Blue Hawks look to bring the heat on Mayville State at home

Sep. 1—DICKINSON — The Dickinson State University Blue Hawks were on the cusp of a win last week and were denied only by the slimmest of margins, so the football team is looking to get past their 20-19 road-loss to Rocky Mountain College with their home-opener Saturday, Sept. 2 at the Biesiot Activities Center at noon, local-time. The game was originally scheduled for an hour later, but projected high temperatures resulted in a slight time-change that could make the game more pleasant and conducive to the comfort of fans.

The game also comes on the heels of a full Labor Day Weekend of action on the gridiron, with Thursday's 26-6 win for Class AA Dickinson High School over Williston at the BAC kicking off the long weekend and that will be followed up by Class A, region 4 action from Trinity High School's game on Friday night at 6 p.m. versus Hazen. Trinity's coming into the game on a 2-0 hot streak and the Bison have been on the losing end of a pair of tough games, but DSU's Saturday game will be the capper for Dickinson football fans.

"Our guys played very hard in the game and did a lot of good things and — at the same time — we have a long ways to go," DSU head coach Pete Stanton said. "The emphasis this week has just been making those improvements, and quickly."

Last week's game against the Battlin' Bears wasn't just close on the scoreboard or the field, it was close in the box score itself, where the Blue Hawks and RMC had an equal number of first downs (22), were only 3% off in third-down efficiency (54% for DSU and 57% for RMC), only three offensive plays apart (62 for DSU and 65 for RMC), and total offensive yards came in only 21 yards apart with a slight lead for DSU at 356-335.

The Blue Hawks come into the game with a series advantage of 15-1 against Mayville State since 2007, and the Comets are coming off a 14-0 loss at Montana State last week that featured only 157 total yards of offense. That said, Stanton isn't taking anything for granted, despite last-year's game ending in a 58-7 extinguishing of the Comets in Mayville, ND.

"We just talk to our guys all the time about just worrying about us," Stanton said. "Obviously, you gameplan for Mayville and get yourself ready, but we really just have to focus on just getting ourselves better this week and focusing on that."

One other note is that there will be a full range of tailgating activity at the BAC — which is sponsored by the DSU Heritage Foundation — beginning at 9 a.m. in the BAC parking lot, and the first game of the North Star Athletic Association schedule for DSU should draw a significant crowd. The Dickinson Press staff will be on hand at the game for all the activities and will have a full writeup in tomorrow's E-edition for everybody to enjoy, including a full gallery and videos from the contest and festivities.

"No question we have a great support-base and a great fan-base and they're very supportive of the program and that's much appreciated ...," Stanton said. "It's definitely a different feel when we're at home and the gameday experience we have is really second-to-none."

The game also can be followed online for those who cannot attend at LIVE VIDEO: at youtube.com/channel/UCYlBD-gsWcp9eYmqXvLlimg and through LIVE STATS: at dsubluehawks.com/sports/fball/2023-24/boxscores/20230902_313z.xml.

For game-day information, please see:

https://www.dsubluehawks.com/game-day-information

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For more information about DSU football and Blue Hawks athletics in general, please keep reading your Dickinson Press and/or visit the university's website at

https://www.dsubluehawks.com/landing/index

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