Football | October 01, 2014

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Teams: Minot State at Northern State | Series: NSU leads 9-6-1
Date: Saturday, Oct. 4, 2014 | Time: 2:30 p.m. | Site: Clark Swisher Field

THIS WEEK: Minot State makes the trek south to Aberdeen, S.D., for a game against Northern State University. The teams have met each of the past two seasons after a hiatus of more than a decade of playing games as members of the NAIA. This week marks Gypsy Days at Northern State – the Wolves version of homecoming.

RECORDS: The Beavers enter the weekend at 0-4 on the season and 0-4 in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference games. Northern State is 2-2 and 2-2. This marks the first NISC North Division game for both teams.

COACHES CORNER: Minot State's head coach is Tyler Hughes, who begins his first season at the helm. He is 0-4 at Minot State and 20-7 overall as a head coach, all at Snow College in Ephraim, Utah, where he coached from 2011-12. Hughes spent last season as an assistant coach with Urban Meyer at Ohio State. Northern State's head coach is Tom Dosch, who is 17-27 in his fifth season. Dosch is no stranger to Minot State as he took teams from Jamestown College to Minot over a span of four seasons

FOLLOW THE BEAVERS: The game is broadcast locally on KCJB 910-AM with Scott Kittell calling the play-by-play. Live audio can be accessed online at kcjb.com. MISU provides live video and live stats as well as links to the live audio at MSUBeavers.com. The game will also air Wednesday night on MidCo Sports (Channel 26 or HD 622) as the MidCo Sports HD Game of the Week. Minot State Athletics also is active on Facebook, Twitter and You Tube with all feeds accessible through the home page.

RANKINGS: Neither team is ranked in either the American Football Coaches Association Poll or the D2Football.com polls.

RECENT HISTORY: The Beavers nearly found head coach Tyler Hughes his first win of the season as Minot State had the ball late in a 20-17 loss to Wayne State College during Homecoming 2014 Saturday. The Beavers outscored the Wildcats 14-3 in the second half, but a big 17-3 cushion at halftime proved to be too big to overcome. Northern State kicked a last second field goal by Nathan Shaw to top Southwest Minnesota State 56-43 in Marshall, Minn., Saturday. The game featured nearly 1,000 yards of total offense with NSU racking up 539 yards in the game.

OVERALL SERIES: MISU and NSU have played football since 1932 with a tight 6-0 win for Northern. The Wolves hold a 9-6-1 advantage all-time including last year's barn burner 22-21 win at Herb Parker Stadium. Jared Jacobson found Michael Alberts on a 1-yard TD pass and then Jacobson called his own number for the two-point conversion for the win. The TD was just one minute, 51 seconds after the Beavers went up on a Randel Barber (Jr., DB, Maricopa, Ariz.) – who played running back last season – touchdown and two point pass from Zac Cunha (Jr., QB, Rocklin, Calif.) to Wayne Peters. Cunha threw for 277 yards and a TD in the game.

NOTING THE WOLVES: Northern State split four games against the NSIC South Division, playing the opposite four teams Minot State played. The Wolves won their two away games, but fell in their two home contests… Saturday's Gypsy Days is the 95th annual event… Despite going 2-2 over their first four games, the Wolves have scored 50 points off opposition turnovers, forcing five interceptions and two fumbles in four outings… NSU had given up 1,259 yards passing, and 1,977 yards in total offense… Nicholas Truen is eighth overall in the Northern Sun in rushing, averaging 82.5 yards per game on the ground… Channing Barber is the conference's top kick returner in average, collecting 108 yards in three games for a 36.0 average per return… Nathan Shaw's game-winning field was one of two 3-pointers he made in the game, hitting from 36 and 30 yards out.

BOREL ONLY CATCHES TOUCHDOWNS: Minot State senior wideout Glyn Borel (San Jose, Calif.) has 10 catches on the season and three of them have ended in the end zone. In fact, Borel is the only player for the Beavers' offense who has reached the end zone this year, accounting for three of the four TDs. Borel has 262 yards on 10 catches with a long of 76, coming last week against Wayne State College.

