UMD Wins 10th Straight

NSO – NEWS RELEASE

Drew Bauer and the rest of the University of Minnesota Duluth senior class weren’t about to call it a career Saturday afternoon.

Down 27-14 at halftime and facing possible elimination from the NCAA Division II postseason, the No. 17 Bulldogs responded with a dominating final two quarters and came away with a 48-34 road triumph over St. Cloud State University. The win all but sealed a berth in the 28-team NCAA II Championship for UMD, which closed out the regular season at 10-1 and riding a 10-game winning streak. The NCAA II playoff pairings will be announced tomorrow at 4 p.m. (CT) on ncaa.com.

The afternoon got off to an auspicious start for the Bulldogs as St. Cloud State Nate Meyer hooked up with John Pass on a 72-yard scoring strike on the first play from scrimmage. Meyer extended the Huskies lead to 14-0 with another touchdown pass three minutes later, but UMD senior running back Darren Walker answered with a nine-yard scoring run in the second quarter only to see Nick Greenlund take the ensuing kickoff 86 yards to the house.  The two long-time intrastate rivals traded touchdowns (with Bauer running in from 10 yards out for UMD’s score) in the final eight minutes of the half.

The energized Bulldogs came out of the intermission break and proceeded to score the only 13 points of the third quarter, getting rushing touchdowns from both Bauer (seven yards) and starting junior offensive guard and part time fullback Nolan Folkert (one yard), to draw even. St. Cloud State used another big play — a 65-yard touchdown run — to regain the lead early in the fourth quarter before Bauer threw two touchdowns a minute apart to seal the UMD victory. The second of those scores, a 33-yarder to junior wide out Nate Ricci, came one play after his teammate, junior safety Sam Lynch picked off his team-leading third pass of the season.

On the day, Bauer passed for 388 yards — the fourth highest-single game total in program history — and three touchdowns while completing 27 of 40 passes (both career-bests). He also led both teams with 95 yards on the ground (and three touchdowns) on 20 carries which gave him 483 yards of total offense. That also ranks fourth on UMD’s all-time single-game charts. His favorite target was Ricci, who set a personal highs for both receptions (10) and receiving yards (159). It also put him over the 1,000-yardage mark for the season (1,006 yards), something only three Bulldogs had done previously.

UMD rolled up 581 overall yards on a season-high 96 plays (two shy of the school record) while limiting the Huskies (5-6 overall) to 287 yards and 11 first downs. Senior cornerback Tavaughn Blair paced the Bulldogs with six tackles while junior outside linebacker Zach Bassuener had five stops, including all three of UMD’s quarterback sacks. In addition to the Lynch interception, UMD also recorded eight pass break ups.

This marked the 12th straight year the Bulldogs have won their regular season finale.