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UMD's Mason Wilson decks Mankato quarterback Hayden Eckert. Photos by John Gilbert.

UMD football coach Curt Wiese was willing to be interviewed as he stood on the Malosky Stadium turf after his Bulldogs had whipped Minnesota State Mankato 30-16 on Saturday, he just never had time for more than a phrase or two because of a steady stream of players and their families and UMD fans coming up to congratulate him. He acknowledged them all.

“Hey, give me a call sometime,” he yelled to one fellow. “My phone still works. We can make plans to go ice fishing.”

Wiese was in understandably high spirits because all season he has been having to search for reasons why the Bulldogs seemed to fall short of playing their absolute best. 

It finally happened Saturday, when their opponent was the formidable MSU Mankato Mavericks, always an intense rival for UMD.

“Our defense played great, all day,” Wiese said. “And so did our offense. It was good to see us finally play the way we knew they could all season. That’s the tough part, to know how good we are and yet getting left behind.”

When it was over, UMD’s record had improved to 6-4 in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, 7-4 overall, but it would help the Bulldogs reach the NCAA regional playoffs, while Mankato (7-3 NSIC and 8-3 overall) would advance along with Bemidji State and NSIC champ Augustana. As it turned out, Bemidji State scored late to beat Augustana 17-10 in another season finale.

But even without advancing, UMD made some bold statements in this game, showing great poise and the dedication of its 21 seniors after allowing an opening drive by Mankato for a 7-0 lead on a beautiful 39-yard pass from Hayden Eckern. 

With no hesitation, UMD came back to score two second-quarter touchdowns, by Derrick Johnson, and when Ryder Patterson caught a 39-yard pass from Kyle Walljasper.
Another spectacular play closed the gap for Mankato, when Khai West blocked the extra point kick, grabbed the ball and raced untouched up the left sideline, 96 yards to earn the two points for a PAT return. 

That made it 13-9 for UMD at halftime, but while Wiese had no doubts, observers who had watched the Bulldogs lose three games on the final play earlier in the season, had serious concerns.

Alex Riley was wide open in the end zone for one of three Kyle Walljasper touchdown passes in UMD's 30-16 win over MSU Mankato.

With his usual aggressive running and a precise passing touch, Walljasper brought the Bulldogs down the field, ignored a couple of setbacks, and somehow sprung freshman running back Alex Riley into an isolated and wide-open spot in the end zone to open the second half with a 20-9 cushion. 

On their next drive, the Bulldogs marched downfield again, this time with Walljasper spotting Cole Ewald for a 10-yard touchdown pass and it was 27-9 after three quarters.

The football success didn’t necessarily carry over, because the UMD women’s hockey team lost 4-1 and then 3-2 to arch-rival Minnesota down at AMSOIL Arena. 

The men, meanwhile, were far away at Miami of Ohio, but they did very well, establishing some consistency with a 5-0 victory Friday, then stormed back from an early 2-0 deficit to whip the Red Hawks 7-2 Saturday for a sweep, which sends them home to take on Western Michigan this weekend with a full he’d of steam. 

The return of Dominic James and Jack Smith from the injured list supplied two needed centermen, although freshman Max Plante was still held out. Anthony Menghini, who had moved up to first-line duty, scored a goal Friday and two more Saturday.

The women, meanwhile, struggled against the swift Gophers, falling behind 1-0 on a late power play in the first period, but bouncing back to tie it 1-1 on da goal by Jenna Baskin. But the Gophers, who had a 23-0 edge in first-period shots, made it 2-1 midway through the second period, and then got a stark-looking 2-on-0 shorthanded break by swiping the puck from UMD’s right point and zooming in alone at Eve Gascon. 

Gopher center Ella Huber converts a short-handed 2-on-0 in Friday's first game against UMD.

They also happened to be Minnesota’s top two players, and Abbey Murphy closed to the left edge before feeding across the goal-mouth, where Ella Huber lunged to snap her shot over Gascon’s left shoulder and just under the crossbar on the upper right for a 3-1 lead.

Huber’s second goal of the game cam with Gascon on the bench for an extra skater, ad the 4-1 victory was a pretty accurate indication of the 52-28 shot edge and control of the flow of play by Minnesota.
On Saturday, right as the volleyball team was losing in four games to end their season up at Romano Gym, the Bulldogs played a much stronger and more forceful game, even scoring first on a Hamden Davis goal at 3:54 of the first period before the Gophers got rolling. 

The Gophers got two goals past Gascon before the first period ended, and it stayed 2-1 until midway through the third period, when Emma Conner made it 3-1.

UMD goaltender Eve Gascon split her pads to stop a break-in by Minnesota's Abbey Murphy.

UMD got a chance to come back when two successive penalties were called on the Gophers, and on the 5-on-3, Nina Jobst-Smith moved into position from the right point and zipped a shot from the circle past goaltender Hannah Clark with 3:21 remaining.

The Bulldog women stay at AMSOIL, facing Bemidji State on Friday and Saturday afternoons as preliminaries to the men’s games.  

If you’re an NFL fan, you couldn’t have had a better day than last Sunday, when virtually every game came down to the last play, unless they were one of the few blowouts. 

The Vikings won when they got two gift penalty calls against Tennessee on fourth-and-one plays, leading to the winning touchdown in a 23-13 win. The Vikings were penalized three times, the Titans 13 times for 91 yards. 

The Packers also benefitted by the victimized Chicago Bears, who had them by the throat but tried too hard to arrange the perfect game-ending field goal — only to have it blocked by the Packers as time expired.

Buffalo beat Kansas City 30-21 as Josh Allen outplayed Pat Mahomes. Seattle beat San Francisco 20-17 when quarterback Geno Smith, finding no receivers, ran for the deciding TD.  Pittsburgh beat Baltimore 18-16 with six field goals. Denver beat Atlanta 38-6 as rookie Bo Nix threw four touchdown passes. And Detroit solidified its hold on first place by thrashing Jacksonville 52-6 as Jared Goff threw four touchdown passes while going 24-29 for 412 yards. 

In the Sunday night game, an intriguing duel between the Chargers Justin Herbert, who earned a 24-6 halftime lead, and Joe Burrow, who brought Cincinnati back to a 27-27 tie, before J.K. Dobbins ran 29 yards for the winning touchdown with 18 seconds left.