MINOT, N.D. – For the second straight home game, Minot State University left The Herb heartbroken.

The Beavers seemed to be in perfect position to get their first win knocking on the door inside the University of Mary 5-yard line with less than a minute to play.

But the Marauders forced a turnover and the Beavers fell in the second installment of the "Battle of the Big Lake" series 31-29 in a wild Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference game Saturday in front of 2,003 fans at Herb Parker Stadium.

"I'm just incredibly proud of our team," said MSU head coach Tyler Hughes. "Those kids battled their rear-ends off. They fought every play. They got down, they came back took the lead. They got down again, they came back. I'm really proud of them."

The loss was especially tough as the Beavers (0-6 overall, 0-6 NSIC, 0-2 NSIC North) played their best overall game of the season, securing a series of firsts. The Beavers took their first second-half lead this season, intercepted their first pass, returned their first interception for a touchdown and scored their first rushing touchdown of the year.

The first and third accomplishment came courtesy of sophomore Bryce Broome (DB, Port Orchard, Wash.) as he picked off U-Mary's Ben Jolliffe and returned it 29 yards for a TD to give Minot State a 22-14 lead (after Dalton Houghton scored a two-point conversion falling on a loose ball in the end zone off a blocked point-after-touchdown attempt) with 6:56 to play in the third quarter.

The TD also capped a 22-point third quarter – by far the Beavers best quarter of the season – to erase a 14-0 Marauders' halftime lead.

"(We told them at halftime) We get the ball back to start the half and to just go one play at a time. Be in the moment. Don't worry about the scoreboard," Hughes said. "Just play really darn hard, and that's what they did."

But U-Mary (3-3, 3-3, 1-1) didn't go away, answering the Broome TD with an 80-yard drive capped by Dariouse Gravely's 3-yard run four minutes later. It started a 17-point swing for the Marauders as Jolliffe found brother Nick Jolliffe from 16 yards out on the first play of the fourth quarter and Brody Riggs connected on a 26-yard field goal with 7:41 to play. The Riggs field goal made it 31-22.

"To [U-Mary's] credit, they stayed composed and kept fighting," said Hughes. "It's a 60-minute game. They understood that."

The Beavers made it a one score game with a 12-play, 75 yard drive capped by a Glyn Borel (Sr., WR, San Jose, Calif.) 3-yard run with 4:01 to play. It was the first rushing touchdown of the season for the Beavers and gave Minot State a chance.

After a stop for the Minot State defense, the Beavers took over at the U-Mary 27 and marched to the Marauders 5 behind four rushes by Jarvis Mustipher (So., RB, Melbourne, Fla.) and a big pass from quarterback Zac Cunha (Jr., QB, Rocklin, Calif.) to Leon La Deaux (Sr., WR, Port Orchard, Wash.).

But on 1st-and-goal from the 5, Cunha was hit from behind by Seth Walton as he threw the ball forcing a lateral pass that U-Mary's Grand Singer recovered to secure the win.

"We finally did our job as an offense and were able to execute and got the ball into our playmaker's hands," Cunha said. "It was an unfortunate miscommunication (the final play) and that's on me as the offense's leader.

"The way we ended will leave a bad taste in my mouth."

"It wasn't anyone on the field's fault. That's my fault," said Hughes of the miscommunication. "We wanted to move the ball back into the middle of the field and kick the field goal. We didn't have a timeout and were trying to signal it and we just didn't get it communicated right.

"The kids played their tails off and I told them they deserved better than what I gave them in the final 30 seconds."

Ben Jolliffe finished with 75 yards rushing and a pair of scores on the ground and was 14 of 22 for 171 yards passing and another TD for the Marauders. Nick Jolliffe finished with six catches for 105 yards and a score to lead the passing game. Singer continued to have a solid senior season with a team-high 13 tackles.

The loss spoiled a bunch of great individual performances for the Beavers. Along with the interception return for a touchdown, Broome also had an earlier interception to give him two on the night. Levi Freidt (Sr., LB, Minot, N.D.) had a game-high 16 tackles and two pass breakups to lead the Beavers defense.

Cunha threw for a career-high 370 yards on 30-for-44 passing and finished two TD passes. La Deaux caught six passes for 124 yards and two TDs, including a 51-yard strike early in the third quarter to get the Beavers going while Borel caught nine passes for 94 yards and had the rushing TD.

"They have a lot to be proud of and a lot to feel good about what they did tonight," Hughes said. "Hopefully they can just regroup from the disappointment and certainly we'll all need to do that. There's a lot of good football that we played tonight."

Minot State will return to the road looking for its first win of the season, traveling to Bemidji State Saturday.