There were seemingly more penalty yards than miles between Fargo and Cedar Falls, Iowa. And at one point, the Division I Football Championship Subdivision game between North Dakota State and Northern Iowa almost turned into professional wrestling.
But the Bison left the Fargodome losers again, this time 42-27 to the Panthers before 16,418 fans. It dropped NDSU to 1-5 for the first time since 1975 and 0-3 in the Missouri Valley Football Conference.
Northern Iowa, ranked No. 4 in the FCS coaches poll, improved to 5-1, 3-0. As for the skirmish late in the fourth quarter, call it a draw with the only result personal foul penalties.
"You could tell right away this was going to be intense," said UNI safety Jamar Thompson. "Both sides were ready to go at it."
The officials were watching: a combined 272 yards of penalties were called with the Bison losing that battle. They had 14 penalties for 151 yards; the Panthers 13 for 121. Six were of the personal foul type.
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"It's exactly what you see on TV," Bison quarterback Nick Mertens said of the emotional factor of the game. "We don't like them but we respect each other. We play hard and they play hard."
Like the other NDSU losses, this had a similar look. The Bison had a decent performance in the statistical sheet but they couldn't score when they needed to and they couldn't stop UNI when they needed to.
"You can rack up as many yards as you want but if you don't put points on the board, you're not going to win many games," Mertens said.
Case in point: the Bison got within 28-20 on Pat Paschall's six-yard touchdown run with 9:14 left in the game. But the Panthers, starting from their own 40-yard line, responded with a 16-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Pat Grace to tight end Schuylar Oordt with 5:15 remaining.
NDSU had similar experiences in league losses to Illinois State and Southern Illinois. Close, but no cigar.
"It's frustrating for everybody on the team," said defensive end Coulter Boyer. "Every loss hurts."
This one hurt despite 514 yards of total offense and a 16-minute time of possession advantage against the league's top defensive team. Mertens was 29 of 44 for 308 yards and Paschall went over 100 yards again, this time 115 on 16 carries.
Northern Iowa was equally potent on offense, only with more of the quick-strike variety. For instance, Grace hit Maurice Turner for a 40-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter to make it 28-13.
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In the first half, the Panthers took a 21-7 lead sparked by a 68-yard sprint by running back Derrick Law, which got the Panthers out of a second-and-15 hole deep in their territory.
"We had several opportunities to come up with a big play," said NDSU head coach Craig Bohl. "Losses are losses. Northern Iowa is a good team and a physical team."
In his post-game press conference, Bohl lauded his team's effort on several occasions,
"We're certainly disappointed with 1-5," he said. "But I can tell you: the effort is not of a 1-5 football team. Those are things as a coach that keep you moving forward."
