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Backup quarterback Jacob Eggert fires his second TD pass ...

... Freshman Chuck Gilbert III caught Eggert's pass for 53-yard TD. Photos by John Gilbert.

As a football fan living in Duluth, it would be hard to imagine a better weekend than what unfolded last weekend. 

The UMD Bulldogs, still smarting from a 30-29 loss to Minnesota State Moorhead with 0:00 on the clock and a 2-point conversion required to decide the outcome, got it all together Saturday in their second home game by thrashing Southwest Minnesota State 62-0 with seven different Bulldogs scoring touchdowns at Malosky Stadium.

The next day, we watched on TV as the Minnesota Vikings blitzed the Green Bay Packers — but only for the first half, before the Packers rallied from a 28-0 deficit to fall just barely short in a 31-29 Vikings triumph at Lambeau Field.

Football doesn’t own the spotlight this weekend, however, as the UMD men’s hockey team opens with a game against Bemidji State on Friday and Manitoba on Saturday at AMSOIL Arena. 
The UMD women had the rarity of a postponement last weekend, as Syracuse was unable to travel to Duluth from New York because of the after-effects of the hurricane. The series has been rescheduled for January.

It’s fortunate that there was so much excitement generated in those two football venues last weekend, because while they were occurring, baseball ended with a whimper, as the Minnesota Twins mercifully ended one of the most disastrous collapses in team history. 

The Twins were in contention for first place as they came home for their last six games — three against the Miami Marlins and the final three against the Baltimore Orioles. The Twins needed to win some games to have a chance, at least for a wild-card slot, but instead they lost five of those six, mostly by blowouts as the pitching faltered, the hitting completed its final month vanishing act, and the defense kicking balls around and throwing them away.

In view of that, we can marvel at UMD’s total and complete domination of Southwest State, and even the Vikings could learn from the Bulldogs, who scored early and often, and never let the poor Mustangs draw a complete breath.

“We really needed that,” said UMD coach Curt Wiese. “We haven’t really had a ‘clean’ game from start to finish, and we did today. Everybody played well on offense and defense and special teams, and we even got to use all four of our quarterbacks.”

Kyle Walljasper started and hit DaShaun James for two long touchdown passes — 66 yards in the opening five minutes, and 64 yards three minutes into the second quarter — and threw a tackle-eligible trick play touchdown pass to giant tackle Aiden Williams. 

Junior DaShaun Ames completes 66-yard touchdown pass play, his first of two in the Homecoming game.

Senior Aiden Williams had a large escort on a tackle-eligible TD.

After his second TD pass to Ames, Walljasper took a seat and gave the ball to Jacob Eggert, who ran for a touchdown to make it 41-0 six minutes into the second quarter, and flung a 53-yard TD pass to freshman Chuck Gilbert III to make it 48-0 by halftime.

A pair of freshmen scored in the second half, Ben Vallafskey on a 61-yard dash win the third quarter and Ben Lindley on a 44-yard run in the fourth. By then, No. 3 quarterback Al Boarman had come in and ran the offense, and the ball, before another freshman quarterback, Austin Randall, finished up.
“It was fun,” said Boarman. “We rotate quarterbacks quite a bit, and we all can play.”

AJ Boarman, the third of four quarterbacks UMD used, made big gain.

A highlight was when Williams lined up at his normal tackle position, then dropped back on the left side as Walljasper rolled out to the right. When he got to the right end, Walljasper whirled and threw a strike back to the left sideline, where Williams, who is a sixth-year offensive tackle, at 6-foot-6 and 295 pounds, was above everybody else for the catch. Then he headed for the end zone. 

I asked him if anyone got a hand on him, and he shook his head, grinning.

“No,” he said. “I started running and I saw their defensive back coming up, and I thought one of two things would happen. Either I was going to ‘truck’ him, or Carter [Geerts] would block him. Carter blocked him.”

Wiese said that was a play created by offensive coordinator Chase Vogler, and this was the first time the Bulldogs had the chance to execute it. 

It was all part of the fun of Homecoming, plus Wiese’s 100th victory as UMD coach, in a game when the Bulldogs outrushed SW Minnesota 266-4, and outpassed the Mustangs 218-73, for a total edge of 484-77.

Now it’s back on the road, for a showdown against powerful Augustana, a team that won’t be happy, having just been stung by MSU Moorhead 43-40 on freshman Max Watson’s 40-yard field goal in the closing seconds. 

Moorhead quarterback Jack Strand, who bedeviled the Bulldogs two weeks earlier, was 47-for-67 passing for 475 yards and five touchdowns.

The Vikings, meanwhile, got another superb performance from Sam Darnold at quarterback, as he shredded the Green Bay defense right there at Lambeau to lead the Vikings to a 28-0 lead. He fired two touchdown passes in the first quarter, then sent Jacob Addison around end on a jet-sweep before hooking up with Justin Jefferson for a 14-yard touchdown pass, before the returning Jordan Love got the Packers on the board with his first of three scoring passes for the day.

Love got the Packers back into the game, going 32-54 for 389 yards, with four touchdowns, but also with three interceptions. 

Darnold, playing his fourth straight solid game, was 20-28 for 275 yards and three TDs with one interception. Darnold had a 123.4 QB rating to Love’s 83.

The Vikings this weekend will travel to London to face Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets in part of the NFL’s international series.

UMD senior Jacob Mogensen jogs into end zone with game-opening interception in 62-0 romp.