The University of Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagles football team was unable to overcome a slow start in a 44-20 loss against Minnesota State-Moorhead in an NSIC game played at Ed Widseth Field.
Minnesota State Moorhead capitalized off an early Minnesota Crookston miscue to gain the lead just one minute into the season. On the Golden Eagles opening drive, quarterback Jalin Scott (Sr., Houston, TX) rushed to his right before tossing a lateral behind his intended target, the fumble was scooped up by the Dragons’ Carson Zarak (Sr., Wahpeton, ND) and carried 42-yards into the endzone for a defensive touchdown giving the visitors a 7-0 lead after the Hobet Diaz (Sr., Pelican Rapids) extra-point.
Minnesota Crookston second drive resulted in a punt after just three plays giving MSU-Moorhead’s offense their first possession starting at their 27-yard line with 11:28 to play in the first quarter. The Dragons used six short passes and just one running play to march down the field to the UMC 3-yard lined before quarterback Jakup Sinani (Jr., Oak Creek, WI) kept a read-option and ran untouched into the endzone giving the Dragons a 14-0 lead after the PAT.
The Golden Eagles managed their first first down of the game when quarterback Tristan Robbins (Soph., Muskegon, MI) gained two-yard on a 3rd down and one at the UMC 34-yard line. Minnesota Crookston went for their second conversion of the drive three plays later, but a fumble of 4th down and one was recovered by MSU-Moorhead’s Shad Vedaa (Jr., Velva, ND) setting MSU-Moorhead up at the Minnesota Crookston 49-yard line.
Two plays after the fumble recovery, Dragons’ running back Herman Gray (Sr., Las Vegas, NV) ran for 16-yards to the Golden Eagles’ five-yard line before Jakup Sinani found wide receiver Trent Marquart (Soph., Glenburn, ND) for a touch connection giving Minnesota State-Moorhead a 21-0. “We had too many turnovers on offense,” said Minnesota Crookston head coach Mark Dufner. “Our margin for error isn’t what some of these other teams have.”
After Minnesota Crookston’s defense forced their first punt of the night, Nathan Coy (R-Soph., Sun Prarie, WI) returned the punt 13-yards to the MSU-Moorhead 47-yard line. Jalin Scott took the first snap of the subsequent drive running for 25-yards down to the MSU-Moorhead 22-yard line. Two plays later, Scott lobbed a pass into the corner of the endzone for Jonattan Mudd (Sr., Gardena, CA) who made the catch over the Dragons’ defensive back for a 20-yard touchdown reception giving the Golden Eagles their first points of the season. Minnesota Crookston failed its two-point conversion attempt settling for a 21-6 halftime deficit.
MSU-Moorhead started with the football in the second half and added to its lead on their opening drive of the third quarter. Jakup Sinani hit Grady Bresnahan (Jr., Casselton, ND) for 10-yards before connecting with Herman Gray for a 10-yard pass. Sinani marched the Dragons further down the field with a 22-yard completion to Ryan Harvey-Turner (Soph., Milwaukee, WI) setting MSU-Moorhead up at the UMC 20-yard line. The Dragons’ drive stalled in the red zone as the visitors settled for a 36-yard Hobet Diaz field goal increasing their lead to 24-6 just 2:58 into the second half.
UMC’s offense was unable to muster much in the third quarter, going three-and-out on both possessions in the 15 minutes. MSU-Moorhead took possession at their 30-yard line with 5:09 to play in the quarter and marched the ball 70-yard over eleven plays capped off by a Denver Colgrove (Jr., Dickinson, ND) five-yard run boosting the Dragons’ lead to 30-6 heading into the final quarter.
The Golden Eagles responded quickly to open the fourth quarter. Tristin Robbins completed a pair of passes to Nathan Coy for a total of 33 yards down to the MSU-Moorhead 41-yard line before hitting Wyatt Shedrick III (R-Fr., Scottsdale, AZ) in stride for a 41-yard touchdown along the near sideline followed by another failed two-point conversion bringing Minnesota Crookston within 30-12 with 14:13 to play. “I thought those guys showed up,” said Dufner of his receiving corp. “I thought Mudd same plays, Coy made some plays, we had quite a few guys who made some plays here tonight. Wyatt’s probably our fastest guy and he did a nice job on that play.”
Herman Gray hauled in an 11-yard touchdown reception later in the quarter before Ty Jochim (Jr., Fargo, ND) put the final icing on the MSU-Moorhead cake with a two-yard touchdown run giving the visitors a 44-12 lead with 3:37 remaining. Minnesota Crookston did manage one last touchdown drive as Tristan Robbins paced the Golden Eagles down the field with four completions before connecting on a fade route to Jonattan Mudd from four-yards out. Wyatt Shedrickk III carried out a sweeping run inside the far pylon on the two-point conversion to close out the scoring as the Golden Eagles fell 44-20. “(Our offense) put some nice drives together,” summarized Dufner. “Our line held up with protection, we were able to get some nice balls thrown to make plays on the outside. We were able to make some plays in the passing game. We’ve just got to be able to stay more consistent in the running game to sustain drives a little better. We need to work on our consistency of sustaining drives a little better. The defense certainly did some good things out there. The big thing for them is they’ve got to get (the offense) off schedule on first down. If they’re able to do that than they have the offense behind the chains and we’re able to get after them with some of our pressures and things like that. They did some good things, but we had some blown assignments that we’ve got to clean up. That happens in first games, but we’ve got to get better now.”
Minnesota Crookston falls to 0-1 and will return to the gridiron next Saturday when the Golden Eagles travel to St. Cloud to take on the SCSU Huskies at 6 P.M. on KROX. MSU-Moorhead starts the season 1-0.
| Box Score | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Final |
| MSU-Moorhead | 14 | 7 | 9 | 14 | 44 |
| UMC | 0 | 6 | 0 | 14 | 20 |
1st Quarter-
14:05 – MSUM – Carson Zarak 58 yard fumble return (Hobet Diaz kick)
6:19 – MSUM – Jakup Sinani 3 yard run (Hobet Diaz kick)
2nd Quarter-
13:28 – MSUM – Trent Marquart 4 yard pass from Jakup Sinani (Hobet Diaz kick)
8:21 – UMC – Jonattan Mudd 20 yard pass from Jalen Scott (Pass failed)
3rd Quarter –
12:02 – MSUM – Hobet Diaz 36 yard field goal
00:05 – MSUM – Denver Colgrove 5 yard run (Hobet Diaz kick)
4th Quarter –
14:13 – UMC – Wyatt Shedrick III 41 yard pass from Tristan Robbins (Pass failed)
4:29 – MSUM – Herman Gray 11 yard pass from Jakup Sinani (Hobet Diaz kick)
3:37 – MSUM – Ty Jochim 2 yard run (Hobet Diaz kick)
1:19 – UMC – Jonattan Mudd 4 yard pass from Tristan Robbins (Wyatt Shedrick run)
