The opportunities were there, the points were not.

Northern State was unable to take advantage of early chances, fell behind, and eventually succumbed to 22nd-ranked Minnesota State, Mankato 24-14 in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference football action at Dacotah Bank Stadium Saturday afternoon.

“You just can’t a play a team like that, a program like that, and not excute,” said Northern coach Mike Schmidt following the contest. “You can’t not finish drives. You have to be able to put it in the end zone when you can.”

The Wolves had two solid scoring chances to open the contest, but came away empty each time. Northern pieced together an 18-play drive that featured five third-down conversions and one fourth-down conversion and took up more than nine minutes to start the game. However, they were turned away on fourth down from the 2-yard line.

Moments later after stopping the Mavericks on downs, NSU drove to the Minnesota State 6-yard line, before a penalty forced a 30-yard field goal attempt, which went wide left in the first minute of the second period.

“You have to put those first two drives in the end zone,” Schmidt said. “It’s just impossible to walk away from that with 0 points. You can’t have that against a program like that.”

Trailing 14-0 late in the half, Northern did find the end zone on Wyatt Block’s 22-yard run up the middle for a touchdown with 2:38 left. The score came on the heels of a 48-yard pass from Daniel Britt to Jacob Van Landingham.

“It was a designed run. The coverage they were in, it just worked out,” Van Landingham said. “I kind knew it was going to happen before the play, when they had two high safeties and the back was inside. I was hoping that Danny saw it, too. He did. I’m 25 years old, so it was a long, long run for me.”

While touchdowns against quality foes are hard to come by, Schmidt was hoping that the Wolves wouldn’t have scored so quickly, because it left the Mavericks with more than enough time to respond, which they did on a TD with 30 seconds left before the half.

“We get down to the 22 on those two quick plays. We wanted to slow it down. We wanted to run the ball and we wanted to utilize all the time,” Schmidt said. “Well, then we score on the first play and it wasn’t what our intention was. Wyatt just has a great run and then we give up a big return, and then it sets it up for them to go down and score again. It just flips the game in that moment.”

After a scoreless third quarter, the Mavericks opened up their biggest lead of the contest with a field goal early in the final period to push the margin to 24-7.

Northern answered back with a touchdown about two minutes later when Britt fired a 10-yard pass to Tanner Branson with 9:01 remaining. However, that was as close as the Wolves would get.

The NSU defense did provide one last highlight, stopping the Mavericks twice at the 1-yard line in the closing minutes to prevent another score.

“We got a lot of grit on defense and that’s why this one hurts so much,” said Northern defensive back Kegan Mountain. “We’re just scratching the surface and it just sucks that we gotta send the seniors off with a loss at Dacotah Bank Stadium, but a lot of pride, a lot of passion and a lot of grit on defense and that’s why I really love to play for our guys.”

In the end, the Wolves were unable to make the plays they have made in recent weeks that fueled a five-game winning streak.

“We’ve had guys that have made plays against other guys these last few weeks,” Schmidt said, “and today there’s just some things we didn’t, there’s some things that were schematically, we’ve got to put our guys in better spots in all three phrases.”

Britt finished with 182 yards passing to lead the NSU offense. Jake Adams racked up 20 tackles to power the Northern defense.

The contest was the final one at Dacotah Bank Stadium for 20 NSU seniors, including Van Landingham, who was here when the venue opened in 2021.

He said among the things he will remember most is witnessing how things have changed since then.

“Seeing the fan base grow, seeing our team grow,” Van Landingham said, “our culture has completely changed since then.”

The Wolves, 5-5 on the year, close out the season at Wayne State this coming weekend.

Schmidt said the game is important because there are only a limited amount of games in a season.

“In football you only get 11 opportunities. You work so hard, all of us, these guys have put in so much time, and the coaches put in so much time for these 11 opportunities,” Schmidt said. “In no way, shape or form do you take a second for granted.”

He said football games are the highlight of the season for everyone involved in the program.

“Those Saturdays are just what you live for,” Schmidt said. “It’s what makes your blood pulse through your veins, so for these guys and for us, there’s a lot to play for, just because it’s another opportunity.”

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

https://nsuwolves.com/sports/football/stats/2024/minnesota-state/boxscore/13621