This was the complete opposite of what the Northern State Wolves wanted for their first home game of the football season.

The University of Sioux Falls set the tone early with 13 points in just over four minutes and rolled to a 34-10 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference victory at Dacotah Bank Stadium Saturday night.

“We’re just disappointed in the level of football that we just played,” said Northern coach Mike Schmidt following the contest.

From missed field goals to turnovers to giving up big plays, the Wolves themselves looking for answers after a game in which they trailed 34-0 at one stage.

“We played bad, we looked bad. … We’re just not playing good enough football right now,” Schmidt said.

The tone was set early when the Cougars ripped off a 56-yard run on the first play from scrimmage. Moments later they were in the end zone for an early lead. Northern then fumbled on its first possession setting up USF at the Northern 24-yard line and four plays later, the Cougars owned a 13-0 advantage with 10:46 left in the opening quarter.

“That’s a really good offense right there and a really spectacular quarterback,” Schmidt said, “but we can’t start like that. That just puts you on your heels for the rest of the time.”

The Wolves had a scoring chance on their next drive getting inside the red zone, but missed a field goal. USF capped off the quarter with another touchdown and a commanding 20-0 lead.

“We just have to play together,” said NSU senior defensive lineman Logan Grossinger. “We said it during fall camp, you’ve got to do your 1/11th and if somebody doesn’t do their 1/11th, the whole thing just goes haywire. Really leaning on each other to do our job is crucial.”

In the second quarter, the Wolves got inside the red zone before having to settle for a field goal, which missed again.

“We can’t settle for field goals. We have to find a way to get in the end zone there,” said Northern senior offensive lineman Jacob Schloe. “Finding guys that can execute that, and finding a way, finding the will and the motivation out on the field to finish drives. I think that’s where it starts and hopefully we can turn that around next week.”

The Wolves still had a prime opportunity late in the half, advancing the ball to the USF 32 in the closing minute, only to have a pass intercepted and returned to the NSU 3, where the Cougars scored on the next play for a 27-0 lead with 20 seconds left in the half.

Northern then turned the ball over on downs to start the third quarter, Sioux Falls scored again and the contest was no longer in doubt.

“And the end of the half, it’s 20-0, you got the opportunity to go score and you get the ball coming out of the half, now you can do something with that,” Schmidt said. “Instead of that, we throw an interception that gets returned and they score on the next play. And then we don’t convert on the fourth down to start the half and they score. That kind of puts it out of reach there in a very short amount of time.”

Doing the math, Schmidt figured it added up 20 points in a game where the Wolves had a hard time scoring.

“You miss field goals and you miss that chance to double back-to-back,” he said. “That’s 20 points right there that we left out there.”

The Wolves did score their first touchdown of the season in the final quarter when Hank Kraft reeled in a six-yard touchdown toss.

As Northern prepares for back-to-back road games, the players talked about sticking together after the rough stretch to start the season.

“I just think we can’t splinter apart,” Grossinger said. “We have to stay together at this point.”

Schloe said as the team heads into its next game at Minot State next week, it just needs to find a way to play better.

“We have to find a way to come together,” Schloe said, “figure out what we’ve got to fix, and fix it for the next week, and the week after, and the week after, and all the way to the end of the season.”

Schmidt said the Wolves cannot allow themselves to look at the big picture. They need to focus on the present and play with a sense of urgency.

“We are desperate for a win … We have challenging schedule coming up and nobody’s going to feel sorry for us,” Schmidt said. “You truly have to burrow in and start playing with desperation at this point.”

To see a complete box score from the game, click on the following link:

https://nsuwolves.com/sports/football/stats/2024/sioux-falls/boxscore/13613