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Grand Forks Herald
No. 8 UND uses fast start to rout St. Thomas 62-26
- Story byGrand Forks Herald
- No. 8 UND uses fast start to rout St. Thomas 62-26
Sep. 5—GRAND FORKS — This week's 60th annual Potato Bowl festivities were cut short at every turn.
The french fry feed was cut short by thunderstorms. The parade was cut short by a downpour.
On Saturday afternoon at the Alerus Center, the intrigue in the football game's final outcome was cut short by another dominant half for the Fighting Hawks.
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The No. 8 Hawks scored more than 40 points in the first half for the second week in a row en route to a 62-26 win over St. Thomas on Saturday in front of 10,909 in attendance.
"Starting fast is something we talk a lot about in a lot of different ways," UND coach Eric Schmidt said. "Training camp, we talk about starting fast. The first five or six practices, we talk about starting fast."
After scoring 42 points in the first half last Thursday night against Long Island University, UND piled up 41 points in the first half against the Tommies of the Pioneer League.
In fact, UND led 44 seconds into the game — on St. Thomas' second offensive play of the game — when safety Avery Dixon picked off a pass from St. Thomas quarterback Anthony Policare, who was under heavy pressure from Hawks defensive tackle Tyler Henry. Dixon returned the interception 34 yards into the end zone.
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"We made a good call on defense, then the D-line pressure really got me that ball," said Dixon, a first-year transfer. "The quarterback kind of panicked in that moment with the line in his face. He didn't see me, and I just made a good play on the ball. Then I see a sea of black jerseys blocking for me to the end zone."
UND scored the game's first 27 points. Korey Tai caught an 8-yard pass, Deng Deng caught a 6-yard pass and Mason South caught a 5-yard pass as the Hawks led 27-0 with almost 13 minutes left in the first half.
At that point, the only miscue was injured edge Lance Rucker shooting a t-shirt cannon into the press box rather than the fans in the crowd.
"We do have a confidence in us, but we've honestly been building that confidence since spring ball," Dixon said. "We knew we were coming in here to try to be the best defense we can. We're proving it right now, and then we've got the same mindset every week — just grind, refine, repeat."
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UND led 41-12 at halftime, although the starting defense wasn't responsible for the 12 points. Jerry Kaminski, who threw five first-half touchdown passes, was intercepted and the pick was returned for a touchdown late in the first half — a play Schmidt tipped his cap to the defensive player.
Malachi Boadi-Aboagye plucked a Kaminski pass out of the air at the line of scrimmage and returned it 74 yards for a touchdown. It was the only time the Hawks didn't score in the red zone, finishing 8-for-9 — all touchdowns — in the red zone.
The other two field goals in the first half were results of short fields thanks to a Matt Lawson fumble and a special teams gaffe right before halftime.
In the season opener, UND's offense and defense sputtered in the second half with backups in the game and were outscored 21-0. This time around, UND's second-team offense found running success while the defense continued its ups and downs.
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Kaminski played two and a half quarters, finishing 23-for-29 for 233 yards. Backup Javance Tupou'ata-Johnson only threw one pass in his backup — it was intercepted, although it was tipped by a UND wide receiver.
The Hawks ran for 295 yards on 43 carries, led by Charles Langama's 120 yards on 11 carries. Colton Brunell chipped in 65, while Griffin Broderick had 44 and Lawson had 34.
"We challenged the guys up front, and it was something collectively, those guys felt we could have played better," Schmidt said. "Today, I felt like against a pretty good front, our guys had a starving mindset to say, regardless of how many guys you put in there, we're going to run the ball and do it successfully.
"There's a lot of pride in the (offensive line) room. They knew coming out of last week, we can do better, and it was a step in the right direction today."
