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Ben Steeves, whose third-period goal gave UMD a 3-3 tie with Minnesota, drilled this shot past goalie Justen Close to clinch the 2-0 shootout edge. Photos by John Gilbert.

A university can have a better day than UMD did last Saturday, but it’s difficult to imagine it. It started off at High Noon, when the Bulldogs honored their 17 seniors on the football team as it took the Malosky Stadium turf to win a wild shootout, 44-32 against a Concordia of St. Paul team that never believed it was out of the game, even when trailing 41-11.

Then you could zip over the hill and down to AMSOIL Arena, where the UMD women’s hockey team completed a sweep against St. Thomas on freshman Eve Gascon blanked the Tommies 4-0 for her first collegiate shutout. The Bulldogs had beaten St. Thomas 3-1 Friday night. If you wanted to hang closer to campus, you could have caught UMD’s final home volleyball match of the season, a desperately needed 3-0 sweep against Sioux Falls — coming on the heels of Friday’s stunning upset, when the Bulldogs won the first two sets against Southwest Minnesota State 25-22 and 25-15, only to see Southwest storm back to win 25-21, 26-24 and 23-21 to swipe a 3-2 turnabout. The return to form Saturday sends UMD off on the road for its final two matches this weekend. Saturday night was the pinnacle for UMD, as the Bulldogs concluded a home-and-home series against Minnesota, after a lifeless 5-1 loss UMD suffered at Mariucci Arena on Friday. The Bulldogs were obviously downhearted from the weeklong suffering because of former Bulldog Adam Johnson’s shocking death from a skate cut to his throat while playing for Nottingham in the United Kingdom Elite League. There would be a tastefully done pregame ceremony at AMSOIL Arena, where a sellout crowd of 7,345 watched a tribute video showing some of Johnson’s flashy goals during his two seasons with the Bulldogs. All the emotion, however, made it more important that the Bulldogs play at full intensity against the Gophers. They did just that against the speedy and skilled Gophers. Jack Smith scored his first college goal in the first period, and after Jimmy Snuggerud tied it for Minnesota midway through the second, Cole Spicer regained the lead at 2-1 for UMD with a power-play sot from inside the left circle. The wild second period then saw Gophers Aaron Huglen, on a power play, and Jaxon Nelson score 24 seconds apart for a 3-2 Minnesota lead. Ben Steeves notched his seventh goal of the season on a power play to open the third period, and the teams battled through the rest of the scoreless period, and a 3-on-3 overtime, leaving an official 3-3 tie. Despite a 50-30 edge in shots on goal, the Gophers had to face a UMD team that seems to like shootouts. Sure enough, Brett Olson skated in, beat Justen Close with a neat, late move and slid the puck past him, just inside the left post.

UMD goaltender Matthew Thiessen blocked the puck and sent Minnesota's Rhett Pitlick flying to complete the shootout victory.

Matthew Thiessen, who had relieved Zach Stejskal Friday, stopped Brody Lamb, and when Steeves skated in and drilled his shot past Close for a 2-0 edge in the 3-man shootout, Thiessen challenged Rhett Pitlick, blocking his shot and sending him flying over him. The game is officially a tie, but don’t tell the Bulldogs, or the 7,345 fans, that. They won’t buy it. So complete was UMD’s daylong sweep of football, volleyball, women’s and men’s hockey, that when they held the between-periods promotion gimmick where a fan gets to try to slide a puck into a small slot in a shot-board from the blue line, then the center red line, then the far goal line, even that was a success as the shooter made all three distances to guarantee him a free Subway sandwich every week for the rest of the season.

Brett Olson beats Minnesota goalie Justen Close to open UMD's shootout victory after the teams had tied 3-3 Saturday night.

