FARGO, N.D. (NDSU Athletics)- No. 2 seed North Dakota State overcame a slow start to score 31 unanswered points and beat No. 15 Abilene Christian 51-31 in the second round of the NCAA Division I Football Championship on Saturday, Dec. 7, at Gate City Bank Field at the Fargodome.
North Dakota State (11-2) advanced to the FCS quarterfinals for the 15th straight season and will host No. 7 seed Mercer (11-2) next weekend. The Bears, champions of the Southern Conference, beat Rhode Island 17-10 in the second round.
NDSU fell behind 17-3 before Jackson Williams provided a spark with a 100-yard kickoff return touchdown. Griffin Crosa kicked his second of three field goals, and RaJa Nelson caught a 6-yard touchdown pass from Cam Miller to put the Bison ahead 20-17 before halftime.
Miller connected on two more TD passes in the third quarter, a 30-yard strike to TK Marshall down the right sideline and a 36-yarder over the top of the Wildcat defense to Bryce Lance, who outran two defenders to the end zone.
NDSU forced three turnovers, including a 31-yard interception return touchdown by linebacker Logan Kopp, who also had two pass breakups and five tackles including a sack fumble for 12 yards and a 16-yard return on the fumble recovery. Linebacker Marcus Gulley had his first interception as a Bison.
Linebacker Enock Sibomana made a game-high 10 tackles for NDSU, linebacker Nick Kubitz had six stops, and defensive tackle Eli Mostaert made five tackles with two tackles for loss and one sack.
Miller finished 20 of 29 passing for 274 yards with three touchdowns and one interception, and he also rushed for one score. Miller broke Brock Jensen’s NDSU career passing completions record and also passed Jensen for second on the Bison career list for passing touchdowns now with 74.
Lance led eight Bison receivers with five catches for 70 yards, Nelson made five catches for 26 yards, and Braylon Henderson had three receptions for 67 yards including a diving 32-yard snag to spark NDSU’s go-ahead touchdown drive.
Crosa converted field goals from 21, 37 and 24 yards to pass Shawn Bibeau for second all time at NDSU with 53 career field goals made. Crosa also converted six PAT kicks to extend his career total to 264, breaking Cam Pedersen’s NDSU, Missouri Valley Football Conference and NCAA FCS record of 261.
The crowd of 10,373 was the second smallest for a fall NDSU home playoff game.
Game Recap: Football |
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