Sean Arbaut/MSU Athletics Minot State freshman tight end Lofton Klabunde (80) runs with the ball Saturday afternoon in an NSIC football game against Upper Iowa at Herb Parker Stadium. Klabunde caught his first career MSU touchdown in the 44-9 defeat.

The learning season continues for the Minot State football team.

The youthful Beavers (1-5) lost their third straight game on Saturday in a 44-9 thrashing by Upper Iowa (2-4) at Herb Parker Stadium.

“I think all of this is still a part of our foundation building,” MSU head coach Mike Aldrich said. “At the end of the day, that’s a much more established program… So, there is a little more experience they can draw on when they hit adversity. For us, we are still learning how to deal with that. So, if something bad happens, it’s an exponential problem. Instead of being able to move on, learn from it and be able to regroup.”

The compounding of problems began to overflow near the end of the second quarter.

Upper Iowa settled for three fields from kicker Jonathan Argueta-Herrera (40, 35 and 44 yards) to jump out to a 9-0 lead. While the Beavers’ defense didn’t break, they did have trouble getting off the field on third down. The Peacocks went 8-for-17 on third downs in the contest.

The Beavers nearly scored on their opening drive, but couldn’t fool the Peacocks on a misdirection pass to lineman Sebastian Gutierrez and junior kicker JoseLuis Moreno missed his first field goal of the season from 30 yards out.

Approaching halftime down 9-0, MSU sophomore quarterback Ben Bolinske tried to force a pass into tight coverage and was picked off by Mitchel Siech.

Upper Iowa turned the turnover into seven points on the first touchdown of the game. Quarterback Brent Lammers connected on an 8-yard pass to Bralin Simon.

The Beavers trailed 16-0 at the intermission after running 30 plays for 100 yards in the first half.

“It’s easy for one side or the other (offense or defense) to feel like they are doing their job when they get a stop or they score a touchdown,” Aldrich said. “They expect the other side to do their part of it, but then we are not looking in the mirror. We don’t see the whole process of where we are making our mistakes. That’s a part of what we are trying to do to grow. Unfortunately, with the immediate gratification of our society right now, that’s what everyone wants. It takes a lot more work than just that.”

Finger pointing never solves anything.

Unable to shake off the missed opportunities of the first half, the Beavers went three-and-out on their opening drive of the second half.

The Peacocks capitalized by scoring two plays later. MSU cornerback Mikael Bradford missed a tackle and allowed Alexander Stevens to break free for a 57-yard touchdown reception.

Then, following an MSU turnover on downs, Antoine Conner ran in for another Peacocks’ touchdown, 30-0.

The Minot State defense finally got the Beavers on the scoreboard with six minutes left in the third quarter.

A poor punt return decision pinned Upper Iowa at its own 1-yard line. Lammers, unable to find an open receiver, was tackled out of the back of his own end zone by Ryan DeMarois for a safety sack.

“It was pretty cool,” DeMarois said. “It was a big play by Mikael (Bradford). We watched it in the locker room when he got beat on a slant (route) earlier in the game (for a touchdown) and he jumped a slant on that play, made the quarterback hesitate and I was able to get in. A great play by Mikael.”

MSU had found some momentum and took the ensuing drive 55 yards on 10 plays for its first and only touchdown of the game. Bolinske found fellow Minot High graduate Lofton Klabunde on a two-yard out route for his first career collegiate touchdown.

“I didn’t really know what was happening,” Klabunde said. “I stopped and watched a little bit (after a flag was thrown on the Upper Iowa defense), but then my teammates came and celebrated… It feels great, you know, but it would have been better to win the game. It doesn’t matter how I do, it matters what the team does.”

A three-and-out by Upper Iowa and MSU had a chance to cut into the 30-9 deficit even more. Instead, Bolinske threw a pick-six into the awaiting arms of Siech.

Bolinske went 21-for-32 passing with 143 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions. He also ran for 48 yards. Lavante Bushnell was his primary receiver, catching seven passes for 52 yards.

Upper Iowa went back to pounding the ground and MSU’s pieced together defense had no answers.

The Beavers were missing starting linemen Logan Krueger and Matthew Cole (injuries) and had to move linebackers to the offensive line to stick with a 4-3 scheme.

“We had guys playing new positions, so we couldn’t go back to some our base calls that we have done all season because those guys have never done them,” Aldrich said. “We kind of had to weather that storm a little bit too. As sad as that sounds, that’s part of it. They might get five or six yards because we don’t have that experience on how we can stop this thing the right way with the guys playing in those positions.”

Upper Iowa racked up 452 yards of total offense with 290 yards coming on the ground. The Peacocks final touchdown came on an 11-yard walk-in by Ryan Parmely, 44-9.

Next week, Minot State is on the road at No. 1-ranked Minnesota State Mankato (6-0) with Saturday’s kickoff being scheduled for 1 p.m.

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