ABERDEEN – The Northern State Wolves were firing on all cylinders on Saturday.

The Wolves cruised past Minot State for a 46-9 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference victory in the Gypsy Days football game at Dacotah Bank Stadium.

“I’m just really super happy for the guys today and they deserve this. They earned it,” Northern State head coach Mike Schmidt said of the win.

The Wolves’ established the running game early, scoring four first-half rushing touchdowns, with Stanley Haskins, Jr. scoring the opening touchdown on an 11-yard run, followed by three rushing touchdowns by Brett Brenton, as Northern built a 25-3 halftime lead.

Brenton was quick to give credit to his teammates for the success in the first half.

“My offensive line, it’s really on them,” Brenton said. “They really were doing their job, making holes really easy for me to see, and I was just following them and they took me to the promised land.”

Brenton scored rushing touchdowns of 1, 30, and 7 yards, while leading the team with 84 yards rushing. The Wolves totaled 217 rushing yards, and Schmidt said it took a full team effort to establish the running game.

“I thought we had great scheme, our running backs had great vision, and our offensive line really executed really well the entire thing that we needed them to execute,” Schmidt said.

In the second half, Northern’s passing attack became more prevalent as quarterback Jacob Van Landingham tossed touchdown passes to Dewaylon Ingram and Dakota Larson.

Van Landingham, a converted tight end and Virginia Tech transfer, finished 11-for-12 passing for 145 yards and two touchdowns in his first start, while Larson led the team with 71 receiving yards on five receptions. Ingram added 69 yards.

Despite not playing quarterback in college, Van Landingham said his prior experience playing the position in high school helped entering Saturday’s contest.

“The last time I even started a game at quarterback was like midway through my senior year of high school,” Van Landingham said. “But I haven’t been away from it the past four years, whether I was here or where I transferred in from. It felt good. I’m ready to go at it again.”

Schmidt was impressed with Van Landingham’s first start at quarterback.

“I think there’s just a lot of stuff that has to start with Jacob Van Landingham,” Schmidt said. “What a great teammate, person, player. He just wants to help the team, and that’s all he’s ever wanted to do is help the team, and it just says a lot about who he is. So, for him to come out and play like that is pretty amazing.”

Hank Kraft added a rushing touchdown in the third quarter to cap off the Wolves’ scoring efforts, while the Beavers tacked on a touchdown in the fourth quarter to bring the score to the final count of 46-9.

Defensively, the Wolves limited the Beavers to 212 yards of total offense, while shutting down almost anything that was thrown their way.

“I thought the guys just bought into and had a lot of confidence in the scheme we were running, and you could just see that all day today,” Schmidt said. “They were itching for it.”

Payton Hughes led the Wolves defense with 8 tackles, while Trey King had seven tackles, including five tackles for loss, and two forced fumbles. Ismael Kante added a sack.

The win caps off a week of Gypsy Days festivities, and now the Wolves (2-4) will travel to Southwest Minnesota State on Saturday. Schmidt said the team will need to continue to improve as a whole as it prepares throughout the week.

“We’ve just got to continue to use the run game, continue to have JVL grow in that quarterback spot and have a lot of fun there,” Schmidt said. “Then defensively we’ve just really got to dig in on the scheme and what we’re doing and make sure everyone knows where we’re going, what we’re doing, and play with the same confidence, energy, and enthusiasm that we showed today.”

To see a complete box from Saturday’s contest, click on the following link:

https://nsuwolves.com/sports/football/stats/2023/minot-state/boxscore/13163