Another close loss for UNI

CEDAR FALLS — Assistant coaches from both sides greeted each other in the press box as they left to go down to the UNI-Dome field postgame Saturday night.

They shooks hands and congratulated each other on a good job done. It was class all the way.

You heard one assistant from North Dakota State utter something somewhat under his breath as he walked away.

'That's a hell of a team,' he said about the opponent.

Only the Northern Iowa Panthers were not quite good enough in a close game. Again.

Add a 24-20 loss to a long list of not-quite losses. UNI rallied from a 21-6 hole in the third quarter and was in prime position to finally get over that hump, but an interception by NDSU linebacker Matt Plank at the Bison 18 with two minutes left allowed the five-time defending FCS national champs to survive.

The pick came after quarterback Eli Dunne threw a pass over the middle to an open running back Tyvis Smith that deflected off Smith's hand.

'The second half we were able to do some really good things,' said Dunne, who completed 20 of 39 passes for 216 yards and two touchdowns (four interceptions) in his second collegiate start. 'We just made two many mistakes.'

UNI is 3-5 overall, 2-3 in the Missouri Valley Conference, its playoff hopes hanging by the proverbial thread. The five losses have come by a combined 21 points, none by more than six points.

'There's no question about that. There's frustration there,' said UNI Coach Mark Farley. 'It's just more frustration for our players because they've battled, they've been in every position, we've played all top-15 teams (in the losses) ... It's always the last possession of those football games. We had this one, we're moving the chains very well. Just a tipped ball. Our guy had it, he was open, he just tipped it.'

Farley went out of his way not to condemn Smith.

'I'm not going to say he should have caught it, but, yeah, he should have caught it,' Farley said. 'At the same time, it was a football game, and Tyvis played his butt off. It's not just that one play ... Is it his fault? No.'

The momentum of this game swung late in the third on a Malcolm Washington interception. NDSU quarterback Easton Stick had a man well open deep but underthrew him, allowing Washington to make a play at the UNI 26.

The Panthers drove offensively down field, getting a 17-yard Dunne TD pass to Jaylin James. A short NDSU field goal on the second play of the fourth quarter made it a 24-13 game, but UNI drove again, with Dunne connecting with tight end Briley Moore on a 4-yard TD pass.

That made it 24-20 with 12:10 to go.

Northern Iowa's defense hemmed NDSU deep in its own territory much of the rest of the way, stopping the Bison's run game and giving the offense the opportunity to produce the go-ahead TD. It never came.

An Elijah Campbell interception gave UNI the ball at the NDSU 34 with 3:19 left. A 13-yard catch and run by Trevor Allen gave the Panthers a first down at the 23, then disaster struck on the very next play.

'Just like I thought. A slugfest between two really good football teams,' NDSU Coach Chris Klieman said. 'We were a resilient bunch that was able to find a way to win.'

Fourth-ranked North Dakota State is 7-1, 3-1 in the MVC. It has won two games in overtime and beat Iowa by two points.

There's your difference between the two teams. One has been able to win close games, the other hasn't.

'Right now, as I told our guys, to come back in the fourth quarter the way they came back in the fourth quarter, that's exactly what UNI football is,' said Farley, whose team plays next week at Indiana State. 'We had our opportunities. We just didn't make some plays we could have made.'

North Dakota State made the first significant play of the game midway through the first quarter.

Dunne seemed to stare down his receiver deep over the middle on 3rd-and-long, his pass intercepted by safety Robbie Grimsley, who returned it 15 yards to the UNI 24. Four runs took care of those 24 yards, with King Frazier plunging over from the 2 for the Bison touchdown and a 7-0 lead.

UNI responded well to the adversity, sustaining a 15-play drive that gave it a 1st-and-goal at the NDSU 10. But on 3rd-and-goal at the 5, Dunne was sacked, and Austin Errthum was called upon for a 30-yard field goal that he banged through, cutting the Panthers deficit to 7-3 a couple of minutes into the second quarter.

North Dakota State eventually put together its only successful drive of the first half, going 71 yards in eight plays for a TD and 14-3 lead. Stick completed four passes on the march, including a 31-yarder to tight end Jeff Illies for the score.

Illies went in motion from right to left across the formation, Stick rolled left, pulled up and threw back right to Illies, who slipped across the field and past UNI's defense. The TD came with 1:22 left.

UNI did get points after that, though.

A couple of long catch-and-run plays to the versatile Michael Malloy helped take the ball to the NDSU 7 with six seconds left. Dunne tried a quick fade pass to the left corner of the end zone to receiver Daurice Fountain that fell incomplete, and Errthum came on to nail a 24-yard field goal on the half's final play.

North Dakota State led, 14-6.

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