Bison Sports Update: October 24th

Some cool stuff to uncover today!

Football
NDSU Football hosted 17th ranked Missouri State for the Trees Bowl this Saturday. Not the best game the Bison have played this year. The first quarter was the worst quarter I have seen this team play all year on both sides of the ball. The defense had its worst quarter in years. It ended with Missouri State leading 10-0. 
The second quarter saw a rebound and the flip of a switch for the defense. The Bison scored the first TD of the day with a Quincy Patterson rushing touchdown and then Jake Reinholz kicked a 46 yard field goal to bring the Bison to a one possession game going into halftime.
Coming out of halftime the Bison were able to drive down the field with a big 45 yard reception from Patterson to Watson. But NDSU wasn't able to get any further and settled for a 58 yard field goal to tie the game. Missouri State responded and scored their second touchdown of the day and led NDSU 20-13. Things looked bleak for NDSU. On the next drive Quincy through a lame duck interception which really dulled momentum. But the Bison then intercepted a pass from Mo State's Jason Shelly. The Bison were unable to do anything with this turnover and turned it over on downs. The Code Green defense then stopped Missouri State again, forcing the punt. Then came the standing ovation from the crowd as Sophomore QB Cam Miller walked onto the field, the Junior Quincy Patterson presumably was pulled after first throwing a terrible pick and then not moving the ball after the turnover. 
While Miller's first drive did end up with a punt, NDSU pinned Missouri State back at their own 9 to give the defense good field position. Code Green forced a punt back to the Bison. Now it was game time for Cam. He led the Bison down the field and threw his first touchdown of the day to Senior Phoenix Sproles, who scored his first TD since the 2019 season. This tied the game up at 20 with 13:34 to go in the 4th quarter. The Bears got the ball back but could do nothing with it and punted back to NDSU. Miller drove the Bison down yet again to the goal-line and despite several penalty mistakes by NDSU, Miller through his second touchdown of the day to Senior Christian Watson, his 5th on the year! This gave NDSU its first lead with 4:57 to go in the game. Missouri State got the ball back and tried to drive but between sacks and false starts based on the Fargodome noise factor kept the Bears from moving the ball and they turned it over on downs to give the Bison the win! 

Overall, this was a very different game for the Bison. This is definitely the worst game they have played all year, yet they still found a way to win. Switching QB's is definitely something that NDSU is not accustomed to. But it was necessary today with Patterson struggling today. Cam Miller stepped in and looked extremely confident out there and proved he can step up when needed. I could see cases to let Cam start or continue with Quincy next week, either are good options in my mind. It doesn't look like we should have issues with Cam transferring (or so we hear) so we shouldn't be afraid to use both QB's when needed this year.
NDSU will stay in Fargo next weekend when Indiana State comes to town. The Sycamores are 4-4 on the year and 2-2 in the MVFC. This will be the first time NDSU has played Indiana State since 2018 since the Sycamores didn't play in the Spring.

North Dakota State Football is 4-0 in MVFC play and 7-0 overall on the year. They are ranked 3rd nationally.

Volleyball
The NDSU Volleyball team had a rough week. They started on Thursday down in Tulsa where they lost to Oral Roberts in 4 sets. Then they traveled to Kansas City to play the Roos where they lost in 3 sets.
They hope to bounce back this Thursday when they return to Benson Bunker Fieldhouse to host Summit League newcomer St. Thomas at 7 PM CT. Then they host Western Illinois on Saturday at 11 am.

North Dakota State Volleyball is 3-8 in Summit League play and 9-14 overall on the year.

Soccer
Yeah not a good week for the Soccer team either. The Bison women hosted Omaha and Denver this week. They lost both games by a combined 8 goals and did not get the ball in the net once. What a rough year. NDSU has their last two chances for wins this week when they travel to Macomb, Illinois to face Western Illinois on Friday at 3 PM CT. Then they will face St. Thomas on Sunday at 1 PM CT to close out the Regular Season schedule. NDSU will most likely not make the Summit League tournament this year sitting at 8th in the conference standings. So these 2 games will most likely be their last of the year. 

North Dakota State Soccer is 2-5 in Summit League play and 2-11-1 overall on the year.

Go Bison!!