Home victories are not uncommon for the Northern State football team, but Saturday night’s win at Dacotah Bank Stadium was anything but ordinary.
The Wolves defeated 10th-rated Minnesota Duluth 37-34 in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference football action, giving them their first win over a top-10 team in more than two decades.
“That’s a really great football team we just beat,” said Northern coach Mike Schmidt. “I thought coming in that’s the best team that we’ve played in my time here.”
A big key to the contest was Northern’s ability to force three turnovers, two of which led to touchdowns and the final one securing the victory with just over a minute remaining.
“You look at the stat sheet and it don’t look like we’re the winning team, but you get plays, you get fumbles, you get turnovers, and the interception at the end,” Schmidt said. “Our mantra the whole game, the whole week, was the next play. It just takes one play.”
After Duluth scored on its opening drive of the game, the Wolves responded with a field goal. Northern then stopped the Bulldogs and on its next possession Wyatt Block found himself all alone on a swing pass and ran 62 yards for a touchdown.
“I was told to take a half handoff, pretend I’m blocking there, and then slip through the offensive line, and then just set up on the opposite side,” Block said. “The corner and the safety would roll over and they did. Took like a half second, just let everything clear out, at that point it was just wide open.”
Duluth tied the game early in the second period before the Wolves scored 10 unanswered points for a 20-10 halftime advantage. Northern’s touchdown was set up by a key play from Tasean Young, who recovered a fumble as Duluth was driving and returned it 63 yards.
“It was just pursuing to the ball. Coach Schmidt tells us all the time we’ve got to run to the ball,” Young said. “Good things happen when you go to the ball. I was living truth of that right there.”
After forcing a three-and-out to start the third quarter, Duluth scored to inch closer and forced the Wolves into another punt. However, the Bulldogs fumbled the ball at their own 19, and Northern pounced on the opportunity, as Daniel Britt tossed a 9-yard touchdown pass to DJ Smith.
Britt, who did not take a snap in the opening half, came in for Brock Bagozzi in the third quarter as Northern used its dual-threat quarterback tandem.
“I know to be ready and when I get an opportunity I want to make the most of it,” Britt said. “It’s kind of a beautiful thing being able to have me and Brock in the quarterback room. I think we play off of each other very well.”
Again, Duluth responded to cut the margin to 27-24, before Britt extended the margin back to 10 points with a 28-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter.
Northern led 34-24 when the Wolves were stopped at the Duluth 6-yard line with 3:31 left. The Bulldogs marched down to the field to slice the deficit to three points, and then recovered an on-side kick with 1:35 left to make things even more interesting.
However, as the Bulldogs inched closer to field-goal range, Young intercepted a pass to put the game on ice for the Wolves.
“We just really harp on playing hard and playing for each other. Wherever the ball is, just making sure you’re running to the ball,” Young said of the team’s defense. “Also, when the ball’s in the air, we have a mindset, like it’s our ball. We want to go get it too just as much as the offense.”
Block finished the game with 156 yards rushing and 81 yards receiving.
It was night where Duluth had more total yards and first downs, but the Wolves walked away with the win.
“There’s luck involved. They made mistakes and that’s how you win games like this,” Schmidt said. “Last week (against Bemidji) we didn’t have anything go right for us. Like nothing. … Now you come here and kind of everything goes right for us.”
Earlier this season, Schmidt said the goal was to make the playoffs at the end of the year.
“The formula to be a playoff-contending team is to go undefeated at home and go .500 on the road,” he said. “It’s hard to do that in any sense of the way.”
Schmidt said the playoffs are not at the forefront of the team right now, however, as it heads into the second half of the season just trying to win more games.
“We’re not looking forward to the playoffs,” Schmidt said. “We’re not looking forward to anything that could happen there, because we have so much work to do to get to a position where we’re able to compete for those things as we get down the stretch.”
The Wolves, 4-2 on the season and hosting Southwest Minnesota State at 4 p.m. Saturday, got a big shot of momentum heading into the back half of the campaign with a win on Saturday night that they won’t soon forget.
“Great team win. What a night at Dacotah Bank Stadium,” Schmidt said. “These night games are just different. This is one of the bigger ones probably ever in our program’s history.”
To see a complete box score, click on the following link:
https://nsuwolves.com/sports/football/stats/2025/minnesota-duluth/boxscore/13991
