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Beavers bashed

Second-quarter surge not enough for MSU in 40-14 loss to Bemidji St.

Alex Eisen/MDN Bemidji State quarterback Jordan Hein (7) takes off for a 42-yard touchdown in the first quarter Saturday afternoon against Minot State at Herb Parker Stadium.

A halfback pass for a touchdown offered hope, as the Minot State football team clawed back to within 12 points on the perfectly executed trick play.

But, the Bemidji State Beavers bunkered down and shut out their Beaver counterparts in the second half for a decisive 40-14 victory at Herb Parker Stadium in the annual “Beaver Bash” contest.

“I’d sum it up with one word, ‘disappointing,'” MSU head coach Mike Aldrich said. “I thought we would have competed against them a little bit better than we did.”

The loss dropped MSU to a 1-6 overall record.

“It’s frustrating because you want them to be successful and do well,” Aldrich said. “When they take themselves out of position of what they are supposed to do, that to me is the frustrating part. I can wear the wins and losses, that’s part of the business. I hate to lose more than I like to win. But, when we are self-inflicting these wounds, that’s the part that gets frustrating.”

Bemidji State (5-2, 5-2 NSIC) jumped out to a 19-0 lead after the first quarter by outgaining Minot State 167-36 in yards. For the game, BSU racked up 482 yards (328 on the ground) compared to MSU’s 309 total yards.

MSU had its opening drive of the game cut short after a block in the back penalty negated a pass to receiver Ryan Fila down inside Bemidji’s five-yard line. BSU then took the ball the other way and scored on a 42-yard quarterback keeper by Jordan Hein on third down.

Bemidji converted on 7 out of 11 third downs.

“Defensively, we had a lot of trouble today,” Aldrich said. “We stopped them one time in the first half and that was on an interception. Other than that, they were able to have quite a bit of success. Especially on third downs, we really failed on third downs.”

Two plays into MSU’s second drive, quarterback Zac Cunha lost a fumble and gave Bemidji a short field to work with on MSU’s 8-yard line. They scored two plays later on a 4-yard pass from Hein to Matt Gross.

A methodical 11-play, 75-yard drive was capped by a two-yard run by Tahi Nomane to give Bemidji a 19-0 lead — non-traditional score due to a missed extra point and a failed two-point conversion.

Minot marched right back down the field at the start of the second quarter with a 11-play scoring drive of its own. Running back Larry Overstreet got MSU on the scoreboard with a 1-yard punch in run, 19-7.

Momentum appeared to have swung heavily in MSU’s favor with a diving interception by defensive back Bryce Broome on Bemidji’s next drive.

“It’s been a while since I have made a play like that,” Broome said. “It felt great. The ball just stuck in my hands. Broke for the ball and dove for it.”

MSU, however, went three-and-out on its following drive. Cunha nearly connected with receiver Kristopher Bueno on a deep ball for a possible touchdown, but it rolled off his fingertips.

A 28-yard touchdown scamper by Nomane increased Bemidji’s lead to 26-7 with 4:37 left in the first half. Nomane rushed for 96 yards in the game, only to be outdone by his teammate Andrew Lackowski with 151 yards.

Minot rushed for 100 yards as a team — Overstreet led the way with 72 yards.

Yet, it was the arm of Overstreet that tried to get MSU back into the game. After receiving the ball in the backfield by Cunha, the former high school and junior college quarterback completely fooled the Bemidji defense on a 30-yard pass over the top to a wide-open Bueno.

“It was executed just like how we draw it up,” Overstreet said. “It felt really good. It was a good play call at that time. They were being too aggressive and we caught them off-guard.”

Aldrich added: “Overstreet was having some success (on the ground) and it worked out pretty well to run that swing pass, double pass. There was nobody around, we had two receivers wide-open. It was good for our momentum, but I wish it didn’t go right into halftime. I wish we could have rode that momentum a little bit more. I thought we lost it coming back out of the locker room.”

Minot State trailed 26-14 at halftime and then surrender an 8-play, 90-yard touchdown drive to start the second half. Hein found receiver Christian Lunde from five yards out for the touchdown, 33-14.

“They beat us, but we did plenty of things to beat ourselves as well,” Broome said. “Penalties, personal fouls on certain downs, blown coverages, offsides both offensively and defensively. There are plenty of things, if you go throughout the game, that you can see that we got to fix.

“And just (not) giving great effort throughout the game as well. That third quarter, you can kind of sense the lack of energy.”

Four minutes following the first touchdown of the second half, Hein brought Bemidji back down the field for another lengthy scoring drive. His third touchdown pass of the game was hauled in by Gross.

“I’d probably say at least the second or third drive (of the third quarter),” Overstreet said when the game started to slip away. “Things weren’t clicking and from there it went downhill. But, we picked things back up at the beginning of the fourth quarter.”

MSU held its own in the final 15 minutes, but Bemidji also brought in its reserves and mostly tried to run out the clock. A scoreless fourth quarter ended the contest mercifully at 40-14.

Minot State is on the road at Minnesota Duluth (5-2, 5-2 NSIC) next Saturday. MSU is winless (0-5 all-time) against Duluth.

Alex Eisen covers Minot High School, Minot State athletics and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @AEisen13.

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