GRAND FORKS — North Dakota State had no Nickel Trophy to take out of the Alerus Center on Saturday. The Bison had a better token: an outright Missouri Valley Football Conference title.
An old-school slugfest broke out indoors and the Bison emerged with a 15-10 victory before 12,749 fans. NDSU improved to 10-0 overall and 7-0 in the league with one game remaining.
UND fell to 6-4, 4-2 in the MVFC.
“It means a lot, we talk about how to reach your goals,” said Bison head coach Tim Polasek. “We feel like winning Missouri Valley gives you a chance at a 1 or 2 seed. It’s huge.”
The only thing missing were the outdoors, rain and mud like when linebacker Logan Kopp stuffed quarterback Jerry Kaminski on fourth-and-inches near midfield and the Bison got the ball with 4:24 remaining.
“We knew it was going to be a four-quarter battle,” Kopp said. “We started off a little slow, but keep trusting our coaching and by the second half we had a good idea what they were doing. It allowed us to play a little faster.”
A 32-yard pass to tight end Reis Kessel was the big play that reached the 8. Quarterback Cole Payton took it in from there on the next play with 2:22 left and NDSU had its first lead of the day at 15-10 after Payton’s two-point conversion run failed.
“Shout out to (the defense), they bailed us out a lot today,” Payton said.
The Bison were called for a 15-yard personal foul on that play, meaning Eli Ozick had to kick off from his 20-yard line. The Fighting Hawks were called for an illegal forward pass on a flip during a reverse on the kickoff, however, and it put them back at their 14 with 2:13 remaining. NDSU stopped Kaminski on three straight passing attempts, forcing a punt.
NDSU took over at its 37 at 1:54. A 10-yard holding penalty on the first play made it first-and-20. The Bison punted and UND took over at its 29 with 1:22 left and no time outs.
A pair of passes for first downs reached the Bison 44 with 37 seconds to play.
Two plays later, a diving NDSU cornerback Anthony Chideme-Alfaro picked off Kaminski near the goal line, a play that went under video review. It was upheld.
“Anthony’s catch was as good of a play that I can remember,” Polasek said. “That’s going to get the ball and making a play.”
Inches were hard to gain by at times, much less yards. The Fighting Hawks held down the powerful Bison offense and Payton for the first time this season, was limited to 8 of 15 passing for 125 yards.
“A game of inches and we came up short too many times,” Payton said. “That’s a good outfit over there.”
NDSU can look back at penalties (11 for 98 yards), a few of the critical type that stalled first downs or drives altogether. A holding call midway in the fourth quarter led to UND stuffing a third-and-1 running play and a punt.
Offense was in high demand all day for both teams. NDSU linebacker Donovan Woolen, for instance, had a career-high 17 tackles, the most for a Bison player since Jackson Hankey had 17 stops in the 2019 national title game against James Madison.
“The job that ‘Code Green’ did, phenomenal,” Polasek said of his defense. “We were too late to party to be able to attack areas that we wanted to.”
The Bison picked up where they left off two years ago in their blowout loss at the Alerus, going three-and-out on their first possession and seeing a Payton pass picked off the next time they got the ball. Linebacker Malachi McNeal snagged a third-and-10 attempt in traffic and returned it to the Bison 11-yard line.
Kaminski gained nine yards before running back Sawyer Seidl nearly went untouched up the middle for the touchdown. That made it 7-0 late in the first quarter.
North Dakota State’s Barika Kpeenu takes on North Dakota’s Zach Lewis on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, at the Alerus Center in Grand Forks.
David Samson / The Forum
NDSU finally got something going, getting a big 26-yard pass from Payton to Bryce Lance on third-and-5, which reached the UND 48. The drive reached the 7-yard line, but NDSU stalled and Ozick’s 24-yard field goal cut the deficit to 7-3 early in the second quarter.
UND squandered its chances to take a two-possession advantage, running seven offensive plays from inside the Bison 6-yard line. A defensive holding penalty negated a third-down quarterback sack and the Hawks had first-and-goal at the 2. But three incompletions forced a 20-yard field goal attempt, which Kenten Laughman missed.
“Our guys battled all day long,” said UND head coach Eric Schmidt. “At the 1 and get nothing out of that drive. That was I think you have to be able to ride momentum and gain some separation.”
With 6:33 before halftime, it was still 7-3.
“I’m excited for the defense,” Polasek said. “The defense went and won us a game today.”
The Bison cut the lead to a point 2:28 before halftime on Ozick’s 38-yard field goal. A 28-yard pass to Lance and a 21-yard run by Barika Kpeenu got the Bison within scoring distance.
The half ended 7-6.
The Fighting Hawks chewed over half of the third quarter after taking the second-half kickoff. A defensive hold on a third-down sack kept the drive alive, as well as an NDSU personal foul penalty. A 12-yard pass to Haydn Stay converted a third-and-8.
This time, Laughman was good from 32 yards and the Hawks led 10-6. A Keenan Wilson interception off a tipped pass at the line of scrimmage set the Bison up in golden position at the UND 19-yard line.
Again, the Bison offense did nothing with it, settling for a 33-yard Ozick field goal late in the third quarter. NDSU had a second-and-2, but a two-yard loss by Kpeenu and an incomplete pass forced the FG.
It was 10-9 heading to the final 15 minutes.
Jeff Kolpack, the son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he’s covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995. He has covered all 10 of NDSU’s Division I FCS national football titles and has written four books: “Horns Up,” “North Dakota Tough,” “Covid Kids” and “They Caught Them Sleeping: How Dot Reinvented the Pretzel.” He is also the radio host of “The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack” April through August.