Bison Sports Update: September 5th

It was a big week for Bison athletics, lets get started!

Football
NDSU Football opened the season against Drake this past Saturday. The team lifted the banner into the rafters from last season's 9th FCS Championship title! 
The team got off to a slow start, the defense allowed a long touchdown drive by Drake to start the 1st quarter. This didn't phase the offense though, Cam Miller drove the team down the field with a touchdown pass to Zach Mathis for NDSU's first touchdown of the day. It was also Mathis' first career touchdown in college! On the ensuing drive, Drake drove down again and was about to kick a 40 yard field goal, when Jake Kava jumped through the line and block the field goal with his face mask, Destin Talbert picked it up and ran it in the other endzone for a touchdown to give the Bison the lead. 
In the 2nd quarter, the Bison grew their lead. It started when Drake punted to Jayden Price, who proceeded to return the ball 66 yards for a touchdown! Then on the next Bison drive, Hunter Luepke scored his first touchdown of the season on a 47 yard score. On NDSU's next drive, they attempted to kick a 23 yard field goal, but Will Cardinal shanked it to the left. Drake wasn't able to do anything on their next drive. NDSU got the ball on Drake's side of the field and Cam Miller proceeded to throw his second touchdown of the day to Noah Gindorff. Then on the ensuing drive, Marques Sigle intercepted the quarterback to start another drive for NDSU. The Bison drove down and Dominic Gonnella ran in a 13 yard score to give NDSU the 42-7 lead at halftime.
Coming out of halftime, NDSU put in most of their backups. Redshirt freshman Cole Payton led the team onto the field and couldn't find much room on his first drive. On Drake's first drive of the half, their quarterback was strip sacked next to the endzone and Will Mostaert scooped it up for the score to give the Bison a commanding 49-7 lead. The rest of the quarter was largely back and forth other then Drake scoring on a Philly-special type play.
In the 4th quarter, it was more of the same in the 3rd. NDSU didn't score again until under 5 minutes to go in the game when wide receiver-turned-running back Barika Kpeenu punched in a 6 yard rushing touchdown to bring the game to its final score of 56-14.

Next week, NDSU will host North Carolina A&T for the first time in school history at the Fargodome. Kickoff is set for 2:30 PM.

North Dakota State Football is 1-0 on the season.

Women's Soccer
NDSU soccer had a rough week. This past week NDSU won against Chicago State for the first game of the week on Sunday. Then the Bison traveled to Laramie, Wyoming for a match against the Cowgirls. They came up short with their first loss of the year, 1-3. Then they traveled to Greeley, Colorado and got clobbered by Northern Colorado, 5-0.

This week, NDSU will come home to host Green Bay on Friday at 5 PM, and Drake on Sunday at 1 PM.

North Dakota State Women's Soccer is 2-2-2 on the season.

Volleyball
NDSU volleyball had an up and down weekend. They travelled to LaFayette, Louisiana for the Sawyer Camillo Memorial Classic, and played Louisiana, UTSA, and UTRGV. They lost to Louisiana 1-3, won over UTSA 3-0, and lost to UTRGV 0-3. 

This week they come home to host the NDSU Tournament, the first tournament the Bison have hosted in a long time. They will play Chicago State on Friday at 10 AM, Central Michigan also on Friday at 7 PM, and then Northern Arizona on Saturday at 10 AM. 

North Dakota State Volleyball is 4-2 on the season.

Go Bison!!