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Grand Forks Herald
UND holds off Indiana State comeback to win 42-35
- Story byGrand Forks Herald
- UND holds off Indiana State comeback to win 42-35
Sep. 26—TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — The UND football team's sixth of six flights through three time zones in the last three weeks might not be a full-on midair celebration Saturday evening, but the Fighting Hawks will still get out of Wabash Valley with a win — and that's not always been a given at Memorial Stadium.
The No. 7 Fighting Hawks nearly coughed up a three-touchdown lead in the fourth quarter before surviving a late push from Indiana State with a 42-35 victory in front of 2,765.
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UND players and coaches wrestled postgame with the dynamic: UND will return home from the road trip with a Missouri Valley Football Conference win and a 4-1 record, but there was also plenty of concerning mistakes, too.
"We're going through an interesting time right now," UND coach Eric Schmidt said. "You got a chance here in a couple of games now to really put some people away. Up 42-21 in the fourth quarter, and you think you're putting some things together, then you just do some things football-wise that we've got — I've got — to do a better job. Our team's got to do a better job.
"Defensively, you can't let up explosive plays. The onside kick. Kicking the ball out of bounds. It's been a long three weeks here, and it's just a grind. We have to do a better job playing consistently and playing confidently."
UND quarterback Jerry Kaminski threw for a career-high 381 yards on 33-for-48 passing with four touchdowns. He hit Cameron Weir for a 39-yard deep ball to give the Hawks a 42-21 lead with 9 minutes, 37 seconds left in the game.
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"The biggest thing for us is it's hard to win a college football game, especially on the road and then you talk about a Missouri Valley Football Conference away game," Kaminski said. "We battled. I'm proud of the guys for the way we fought, but we know we have a lot of things that we can clean up, and we're excited to attack the process and get back to it tomorrow."
The Sycamores scored 96 seconds after UND's three-touchdown lead when Jayden Reed caught a 33-yard touchdown pass from Brady Allen to cut the lead to 42-28.
Indiana State then recovered an onside kick as UND's hands team didn't attack the bounding ball, allowing the Sycamores to recover. From there, Allen struck again. This time, the new starting quarterback, playing in place of injured starter Elijah Owens, connected with B.J. Wuest for a 17-yard touchdown connection.
Wuest's score trimmed the UND lead to 42-35 with 6:36 left in the game.
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The Hawks' offense couldn't ice the win on its next drive. After picking up one first down, the Hawks punted the ball back to Indiana State with more than three minutes to go — needing 89 yards to tie or win the game.
After picking up one first down, UND's defense forced incompletions on third-and-4 and fourth-and-4 to finally turn the Sycamores over on downs. UND was able to ice the rest of the clock after taking over at the ISU 34 with 1:52 left in the game.
"There's just a lot to learn from," said UND edge Braden Mohr, who had three sacks. "A win is a win. It's a tough place to win. They're all tough in the Valley. We're excited but we know when we get back we have a lot to learn, too. We just have to make sure we're playing our game, and we don't let other teams influence us. I think when we're playing our game, we're going to be successful, but when we allow teams to dictate the game, that's when we struggle a little bit."
The Hawks held the Sycamores to 44 rushing yards on 28 attempts. Yet, Allen, an FBS transfer making his first start, threw for 270 yards and four touchdowns. Reed finished with eight catches for 129 yards and two touchdowns.
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"We lack a little continuity together," Schmidt said of his defensive evaluation. "When I watch us pressure and things like that, it's taking too long to get there and be able to beat some one-on-ones. We've got to look at some things there with what we're doing. I think too the discipline of being able to do simple things ... like I'm watching some of our underneath coverage, and it's guys just kind of wandering around and not dropping the proper depths. Even when we're in decent position, we're grabbing and holding. Those are the things that we've got to continue to get better at. We're not a finished product yet. I think we have the opportunity to be better there yet. We need to be better."
