Northern State made a stellar play early, turned in a defensive gem late, and collected a Gypsy Days football win in front of a standing room only crowd at Dacotah Bank Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Aberdeen native Cooper Eisenbeisz returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown, Darion Nundley intercepted a pass in the final minute and the Wolves celebrated homecoming with a 21-14 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference football win over Mary with an record-setting crowd of 7,714 in attendance.

“I’m really thankful and grateful for our crowd and our community for coming out,” said Northern State coach Mike Schmidt. “What a full display of Aberdeen and Northern State. That was an unbelievable crowd. Having a kickoff return as the opening play was unbelievable.”

The Wolves grabbed the early momentum when Eisenbeisz returned the opening kick 87 yards for a touchdown.

“In the huddle coach says he’s going to kick it into the end zone, so if it’s a yard deep take it,” Eisenbeisz said. “It was not a yard deep, it was actually 15 yards shallow. It was a good return.”

Northern cornerback Kegan Mountain said that the huge crowd probably had an impact on the Marauders as they entered the stadium.

“It’s just momentum,” Mountain said. “They traveled down today, they got off the bus and walked into 8,000 people, and that’s probably why they couldn’t cover the first kickoff return, because that’s a lot of momentum to beat coming right off the bus.”

It turned out that NSU needed that early jolt of momentum, because its offense struggled in multiple areas on the day.

“That’s a terrible day offensively,” Schmidt said. “Glad we were able to fight through it, and find a way to win it.”

While Hank Kraft rushed for 119 yards and the team’s other two touchdowns, the Wolves could not move the ball through the air.

“To pass for 29 yards, 8 of 18 for 29 yards, that can’t be how you’re going to win football games,” Schmidt said.

And while Kraft had another big day on the ground, Schmidt noted that nearly all of that came as a result of his own effort.

“We obviously got a lot to fix. There’s a lot that we got to get going,” Schmidt said. “We had zero movement up front all day long, just no movement. It’s Hank making guys miss. That is the hardest 119 yards that Hank has ever fought for there.”

The Marauders, who scored on a pair of long pass plays, had more yards from scrimmage in the contest. They were able to find open holes in the Northern secondary throughout the contest.

“We’ve got to execute better. The completion percentages against us right now are ridiculous,” Schmidt said. “We got a lot of work to do on the defensive side. And we have to find a way to get something going offensively, just really a tough day getting stuff going.”

However, when the Wolves needed to make plays on defense, they delivered.

Mountain came on a corner blitz in the third quarter, forcing a fumble that Ayden Barnaby recovered to thwart a Mary possession that had crossed midfield.

Mountain, who had missed NSU’s two previous games, almost sat out the homecoming game as well.

“I would have been really upset to miss Gypsy Days, but nobody actually knows, I almost didn’t play today,” Mountain said. “I woke up and my calves were super tight. I thought I was going to cramp getting out of bed, but I was like let’s try it, it’s Gypsy Days, why not, and it worked out.”

After the Marauders scored on pass with five minutes remaining, the Wolves still needed one more big play to close out the win and Nundley produced it, picking off a pass deep in Northern territory with 26 seconds remaining.

“It was just learn from mistakes, learn from the next play,” Nundley said. “They had just ran that play last time and scored on it.”

This time Nundley was ready for it and was in prime position when the ball came his way.

“Just going through progressions, knowing the play, think about what I have to do before the play, and I just try to play situational football,” Nundley said. “It’s two-minute drill, time’s running out, they need a shot, and just try to defend it well.”

The victory moved Northern’s record to 4-1 on the season, the best start after five games since 2003.

“This was really good for us to go through something like this, battle through, grind it out, nip and tuck, execute down the stretch,” Schmidt said. “These are good moments for us.”

The Wolves now have a three-game stretch against some of the North Division’s traditional powers, hosting Bemidij State at 6 p.m. on Saturday before road games at Minnesota Duluth and Minnesota State Moorhead.

They will head into that stretch with some big-time momentum and positive energy from a Gypsy Days atmosphere that won’t soon be forgotten.

“This is the moment that everybody’s been building towards, 7,700 people on Gyspy Days, with a top-25 football team, and a competitive football team that’s in the mix, to play at a high level,” Schmidt said. “This was awesome today. This is what this community and the vision that everybody for us had. It’s cool that we get to benefit from it and we get to be a part of this.”

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

https://nsuwolves.com/sports/football/stats/2026/umary/boxscore/14643