RB BY COMMITTEE: Minot State hasn't found any success running the football and haven't found any continuity in who is going to do the bulk of the rushing. Preseason starter Jarvis Mustipher (So., Melbourne, Fla.) saw the bulk of the carries over the first two weeks, but has been injured since. Spencer Morrow (Jr., Santa Rosa, Calif.) is this week's starter, but has just 90 yards on 32 carries this season. Backup Joel Panteau (Jr., Long Beach, Calif.) had just 57 yards on 25 carries. Minot State's leading rusher – per attempt at least – is punter Aaron La Deaux (So., Port Orchard, Wash.) who had a 15-yard fake punt for a first down last week against WSC.

SCHEDULING NIGHTMARE: Minot State head coach Tyler Hughes might have some unkind words for whoever schedules at the Northern Sun head office his first four opponents in 2014 have a combined record of 14-2. Minot State has played two teams who are currently ranked in both the AFCA and D2Football.com polls (Sioux Falls and Minnesota State) and have faced three of the four undefeated teams remaining in the NSIC (USF, MSU and Upper Iowa).

STRAIGHT UP KICKING: Senior Brian Gutierrez (K, Granada Hills, Calif.) hasn't had many attempts this season, but has done the most with them, hitting 2-of-3 field goals and all three point after attempts. He has scored nine points this season, second on the team in scoring.

STEADY AS HE GOES: The Beavers defensive unit has had some big number in individual tackles this season with Levi Freidt (Sr., LB, Minot, N.D.), Casey Weinmann (Sr., LB, Selz, N.D.) and Michael Jenkins (So., DB, Orlando, Fla.) all registering 14 or more stops in a single game this year. But junior linebacker Aaron James (Oklahoma City, Okla.) has been steadily making tackles to the tune of second on the team with 30. James also leads the team with two forced fumbles and has one sack to go along with 13 solo stops.

RUNNING NOWHERE: While the Beavers have struggled to rush the ball, Minot State's defense has also struggled to control opposition rushing attacks as well. The Beavers are giving up an average of 4.8 yards per attempt and have a 1,003-304 deficit in the ground game. MSU hasn't recorded a rushing touchdown, while the opposition has 13 TDs through four games. The Beavers were better this past week, however, as they limited WSC to just 148 yards rushing.

ZAC ATTACK IS BACK: Junior signal caller Zac Cunha (Rocklin, Calif.) had his consecutive streak of starts come to an end in week 3, but bounced back for a solid game against last week. Cunha was 12 of 23 passing for 242 yards and two TDs. He hit Glyn Borel (Sr., WR, San Jose, Calif.) on a 76-yard bomb for his first TD pass since finding Borel in week 1 against Sioux Falls. Cunha had three TDs against just one interception in 64 attempts this season.

BY THE NUMBERS
4: Losses by the Beavers by a touchdown or less since joining the Northern Sun. In the past three seasons, the Beavers have been involved in six games decided by a touchdown or less and MSU has fallen in four of those contests. Along with the three-point loss Saturday, Minot State was clipped by a single point twice last season (NSU and MSU-Moorhead). Minot State fell by six at Upper Iowa in its first season in the league. Last year, the Beavers defeated Augustana College by six in triple overtime and fought back for a 20-19 win over Minnesota Crookston in week 8.

50: Percent of the time Minot State has scored in the red zone. The Beavers are 3 of 6 so far this season in the red zone, but just 1 of 6 in scoring touchdowns.

1,109: Yards in punts for far for Aaron La Deaux (So., Port Orchard, Wash.). La Deaux, the conference's second-leading punter by average, has kicked the ball 27 times this year, sailing it 1,109 yards, including a 68 yard bomb, three over 5-0 yards and 12 inside the opponents' 20-yard line.