The Northern State defense set the tone, before the offense finished the job at Dacotah Bank Stadium Saturday night.

The Wolves bottled up Wayne State on the way to a 26-7 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference football win.

While Northern led from start to finish, there were many teachable moments according to Wolves coach Mike Schmidt.

“It’s easy to go back and learn a lot in losses, because you’re kind of forced into it, but now the challenge is can you go back and learn a lot from a win?” Schmidt said. “As a coach, it’s kind of a really good scenario where you dominate the game, I thought we had a really good game plan, and now you can go dissect it and really try to get better off of it and get a win. That’s always the way you kind of want it to go.”

NSU’s offense left plenty of points out on the field. There was an interception in the end zone that thwarted one scoring drive, along with two missed field goals.

However, the Wolves defense so was stout, it didn’t really matter.

All-American Jake Adams once again had his fingerprints all over the victory with 15 tackles and a crucial interception on a tipped pass right after the Wolves had fumbled the ball near midfield about midway through the fourth quarter leading by 12 points.

“I’ve got to give all credit to all the guys around me, the 10 guys around me,” Adams said. “They do an excellent job, so I’m able to fly around and do mine.”

The Wolves, who received a pair of field goals from Jeremy Caruso for a 6-0 halftime lead, were able to move the ball through the air consistently all night and eventually the ground game caught up.

“I really just thought we were going to wear them down,” Schmidt said of the second half.

DJ Smith had four catches for 107 yards as the Wildcats could not keep up with the speedy wide receiver.

“They got some good corners. I respect them as players, but I trust in my craft,” Smith said. “I told the quarterbacks I just want a chance, I just want an opportunity. If you give me an opportunity I’m going to make the best of it, and I felt like I made the best of it.”

Northern racked up 238 yards passing in the contest with Brock Bagozzi throwing for 184 yards and touchdowns to Hank Kraft and Jacoby Boykins. Bagozzi also ran for a TD. Daniel Britt finished with 144 yards throwing.

“That defense that we just hung a ton of yards on is really good,” Schmidt said.

It was just a matter of time before NSU’s running game took a toll on Wayne. The Wolves accumulated 148 yards on the ground led by Wyatt Block with 91 of those.

“Running is very important in this league and blocking is, too,” Boykins said. “As receivers we have to know that the ball is coming behind us. All night I just stayed on my man, made sure he didn’t make the tackle.”

While the Wolves went no huddle for the majority of the game, Schmidt would like to see better clock management in the final stages.

“We got to learn how to win games. There’s a lot of learning moments in there. You can’t always just play tempo,” Schmidt said. “When you’re up 14 points, or you’re up however many points, you can’t just play tempo. You got to utilize the clock. You got to be able to still run the ball, be effective on offense when you can’t use tempo, because you got to learn how to win.”

The contest was a big contrast to an opening-game setback to Sioux Falls when the Wolves gave up 42 points.

Adams talked about the team’s mindset to make sure that didn’t happen again.

“I think our mindset was fly around, communicate, just have fun,” Adams said. “That’s what football’s about. It’s a kids game. It’s about having fun.”

The Wolves, 1-1, host Concordia-St. Paul at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday on Gypsy Days in what will likely feature an even bigger crowd than the home opener, which drew more than 5,000 spectators.

“I love The Bank. The fans were amazing,” Boykins said after his first experience at the facility. “I didn’t expect the fans to be that loud. I love The Bank for sure.”

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

https://nsuwolves.com/sports/football/stats/2025/wayne-state/boxscore/13987