Entering the break, the Beavers trailed 27-5 and appeared to be headed toward a blowout loss. Yet, the Beavers rallied for 14 unanswered points and shut out NSU in the second half, but couldn’t make enough offensive plays down the stretch to walk away with a win at Herb Parker Stadium. The loss marked the third time this season MSU has lost by exactly eight points.

“The thing I told the guys is the last 30 minutes are the way we need to play the entire game,” MSU coach Mike Aldrich said. “Twenty-seven to five is such a big hole to climb out of because a lot of things have to go your way. It looked like the offense sputtered on the last series and that’s why we lost, but that’s not the case, we really sputtered across the board early.”

On the first series of the game, MSU quarterback Zac Cunha threw an errant pass into the arms of Northern State linebacker Noah MacPherson. MacPherson returned the interception 32 yards for a pick-six to give the Wolves an early 7-0 lead not even a minute into action.

Following the interception, Andy Jones replaced Cunha at quarterback.

Sean Arbaut/Minot State athletics Minot State's Nikko Walker (7) tackles Northern State's Zachery Barber (34) during a college football game Thursday at Herb Parker Stadium in Minot.

Jones and the offense punted on the next drive, then NSU engineered a nine-play, 84-yard scoring drive capped by a one-yard Nicholas Truen touchdown run for a 14-0 lead.

On MSU’s next drive, Cunha re-entered the game at quarterback and led a 10-play scoring drive, as the Beavers converted their first field goal of the year. Kicker JoseLuis Moreno made a 21-yarder to reduce the deficit to 14-3.

“We knew going in we were going to alternate each quarterback in and out,” Aldrich said. “Andy gives us some things we can do offensively as far as running, Zac gives us opportunity passing the ball. Unfortunately we had some negatives for our quarterbacks in that we had way too many dropped passes. I wish they kept that as a stat because it might be mind-blowing. I wanted to see which one of those guys had more momentum and at the end we ended up leaning toward Andy.”

NSU scored its third touchdown of the night on a 17-yard pass from quarterback Hunter Trautman to Cameron Eisenhauer, but Kiante Goudeau blocked NSU’s PAT and returned it for two points. After the score, NSU took a 20-5 lead.

MSU had a chance to cut into the lead on the next drive, but Moreno couldn’t connect on a 36-yard field goal. Later, Truen scored his second touchdown of the night as NSU made it a 27-5 game 39 seconds before halftime.

NSU outgained MSU 280-123 at halftime and had 153 rushing yards.

MSU finally scored its first touchdown of the game late in the third quarter, but not without a few gift plays from Northern State. NSU muffed a punt, then committed two unsportsmanlike penalties, leading to freshman fullback Cade Hernandez’s first career rushing touchdown from one yard out.

“We got bailed out that entire drive,” Aldrich said. “We went down and scored but of course we got an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after the fact. We have to be smarter than that.”

The Beavers attempted to make the contest a one-score game, but Jones threw a strike to the end zone that resulted in NSU defensive back Brian Sumption outdueling MSU wideout Lavante Bushnell for the ball and coming down with an interception.

Justin Gonzalez moved the Beavers within eight points with his second interception of the night and returning it for a pick-six, 27-19. This interception came off backup Northern State quarterback Jake Comeaux, who replaced an injured Trautman early in the third quarter.

“That was huge,” Aldrich said. “We made a good adjustment to what they were trying to do. The quarterback saw what he thought was there but Justin made a play and got us back in the game.

The MSU defense made a fourth down stop on NSU’s next possession, giving the Beavers a chance to tie the game with more than 8 minutes remaining.

On third-and-five, Jones scrambled for a 30-yard run but a holding penalty negated the big gain and stalled the drive.

The MSU defense made one final stop and gave its offense a chance to engineer a game-tying drive with 2:14 left. But Jones threw a low pass to wide receiver Ryan Fila on fourth down, who appeared to have open space in front of him on a screen play.

“Even if he catches that, that pass is right by the ground,” Aldrich said. “If we put it on him better, maybe he makes a play. That’s on our quarterback, we have to put it on him.”

Jones finished 6 of 12 passing for 72 yards with an interception, while Cunha was 8-of-14 for 80 yards and an interception.

Running back Larry Overstreet had 15 carries for 51 yards and Fila caught five passes for 50 yards. Donnell Vercher led the MSU defense with 11 tackles, while Matt Marler and Goudeau each had 10. Gonzalez had three tackles and two interceptions.

NSU (3-3) outgained MSU 403-216 and finished with 191 rushing yards.

MSU (1-5) is back in action at 1 p.m. Saturday against Bemidji State at Herb Parker Stadium.

Garrick Hodge covers Minot State athletics, the Minot Minotauros and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @Garrick_Hodge.