GRAND FORKS, N.D. - The 18th-ranked North Dakota football team saw its fourth-quarter rally fall short in a Homecoming tilt with Cal Poly as the visiting Mustangs held on for a 23-19 victory Saturday at the Alerus Center. It was Cal Poly's third interception of the contest on UND's final drive that secured the Great West Conference win for the Mustangs (4-3, 2-0 GWC), who defeated the Sioux (4-3, 1-1 GWC) in a close contest for the second straight season.
Junior linebacker Kennith Jackson came up with his first pick of the season in the final minute on a fourth-and-10 pass from senior Brent Goska (Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.). Jackson's pick squashed a frantic comeback attempt by the Sioux, who scored 13 unanswered points late in the contest to pull within four points.
Goska engineered the second-half rally in a reserve role as he thrived in his most extensive action of his season. He completed 13-for-24 passes for 206 yards and a touchdown in the contest that ended UND's three-game winning streak.
Goska brought the crowd to its feet on the potential game-winning touchdown drive with a 41-yard pass play to sophomore Greg Hardin (Bellevue, Neb.), but the drive stalled with three straight incompletions before Jackson's game-saving pick. Hardin finished with a career-high nine catches for 108 yards and went over the 1,000-yard receiving mark for his career in the game.
"(Brent) took advantage of his opportunity," UND head coach Chris Mussman said, "Now, he made a couple of plays where you want to strangle him ... but he is trying to do everything that he can for his team. Our guys rallied around him and that tells me a lot about what I thought early on in the year and that his biggest strength for us is leadership. Our guys respect him."
"One more play - we just needed to make one more play, but we could not (do that), but give (Brent) credit for getting us back into the football game."
After a 35-yard touchdown pass from Cal Poly quarterback Andre Broadous put the visitors ahead 23-6 just over five minutes into the second half, the UND defense stiffened and Goska led the Sioux on a trio of scoring drives that resulted in 13 points.
The lone touchdown in that sequence came on a 21-yard screen pass to Jake Miller (Bismarck, N.D.), who scored for the fifth straight game, early in the fourth quarter. It was the first receiving touchdown of Miller's career, who already has 12 ground scores on the season. He finished with 92 yards on the ground and career bests of three receptions for 57 yards.
The Sioux, who outgained the Mustangs 419-384 in the contest, moved the ball down the field again on their next drive, but had to settle for what was Zeb Miller's (Ankeny, Iowa) career best fourth field goal of the game. This one came from 30 yards out, making it a four-point game midway through the fourth quarter.
Those would be UND's final points as the home team's next two drives ended with a missed fourth-down conversion and Goska's only miscue of the game.
UND had its chances early, jumping out to 6-0 lead in the first quarter on a pair of field goal by Miller's, including a 48-yarder, but a missed opportunity to score more than three points following Cal Poly's only turnover of the game would come back to haunt the Sioux.
Cal Poly fullback Jake Romanelli fumbled on the Mustangs' first play from scrimmage as Devin Benjamin (Minneapolis, Minn.) was there to collect the loose ball. UND managed to move the ball down inside the one-yard line following a 26-yard completion from starting signal caller Joey Bradley (Issaquah, Wash.) to R.J. McGill (Phoenix, Ariz.), but the Cal Poly defense did not budge on an incompletion and two runs for no gain, forcing the Sioux into an 18-yard field goal attempt.
"It's frustrating when you get a turnover early and get the ball down to the half-yard line and cannot stick it in," Mussman said. "That really becomes the difference in the ball game at the end where we have to settle for a field goal. We had to settle for two field goals in the first half where we had good field position and opportunities to stick it in the end zone."
On Cal Poly's next possession, the UND defense provided a stand of its own, giving the ball back to the offense on Cal Poly's 49-yard line after stuffing a fourth-and-1 play. However, the offense could only muster three points again after moving it 18 yards to the Mustangs' 31-yard line.
The Mustangs scored the final 16 points, including 10 off of a pair of Bradley interceptions, of the half to build their 10-point lead at the break. The final three points came on the last play of the half after a 16-yard pass from Broadous to Willie Tucket set up a 43-yard field goal by James Langford as time expired.
"I thought we had a good plan going in both offensively and defensively, but we just could not overcome that deficit," Mussman said. "We might not be built for that - to come back from that big of a deficit."
Senior middle linebackers Dan Hendrickson (Minot, N.D.) and Mitch Goertz (Rothschild, Wis.) led the Sioux with 11 and 10 tackles, respectively, while Cal Poly safety Greg Francis had a game-high 12 stops and one of those first-half interceptions.
The Fighting Sioux take a break from conference play next weekend when they travel to future Big Sky foe Northern Colorado for a 1:35 p.m. CT kickoff.
GAME NOTES
Game captains were seniors Catlin Solum, Dan Hendrickson, Drew Daggett and Chris Anderson ... The Sioux dropped their Homecoming game for the second straight season ... UND is now 61-28-4 all-time in Homecoming tilts ... Sophomore Greg Hardin surpassed the 1,000-yard receiving mark for his career with a 12-yard reception in the first quarter ... Hardin finished with a career-high nine receptions for 108 yards ... It was Hardin's fourth 100-yard receiving game of his career ... Classmate R.J. McGill hauled in four passes for a career-high 89 yards ... Sophomore Zeb Miller boomed through all four of his field goal attempts, establishing a new career high in that category ... Miller is now a perfect 10-for-10 on field goals this season ... Sophomore Damon Andrews (West Concord, Minn.) finished with a career high nine tackles ... Sophomore Jake Miller caught his first career touchdown on a 21-yard pass in the fourth quarter ... He leads the GWC with 13 touchdowns this season.
