The race for the Big Sky Conference title officially has two horses with two weeks remaining in the regular season.
Senior All-American Cooper Kupp continued his storied career to boost No. 3 Eastern Washington to a clutch 42-21 win at No. 14 Cal Poly to take one more step toward earning a top four seed in the FCS playoffs.
No. 17 North Dakota kept pace despite missing the services junior starting quarterback Keaton Studsrud. UND won for the eighth straight time and moved to 7-0 in Big Sky play in the process with a 23-13 win over Northern Colorado.
No. 19 Montana kept its playoff hopes alive with yet another offensive explosion at home. Chad Chalich threw seven touchdowns and rushed for an eighth in UM’s 62-44 win over Idaho State.
Northern Arizona kept its faint playoff homes alive with its fourth straight win over Weber State, 33-20, effectively dashing any postseason hopes harbored by the Wildcats. Portland State posted its second Division I win over UC Davis and Southern Utah kept Montana State winless in league play. Sacramento State was idle.
No. 3 Eastern Washington , No. 14 Cal Poly — Kupp continued to prove he really can do it all as he keeps solidifying his legacy as the most prolific college player of all time.
The three-time All-American and reigning FCS Offensive Player of the Year threw touchdowns of 28 and 10 yards to Shaq Hill, caught 11 passes for 154 yards and scored the exclamation mark touchdown, a 45-yard score to push EWU to its sixth Big Sky win in as many tries (8-1 overall). Kupp, already the all-time Division I leader (FCS or FBS) in touchdowns (68) and yards (5,924), now needs just six catches to break the all-time D-I mark (has 389, needs 396) with two games remaining.
EWU sophomore quarterback Gage Gubrud continued his standout season, completing 27-of-37 passes for 357 yards and four touchdowns. Senior Shaq Hill caught seven passes for 93 yards and three touchdowns, moving him into the FCS lead with 13 touchdowns this season, one more than Kupp. Senior Kendrick Bourne caught four passes for 78 yards and two touchdowns.
Cal Poly’s potent triple option offense rushed for 372 yards, it’s season average entering the game, but three turnovers, including two costly fumbles, thwarted the hosts’ upset bid. Senior quarterback Dano Graves threw for 67 yards and an interception, rushed 19 times for 121 yards and two scores as Cal Poly fell to 4-2 in league, 6-3 overall. The Mustangs will have to win at Weber State and at home against Northern Colorado to keep their playoff hopes alive.
No. 17 North Dakota 23, Northern Colorado 13 — Behind a noteworthy performance from star running back John Santiago, North Dakota is now one game away from history.
UND pushed its winning streak to eight straight, the best its had during its nine seasons as a Division I football team, behind 205 yards from Santiago and another stonewall performance by its defense. The win pushes North Dakota to 7-0 in Big Sky Conference play. Since 1993, only Montana (1993, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2006, 2007, 2009) and Eastern Washington (2013) have gone unbeaten in Big Sky play.
North Dakota will close its regular season against preseason Big Sky favorites Northern Arizona (5-4, 4-2 in Big Sky play) in Grand Forks next week.
“It’s never easy to win on the road, but our guys found a way once again to get the job done,” UND head coach Bubba Schweigert said. “We moved one step closer to our goal of winning a Big Sky Championship and I’m really proud of those young men and the way continue to compete.”
Santiago spearheaded a UND rushing attack that piled up 290 yards with junior quarterback Keaton Studsrud on the shelf with an elbow injury. UND backup Ryan Bartels completed 10-of-16 passes for 89 yards and a nine-yard touchdown to Luke Mathewson that boosted UND to a 20-7 third quarter lead. Brady Oliveira rushed 19 times for 67 yards a first quarter score to tie the game 7-7. Reid Taubenheim hit three field goals to boost UND.
A week after holding Weber State’s strong rushing attack to 12 yards on the ground, UND stuffed Northern Colorado to the tune of just six rushing yards on 21 carries. UNC played without star running back Trae Riek, who missed his second game this season with an injury. Northern Colorado quarterback Kyle Sloter completed 26-of-47 passes for 262 yards and two touchdowns but his two interceptions proved to be detrimental for UNC, which fell to 3-3 in Big Sky play, 5-4 overall.
When you come into a game like this, playing a team like North Dakota who is top in the conference and is really, two plays away from being 9-0, you can’t make the mistakes we made in this game,” UNC head coach Earnest Collins Jr. said. “Our kids were fighting and they never game up, but there were too many mistakes that we made throughout this football game.”
“You know [John] Santiago is a great running back and you have to understand he wants to run outside and too many times we let him run outside – offensively, you can’t turn the ball over. You have to take advantage of the opportunities you get when you get them, so the bottom line is too many mistakes.”
UND junior Deion Harris snared his league-leading fourth interception while true freshman Torrey Hunt snared his third to boost UND’s FCS-leading interception total to 18, three shy of the school record set in 2005.
Northern Arizona 33, Weber State 20 — Once-reeling Northern Arizona jumped out to a 20-0 lead then held on to win for the fourth straight time to keep its playoff hopes hanging by a threat.
Northern Arizona senior quarterback Blake Kemp threw for 387 yards and two touchdowns and true freshman kicker Griffin Roehler drilled all four of his field goal attempts as NAU moved to 4-2 in league, 5-4 overall after its bye. The Lumberjacks play at UND next week before finishing its season at home against rival Southern Utah.
Kemp, a backup playing in place of injured sophomore All-American Case Cookus, completed 24-of-41 passes, including nine to Emmanuel Butler for 157 yards. Senior Kendyl Taylor caught a 15-yad touchdown and ripped off a 61-yard touchdown run with NAU clinging to a 26-20 lead.
Weber State senior Jadrian Clark threw for 302 yards and two touchdowns bu Weber State managed just 64 rushing yards on 28 carries (2.3 yards per carry), although Treshawn Garrett’s four-yard touchdown run cut the NAU lead to six with 5:47 to play. Taylor’s game-clinching burst came less than 30 seconds later.
Cam Livingston caught a 10-yard touchdown for Weber’s first score, Darryl Denby caught a 49-yard touchdown to cut the lead to 23-14 midway through the fourth quarter and tight end Andrew Vollert finished with eight catches for 112 yards, but Weber lost for the second straight week. WSU is now 4-2 in league play, 5-4 overall. Weber hosts Cal Poly next week.
Portland State 51, UC Davis 29— Despite a nearly 600-mile bus ride, Portland State showed no fatigue and never let off the gas in demolishing the host Aggies.
PSU senior quarterback Alex Kuresa completed 16-of-20 passes for 384 yards but almost all the Vikings’ touchdowns came on the ground. Paris Penn scored two touchdowns to begin the second quarter to turn a 10-6 game into a 24-6 runaway. Jonathan Gonzales hit three first-half field goals, including a 34-yarder as the first half buzzer expired as PSU took a 30-16 lead into halftime.
Kuresa found Penn for a 34-yard score to begin the third quarter spurt and Nate Tago scored two one-yard touchdowns to cap PSU’s scoring.
Josh Kelley carried the ball 10 times for 91 yards and Manu Luuga added 89 yars on 16 carries for Davis. Ben Scott threw two touchdowns while C.J. Spencer ran for one and threw another.
Davis (1-5 in league play, 2-7 overall) plays at Montana State next week. Portland State (2-4, 3-6) plays at Sacramento State next weekend.
