Bulldogs Shut Down Bemidji State In Homecoming Win

Oct 20, 2012

Northland Sports Online

It’s been quite some time — 71 years to be exact — since Bemidji State University last won a football game in Duluth. The University of Minnesota Duluth added another notch to that lengthy drought Saturday by blanking the Beavers 30-0 in front of a Homecoming game crowd of 5,948, — the second largest gathering in James S. Malosky Stadium history.

The seventh ranked Bulldogs inflicted all of the offensive damage it needed in the opening two quarters of play, using three touchdown passes from senior quarterback Chase Vogler and a two-yard run by Brian Lucas to carry a 28-0 lead into the halftime break. Vogler connected on scoring strikes of 64 (to rookie wide out Justin Fowlkes) and four yards (to senior tight end Ben Helmer) in the first quarter and then hooked up with sophomore wide out Zach Zweifel on a nine-yard touchdown toss with 9:06 left before the half. He concluded the day with 216 passing yards while connecting on 18 of 26 passes, but was picked off a season-high two times. UMD capped off the scoring on the opening play of the second half when with when an errant Beaver snap sailed into end zone.

UMD, which has now won 19 straight home games over the Beavers, held Bemidji State to 182 yards of total offense (a 2012 season low for the Bulldogs), including just 30 yards on the ground. Because of relentless defensive pressure, Bemidji State quarterback Lance Rongstad managed to connect on just 12 of 39 passes, threw three interceptions and was sacked twice. Sophomore nose tackle Buma Foncham enjoyed his most productive outing to date as a Bulldog, tying for team honors in tackles with five in addition to registering an interception, a sack, a fumble recovery and one pass breakup.

“We just decided to play team defense today,” said Foncham, who had one of UMD’s season-high seven quarterback hurries. ” Everybody took care of what they needed to do, and everybody did their job. It turned out to be a great day.”

Saturday’s victory extended UMD’s NSIC home winning streak to 38 games, a run which stretches back to the 2000 season, and hiked the Bulldogs 2012 record to 7-1. UMD will engage in its final road assignment of the regular season next Saturday against the University of Minnesota Crookston.

Comments can be sent to sports@northlandsportsonline.com