Bulldogs Win 37th Straight NSIC Contest

Oct 6, 2012

Northland Sports Online

Talk about spreading the wealth. Six different players scored touchdowns and the University of Minnesota Duluth scored another Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference home victory — its 37th in a row, with a 45-14 thumping of Minnesota State University-Moorhead Saturday. The No. 10 Bulldogs reeled off the game’s final 24 points while improving to 5-1 overall and downing the winless Dragons (0-6) for the 11th consecutive time.

UMD took a 28-14 lead into the half after getting rushing touchdowns from freshman running back Logan Lauters (36 yards), sophomore running back Brian Lucas (four yards), and junior running back Jeron Johnson (three yards) and a 28-yard scoring strike from senior quarterback Chase Vogler to sophomore wide out Zach Zweifel. Junior running backs Chaz Thomas and Steve Ierulli sandwiched second-half touchdown runs around rookie Andrew Brees’s 36-yard field to complete the Hall of Fame Game triumph in UMD’s final night outing of the 2012 regular season.

“I don’t think we did a great job executing in the first half,” said Thomas, who rushed nine times for 44 yards in addition to hitting pay dirt for the first time during his injury-plagued UMD career. “But then we made some nice improvements after the break and our defense kept them off the scoreboard.”

That defense ceded just 90 yards of total offense after the halftime break and, for the second straight week, recorded a season-best four sacks — including a pair by sophomore defensive end Jacob Brusehaver. Junior inside linebacker Colby Ring was credited with a team-high 10 total tackles while freshman linebacker Nathan Zibolski and sophomore nose tackle Buma Foncham each had six stops.

Vogler, who is 41-5 as a collegiate starter, completed 15 of 24 passes for 213 yards, but was held to a season-low one touchdown toss and did get picked off once. Rookie Justin Fowlkes was his prime target, catching five passes for 81 yards in addition to parlaying three kick returns into another 95 yards.

“That was certainly not by best performance, mentally or physically,” said Vogler. “I made some mistakes that I could have — and should have — avoided. One thing I need to get better at is throwing the ball in the cold because these are the kind of conditions we are going to be playing in from here on in.”

The four-time defending NSIC champion Bulldogs will be in Minot, N.D. next Saturday afternoon for a first-ever meeting with league newcomer Minot State University.

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