Beavers navigate sea of turnovers, get back on course with win at Wayne State
Oct. 14—WAYNE, Neb. — There wasn't very much that was traditional about the Bemidji State football team's affair on Saturday.
Facing Wayne State on the road after a bye week, BSU turned the ball over twice in the second half, giving Wayne State two excellent opportunities to get back into the game. But both times, the Wildcats did not score on the ensuing drive.
Coupled with a 63-yard pick-six by Caleb Young, the Beavers ultimately made turnovers work for them, surviving some late-game wildness to defeat WSC 33-23 and get back on track after a tough loss to
"I was just happy the freaking clock hit zero, to be honest with you," said head coach Brent Bolte. "It felt like an eternity there in the last six minutes of the game. But we deserve it. I thought we were the better team. We played pretty well for the most part, and we got that sour taste out of our mouth from last week."
Up 14-9 in the third quarter, Bemidji State (5-1) rediscovered its passing attack after being held scoreless in the second quarter. After running for a fourth-and-1 conversion in minus territory, Brandon Alt hit Dhel Duncan-Busby on a deep ball for a 50-yard touchdown to put the Beavers up by double digits.
Later in the frame, Alt's 49-yard catch-and-run completion to Drayton Lehman set BSU up on Wayne State's doorstep. Ali Mohamed punched in a 1-yard run to give Bemidji State a 27-9 advantage.
But the Wildcats (5-2) had never lost at home in head coach Logan Masters' two-season tenure, and they didn't make it easy for the Beavers. WSC finished off a 14-play drive with quarterback Nick Bohn's 1-yard sneak, cutting the deficit to 27-16 early in the fourth quarter.
Two drives later, Wayne State was threatening on the BSU 40-yard line, but Young's interception return restored some much-needed breathing room.
"If they're going to throw the ball 60 times, you're going to give up (a lot of) yards through the air," Bolte said. "You've just got to minimize the run. We did a good job of that, making them one-dimensional and finding some ways to make some big plays, like the interception for a touchdown. We deflected some balls and we got a couple of turnovers, which were big parts of the game."
The contest still wasn't over, though. On the next play from scrimmage, Bohn found Ashten Schmaderer streaking through the middle on a slant for a 75-yard touchdown. On Bemidji State's next drive, Alt was pressured and floated a ball into traffic for an interception that set the Wildcats up at the Beavers' 39-yard-line. Two plays later, WSC was at BSU's 3.
That's where the Gang Green Defense earned its moniker. In four plays, Wayne State gained one total yard and turned the ball over on downs, essentially sealing the outcome.
"We've got a really good defensive line," Bolte said. "It was hard to get to the quarterback. They max protected and stuff, (but we) were getting close and got some good hits on him throughout the course of the day, which sped him up. But any time that you can get a momentum swing like fourth-and-1, especially on the goal line, that's pretty remarkable. They did a great job. We practiced a lot of stuff, had two weeks to prepare for everything. So I felt like we were ready to go and made some good plays down there."
Bemidji State 33, Wayne State 23
BSU 14 0 13 6 — 33
WSC 3 3 3 14 — 23
First quarter — BSU TD, Booker 35-yard catch from Alt (Jovisic PAT), 7-0 BSU; BSU TD, Duncan-Busby 1-yard catch from Alt (Jovisic PAT), 14-0 BSU; WSC FG, Hensley 36-yard kick, 14-3 BSU.
Second quarter — WSC FG, Hensley 27-yard kick, 14-6 BSU.
Third quarter — WSC FG, Hensley 24-yard kick, 14-9 BSU; BSU TD, Duncan-Busby 50-yard catch from Alt (Jovisic PAT no good), 20-9 BSU; BSU TD, Mohamed 1-yard run (Jovisic PAT), 27-9 BSU.
Fourth quarter — WSC TD, Bohn 1-yard run (Hensley PAT), 27-16 BSU; BSU TD, Young 63-yard interception return (Jovisic PAT no good), 33-16 BSU; WSC TD, Schmaderer 75-yard catch from Bohn (Hensley PAT), 33-23 BSU.
