creating the turnover for SUU. 

Six plays later Sorensen found Abbel Aiono with 4:34 on the clock for his third scoring strke of the game and once again bring the home team within a touchdown at 26-20.  

Miller would rack up a pair of first downs on the ensuing drive to eat up most of the time remaining, but after a failed third-down attempt, Sorensen was left with 44 seconds to try to finish off an improbable comeback.  He nearly did, driving his squad down to the UND 19-yard line, but Brown jumped in front of Jared Ursua in the front corner of the end zone to finish off the T-birds.

“It's our biggest win with me as the head coach, that's for sure because we did three things today,” Mussman said. “We won on the road. We have not won on the road in seven or eight games, so I don't have to hear that anymore. We won a conference game for the first time in five tries, six tries, whatever it might be. 

“And, we beat a nationally-ranked team on the road. So, it was a big win for us. But, it was our time. I told the guys that at the beginning of the week Tuesday when we met as a team. It's our time to take a win like this, to make sure we go out and win a football game instead of giving one away or getting moral victories, whatever, win a football game and that's what our kids did a great job of doing today.”

The Fighting Sioux will return home on Saturday to face Montana Western at 1 p.m.

GAME NOTES

Game captains were seniors Catlin Solum, Dan Hendrickson, Mitch Goertz and Broc Bellmore … The road win was the first for the Sioux since defeating Central Arkansas in the 2009 season finale (eight-game span) … It was also the first time UND opened Great West Conference play with a victory in four tries since joining the league in 2008 … It was also the first win over an FCS ranked opponent on the road … The safety in the opening quarter was the first for the Sioux since registering two in a 27-20 victory over Northwestern State in 2009 (Sept. 19) … Sophomore Greg Hardin hauled in the 11th career touchdown reception of his career in the first quarter … Sophomore Jake Miller posted his third straight 100-yard rushing game (162 yards), third straight multiple touchdown game and carried the ball a career high 32 times … Miller has eight rushing touchdowns of the season – seven have come in the last three games … Senior Dan Hendrickson registered a career high 13 tackles and classmate Justin Belotti added a career high eight stops.

– Go Sioux –