Points were not a problem for the Northern State football team Saturday afternoon at Dacotah Bank Stadium.

The Wolves scored less than two minutes into the game and were off to the races in a 55-23 win over Southwest Minnesota State in a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference contest.

“I think our guys showed up and did what they’re supposed to do,” said Northern coach Mike Schmidt.

NSU averaged 8.5 yards per carry on the way to racking up 269 yards rushing. The Wolves also had 257 yards passing, and ended up receiving touchdowns from seven different players.

“Offensively, it was a lot of fun to give a lot of those guys different looks, and a lot of different guys into the end zone was pretty neat, too,” Schmidt said. “A lot of good stuff that we can take away.”

It all started when Carter Campbell hauled in a 29-yard touchdown pass from Brock Bagozzi to cap the game’s first drive with 13:14 remaining in the opening quarter.

Things quickly escalated from there as Northern tacked on three more touchdowns in the opening quarter for a 27-3 advantage. Bagozzi tossed his second TD pass, this time to Mason Stubbe for 35 yards, before Daniel Britt fired a 22-yard pass to Gavin Giesler, who broke a tackle at the 4-yard line and went into the zone for a TD.

“We knew pregame it was drawn up to go to me,” Giesler said. “Kind of a funky route, I ended up getting up the sideline, and Britt made a heckuva play, and I made one guy miss and was able to get in. … I just put my head down and found a way to get in the end zone.”

The Wolves then blocked a punt that Blake Clay returned 35 yards for a touchdown.

Northern got creative in the second quarter, throwing a pass to starting guard Daniel Porisch on a designed play the Wolves have been working on.

“I’ve been thinking about that one for about six days now,” Porisch said, “and I get nervous about every time thinking about it.”

Porisch made the catch for a first down.

“I knew ball the was coming to me,” Porisch said. “Brock was actually throwing the ball forward to me, so I tried to jump back and catch it. … Every day in practice I was catching the ball from Brock.”

That play set up Northern’s next touchdown when Zach Kraft hauled in a 10-yard pass from Zach Jorgensen.

The Wolves capped a 41-point first half on a Bagozzi to Cooper Eisenbeisz TD pass for a 25-point halftime lead.

Stubbe added another TD in the third quarter, and Kimani Quade tallied NSU’s final touchdown in the fourth quarter.

Jake Adams led the NSU defense with a dozen tackles, and the Wolves picked off three passes, including one by Andrew Ewald, who had an interception taken away on a challenge review, before swiping another pass.

“I told everyone, I said I’m going to go get another one,” Ewald said. “It’s no big deal. I knew it.”

Facing a huge deficit, the Mustangs were forced to throw the ball, and that was just fine with Ewald.

“I love it. At the end of the day, I think I’m a ballhawk, I’m going to go get it,” Ewald said. “When they’re putting it in the air, I love that. I’m all about it.”

While the win was an important one for the Wolves, it was also a costly one, as Northern continued to add to list of injured players.

“We lose 3 or 4 guys at one position tonight,” Schmidt said. “We’re beat up, but I’m excited how our guys came out. I appreciated how hard they played.”

While the Wolves have lost some players on offense, it’s the defense that has been hit particularly hard this season.

“Who is even going to play for us next week? I don’t even know,” Schmidt said. “Right now we’re legitimately down probably six guys in the secondary. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

That’s not exactly an encouraging situation with the Wolves set to host Minnesota State Moorhead this coming Saturday. The Dragons have one of the top quarterbacks in NCAA Division II.

“We play arguably the best quarterback in the country,” Schmidt said. “The guy that’s been the best prospect I’ve ever seen at low-college football in my time as a coach. … We’ve got a monumental task coming up. You’re just testing the depth of the program.”

The Wolves are undefeated at home this season, and will use Dacotah Bank Stadium to its advantage.

“The atmosphere here is just unlike anything else at this level. The fans show up every week, show out. It definitely helps compared to the road,” Ewald said. “Some teams don’t have the greatest atmosphere, so we have to create our own energy, but here it’s easy to feed off the crowd.”

Northern will also turn to its offense, a unit that continues to rack up impressive numbers this season, especially on the ground thanks in part to solid line play.

“I think we really attribute it to how close we are as a group, and how good of a culture we have in there,” Porisch said. “We know the game plan every week, and every single week our top thing is run the ball. We really take pride in that. We celebrate for each other. … I just think we play for each other and not for ourselves.”

Northern, 5-2 on the season, will rely on its staples moving forward and then go from there.

“Let’s lean on our strengths. Let’s lean on our offense,” Schmidt said. “Let’s count on those guys to play, and let’s go play with our hair on fire on defense.”

The Wolves will also need a lift from their younger players to help offset the current number of injured members.

“We gotta see how some of our young guys step up,” Schmidt said, “because there’s going to be a bunch of freshmen playing next week for sure in a big moment.”

To see a complete box score of the game, click on the following link:

https://nsuwolves.com/sports/football/stats/2025/southwest-minnesota-state/boxscore/13992