The Bulldog football game was weird, because UMD throttled Concordia for a 24-0 first quarter, which included a Kyle Walljasper touchdown pass, a safety, then Walljasper catching a trick-play pass from Jimmy Durocher, and a 30-yard run by Daniel Mitchell for another touchdown. Walljasper threw two more touchdown passes in the second quarter, as UMD padded the lead to 38-11.

A good number of the chilly fans headed for their cars and other alternatives at halftime, but Concordia was not about to give up. In fact, they outscored UMD 21-6 in the second half, as quarterback Conner Cordts threw two touchdown passes and a blocked punt return for another touchdown closed the gap.

For the game, Cordts was 21-37 for 302 yards to Walljasper’s 21-31 for 207 yards, and Walljasper rushed 12 times for 55 yards, supported by 51 from Mitchell and 47 for McKnight. The highlights were plenty, but had to be shared with the incredible speed of Esko, which played its Section 7AAA high school championship game at Malosky on Friday night. Esko whipped Pequot Lakes 34-14 for the title and a berth in this week’s state tournament, and it will be interesting to see if any team can contain the explosive Eskomos. They come at you in a formation we used to call a double-wing, with junior quarterback Jacion Owens in shotgun, surrounded by seniors Makoi Perich on his left, Ethan Killchowski on his right and Joey Antonutti behind him. He can make the best use of his time by handing the ball to Koi Perich — who has committed to play at the University of Minnesota next fall — or fake to him and give it to one of the other two seniors in the backfield. Later, Gino Bertogliat replaced Antonutti at fullback for some heavy-duty line plunges.

Esko's Koi Perich seemed to be floating on air as he raced 72 yards for his second of three touchdowns against Pequot Lakes in the Section 7AAA final.

Perich scored the game’s first touchdown for a 6-0 first quarter lead. Then he put on a show by taking a pitch from Owens on what looked like a left-end sweep, except Perich turned it up and went off-tackle, then cut to the left sideline and was gone for a 73-yard touchdown run. Next turn with the ball, Owens faced a third and long, but fired a pass up the left sideline to Sam Haugen, who was caught at the Pequot Lakes 2. So Owens swept right end himself for the touchdown.

Sam Haugen caught third-and-23 Jacion Owens pass for a 43-yard Esko first down to set up the third Eskomo touchdown in their 34-13 victory over Pequot Lakes.

Pequot Lakes quarterback Clay Erickson threw a touchdown pass before the half ended, trimming it to 19-7, but Owens went back to work and hooked up with Isaak Sertich, who caught the ball, stayed in-bounds, spun away from a defender, and finished a 34-yard touchdown. Pequot Lakes got another touchdown, still battling at 26-14, and after Perich scored his third touchdown on a short run, he also intercepted a pass in the end zone, and delivered several key blows on defense that were impressive. Owens ended the game by directing the Eskomos down close, then taking a knee as if to avoid rubbing it in.

Esko's Isaak Sertich toe-danced down the sideline for a 34-yard touchdown reception.

That display, plus the crazy UMD game, couldn’t prepare us for Sunday’s Vikings game, in which backup Jaren Hall got his first chance to start at quarterback, with Kirk Cousins out with surgery on a torn Achilles tendon. But Hall got hurt when he tried to scramble for a touchdown in Atlanta and was knocked back, hitting his head when he went down on his back in the second quarter.

Newly signed Joshua Hobbs, a career back-up, was sent in having been in camp for only two days, and without any first-team snaps. Dobbs, who wasn’t sure of his new teammates’ first names, took charge, completing 20-30 for 158 yards and two touchdowns, and remarkably scrambling and running sweeps seven times for a game-leading 66 yards. What, in the name of Case Keenum, is going on here? A Vikings quarterback who is smart, quick, agile and suddenly gives the offense a guiding light.

This weekend, UMD is on the road for football and volleyball, but the men’s hockey team returns to AMSOIL Arena for their new biggest rival — the North Dakota Fighting Hawks, rebuilt and picked as NCHC co-favorites, come to town for the Bulldogs conference opening series.