It was a day that will go down in the record books for the Northern State football team.

The Wolves set a school record, a conference record, and won the North Division Championship in a victory over Jamestown at Dacotah Bank Stadium Saturday afternoon. Northern, which finished 5-1 in the North, recorded a season-high point total in a 59-16 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference victory.

The North Division title is the second in school history, the other coming in 2015.

Hank Kraft broke the all-time school rushing record, accumulating 163 yards to push his career total to 1,844, eclipsing the previous mark of 1,838 set by Tyrone Morgan in 1998.

Jake Adams had 18 tackles, including one on the final play of the game, to give in the all-time NSIC record with 401 career tackles.

To top it all off, through a series of results in other games, Northern remained in the hunt for a possible playoff berth with an 8-3 record. The field of playoff teams will be announced at 5 this evening.

It turned out to be a fitting final home game for a group of NSU seniors.

“They made this. They’re the ones that made this and they’re the ones that said this is what Northern State football’s going to be like,” said Northern coach Mike Schmidt. “This group is just a really special group of leaders and people and teammates and players. You can just see the senior leadership that we have, the talent that we have, they deserve to be NSIC North Champs.”

All five seniors on offense scored for the Wolves: Hank Kraft, Gavin Giesler, Zach Kraft, Jessie Campbell, and Jacoby Bokins.

“Pretty cool to have all those skill guys get in the end zone. It’s a pretty cool deal. … I’m happy that all those seniors got a chance to play and do their thing. That’s really awesome,” Schmidt said. “We really didn’t try to have that happen. You want that to happen, but we didn’t really try to have that happen. It just worked out that way.”

The Wolves set the tone early with two touchdowns within 13 seconds in the first five minutes of the game and never let up on the way to the victory.

Giesler, a tight end, hauled in a pair of touchdown passes from Joey Dube-Garrett, who threw for a career-high 260 yards and five TDs.

“I love blocking for the guys. It’s easy when you’ve got Hank in the backfield and he’s able to make a guy miss,” Giesler said. “We do our job up front and he makes all of us look great. Being able to get in the box two times today was super special.”

Giesler enjoyed his final game at Dacotah Bank Stadium and what the Wolves were able to accomplish.

“Just being able to come out there and grind with the guys and have a whole bunch of fun, it was super special,” Giesler said. “Being able to have the performance that all of us did today, records be broken and forever etched in the books, it’s pretty sweet.”

Kraft broke the Northern rushing record on his final attempt of the game, a 54-yard touchdown run.

“It was just a normal inside zone play and I knew I had to be patient and wait for the double team to get up to the backers,” Kraft said. “I saw it and took my time and didn’t get touched. Just had to outrun the back side safety, I guess.”

Kraft has enjoyed being a member of the Wolves.

“I think it’s pretty special. You’ve got a lot of people you can rely on, a lot of people you can lean on when you need help with something,” Kraft said. “You’ve got the community around you. I don’t think there’s a place like it.”

Adams knew he was closing in on the NSIC tackles record heading into the game, but said that wasn’t his main focus.

“I knew I was a few away coming into the game,” Adams said. “I really wasn’t thinking about it too much during the game. I was just focused on everyone doing their job, getting everyone set and just playing my game.”

The All-American linebacker talked about the experience of hoisting the NSIC North championship plaque following the game.

“Unbelievable. All the excitement and everyone,” Adams said. “It’s amazing being around all the guys you put in so much hard work with and spent so much time with and finally seeing some of the fruits of our labor paying off.”

Cooper Eisenbeisz also hauled in a touchdown pass for the Northern offense, and Cooper Logan racked up 11 tackles on defense.

The playoff field will be determined later today.

“It’s a special group and a really special team. I hope we get some more games. It’d be awesome to see them play again,” Schmidt said. “I don’t know if that’s going to happen or not, but really really proud of the way they went out and what they’ve accomplished this year.”

Schmidt believes the Wolves’ resume merits a playoff spot.

“Now we wait and see what happens for us. I always thought 8-3 would get us in with this schedule. We had three tough losses to three tough teams,” Schmidt said. “I think we are a playoff team. I think we are a top-25 team. I hope we get a chance to show that, but we’ll see what kind of happens with it throughout the next 24 hours.”

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

https://nsuwolves.com/sports/football/stats/2026/jamestown/boxscore/14649