UMD Falls to Mustangs

NSO – NEWS RELEASE

The University of Minnesota Duluth opened its 2015 football season the same way it closed out the previous one — with a road loss to Minnesota State University-Mankato after being substantially outscored the second half. Thursday night, the top-ranked Mavericks took its first and only lead of the game with 7:21 to go in the fourth quarter and held on to upend the No. 3 Bulldogs 20-17 in a rematch of last December’s NCAA Division II playoff quarterfinal.

UMD, which was riding a 19-game regular season winning streak (dating back to a 21-17 loss to Minnesota State on Sept. 21, 2013) and had reeled off 15 consecutive season-opening victories (since falling 35-17 to the same Mavericks in 1999), took a 17-3 lead into halftime on a touchdown run (two yards) and pass (11 yards to senior Justin Fowlkes) by junior quarterback Drew Bauer. Those two scores were sandwiched around senior Andrew Brees‘ 41-yard field goal and put the Bulldogs up 17-0. With less than two minutes to go before the intermission, Brees’ punt was returned 46 yards to the UMD 33 and six plays later, Alden Haffar connected from 22 yards out to get Minnesota State on the board.

On the third play from scrimmage of the second half,  Minnesota State-Mankato quarterback Nick Pieruccini and Ty Dennis hooked up on a 72-yard scoring strike to cut the deficit to 20-10 before Haffar added another field goal (26 yards) later that quarter. The Mavericks’ game-clinching touchdown drive midway through the fourth quarter was aided by a 51-yard punt return and capped off with a seven-yard scamper by Pieruccini.

UMD had one last chance to pull out a late victory over its fellow defending Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference co-champions when senior Darian Fletcher recover a Maverick fumble in the Bulldog end zone with 1:37 to go in the fourth quarter, but four straight incompletions by Bauer squashed those hopes.

“We knew the game was going to come down to execution and we didn’t execute,” said Bulldog head coach Curt Wiese. “In all three phases we gave up a big play at some point and flipped the momentum of the game —  and we lost.”

UMD rolled up 213 yards of total offense in the first half but was held to just 44 yards in the final 30 minutes. Minnesota State-Mankato, meanwhile, finished with 380 overall yards, 238 of which was generated after halftime. Senior cornerback Darion Fletcher had arguably his most productive night as a collegian, registering nine total tackles (all solos), intercepting one pass (in the Bulldog end zone early in the second quarter), breaking up a career-high four passes and recovering one fumble.

“That’s as hard as I’ve ever seen Darian play,” said Wiese. “I don’t know how many balls he had his hands on but he had a phenomenal game. Mankato continued to go at him and Darian continued to make plays.”

Bauer, making his 28th consecutive start, completed 10 of 22 passes for 131 yards, but was picked off twice and sacked three times. He also rushed  17 times for a team-high 64 yards while senior All-American running back Logan Lauters finished with 60 yards on 16 carries.

The Bulldogs will make their 2015 home debut next Saturday against Wayne State College in their annual Military Appreciation Night game.

“We’ve got a lot of season left,” said Wiese. “Right now we’ve got to turn the page, let this one digest and learn from it. As a coaching staff we can get better as well. We made some mistakes on the sideline tonight that we can’t have happen. We didn’t put our kids in the best position and I’ll take responsibility for that. Those are things as a staff we need to clean up as a team.”

aq