Box Score MINOT, N.D. – Minot State University ended up giving Northern State too much time to respond.

About four seconds too much.

Northern State's Jared Jacobson found Michael Alberts on a 1-yard TD pass and then called his own number for the two-point conversion to rally the Wolves to a 22-21 win over the Beavers to spoil Hall of Fame weekend Saturday at Herb Parker Stadium.

"I thought we did well today," said MISU head coach Paul Rudolph. "We just flat out played better than we had in the past few games and that was good to see. We limited what their offense could do for the most part but just couldn't come up with a stop when we needed it."

The Alberts' TD catch came a minute and 51 seconds after the Beaver went up by seven on a Randell Barber (So., RB, Maricopa, Ariz.) touchdown run and a subsequent Wayne Peters (Sr., WR, Carson, Calif.) from Zac Cunha (So., QB, Rocklin, Calif.) two-point conversion.

The two teams, who have already played a three-overtime game each this year, looked to be destined for another overtime game as Alberts completed an 11-play, 65-yard drive, but NSU decided to go for two. Jacobson rolled out to his right, but chose to tuck the ball and run for the conversion.

"They were a good squad and had a big quarterback," said MISU linebacker Casey Weinmann (Jr., Selz, N.D.), who led the team with 13 tackles. "Against the zone option it's all about gap control and staying spread out and not giving the ball carrier an easy out. I feel like we did a good job on that today and didn't allow any big plays. It's just too bad we couldn't hold them out of the end zone at the end."

The teams had similar final stats as they both finished with 16 first downs, a 30:07 to 29:53 time of possession edge for NSU and a 357-319 total yards advantage for Minot State. But the Wolves finished with 174 yards rushing, while the Beavers had 277 yards passing.

Minot State (1-5 overall, 1-5 NSIC, 0-2 NSIC North) took a 13-7 lead into halftime as MISU scored 13 straight points after spotting NSU an early 7-0 lead on a Jacobson 9-yard TD.
MISU cut the lead to 7-3 with a 28-yard field goal by Brian Gutierrez (Jr., K, Granada Hills, Calif.) field goal with 6:19 to play in the first quarter. The Beavers took a 10-7 lead – the first lead since a dramatic third-overtime catch by Peters to defeat Augustana College in week 2 – on another Peters' catch, this time an 8-yard strike from Cunha with one second remaining in the first quarter. Gutierrez put the Beavers up 13-7 with a 31-yard field goal just before halftime.

"We were feeling pretty good about things at the point," Rudolph said. "We had a lead, our defense was looking tough. It would have been nice to have a few more touchdowns instead of field goals but coming out for the second half we felt pretty good about ourselves."

But NSU took back the lead with a 46-yard run by Cameron Pudwill on a fourth-and-short run that he broke for the score midway through the third quarter, setting up the late-game dramatics.

The Wolves (2-4, 2-4, 1-1) finished with 174 yards rushing with no individual over the 51 by Pudwill. Shane Erlandson and Jacobson finished with 49 and 48 yards respectively. Jacobson finished with 145 yards passing.

Cunha went 21-for-33 for 277 yards, a TD and an interception. He found Peters seven times for 107 yards and the one touchdown. Barber finished with 59-yards rushing, while Jared Mustipher (R-Fr., RB, Melbourne, Fla.) added 40 yards on the ground.

On defense, along with Weinmann, Fatilua (Sr., LB, Vallejo, Calif.) added nine tackles and forced fumble. Brandon Boston (Jr., DB, Richmond, Texas) picked off his first pass as a Beaver and also added a pass breakup to pace MISU.

The Beavers will have a tough order ahead of them if they are to break a four-game losing streak, traveling to nationally ranked Minnesota Duluth Saturday.