MINOT, N.D. – Minot State University wanted to establish a running game Saturday.

Ben Zahniser and company made sure it happened.

Zahniser, a true freshman, set a school record with 264 yards rushing and tied another as he scored four times while the MSU defense made a couple key stops down the stretch to push the Beavers to a 38-30 win over Minnesota Crookston in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference football Saturday at Herb Parker Stadium.

"It's pretty cool," Zahniser said of the school record. "I have to give the credit to the lineman. I saw some holes during the game I've never seen before in my life. I really expect us to be good over the next few years. This gives us some confidence. We're really happy right now, everybody's pumped up and excited."

He keyed a backfield that rolled to a season-high 320 yards rushing. While he was the focal point of the rushing attack, the Beavers also got 61 yards from senior Jarvis Mustipher and 14 from Tyere Hunter as the Beavers amassed a season-high 515 total yards.

"You never go into games thinking a record could be broken, but Ben's done a nice job," head coach Tyler Hughes said. "All year we've emphasized that our backs are sharp with their reads and cuts. We've been working on it all year, but especially this week and it showed. He had some great reads and great cuts which allowed for those big runs. Credit him for that."

But the game was still in the balance late in the game and the Beavers defense, which gave up some big chunks of yards at times, needed to come up with big stops. After Aaron La Deaux knocked home his first field goal of the year to make it 38-30, the Beavers defense came up big to lock down the win.

First, Michael Jenkins broke up a pass with just 2:40 remaining on a 4 th-and-11 from the MSU 25 to stop a drive. The Beavers offense didn't move the ball on the ensuing drive but got a booming 66-yard punt from La Deaux. On the first play on that drive, Dalton Houghton sacked UMC's Nathan Cole forcing a fumble that Jamie Harris fell on to effectively ice the game.

"Honestly, when I hit him I didn't realize he didn't have the ball until I stood up and his hands were empty," Houghton said. "When I turned and Jamie had the ball, it was a great feeling for sure. I saw some things that we thought we could expose (on film) and took advantage of that."

The Beavers (2-6 overall, 2-6 NSIC, 1-3 NSIC North) looked to be on their way to a comfortable win rallying for 28 points in the second quarter after falling behind 20-7 as UMC Aeric Berner picked off a pass and returned it 75 yards for a score.
But MSU responded.

Zahniser scored on runs of 43, 45 and 7 yards and Jose Escobar found Keegan Verdugo on a 5-yard pass over the final 13 minutes of the second quarter to give MSU a 35-20 halftime lead. Zahniser had 216 yards in the half 30 yards more than he had coming into the game.

"It's a good feeling to get a win," Hughes said. "As I told the team in the locker room, this league is so hard to win games in. We played a solid Crookston team and we are glad we got the win. We've had some good moments in games, but haven't been able to string it all together. I'm still not sure we played a complete game today either, but we came out on the right side and we'll take it."

But UMC (0-8, 0-8, 0-4) didn't go away, scoring on a 32-yard field goal by Mike Maw midway through the third quarter and then again on a 21-yard pass from Cole to Adam Connette to cut the MSU lead to 35-30.

La Deaux hit his 19-yard field goal with 5:33 to play in the game capping the Beavers most sustained drive, going 50 yards on 10 plays in 5:41.

Cole threw for 127 yards and three touchdowns, but was sacked twice and intercepted once – a pick by Justin Gonzales that set up the La Deaux field goal. Andre Person rushed for 142 yards on 17 carries. MSU gave up 226 yards rushing but allowed just 127 passing and held a 515-353 advantage in total offense.

Escobar relieved starter Isaiah Weed and went 10 for 14 for 144 yards and a TD. Weed was 7 for 9 for 51 yards as the two combined to go 17 for 23 for 195, but were intercepted three times. Verdugo and Akkil Walker caught five passes each, while Ryan Fila led the Beavers with 60 yards on three catches. La Deaux was again impressive in the kicking game, averaging 53.0 yards per punt and finished with five touchbacks on seven kickoffs.

"The tough thing about being the quarterback is that only one guy gets to play," Hughes said. "We are substituting players at every position all the time and no one really knows we are doing that. So subbing a player doesn't mean he got benched or that I have negative feelings about him. Isaiah played well for us. I just felt we needed Jose in at the time. He's been playing well in practice the past couple of weeks."

Trevin Swensen led the Beavers with 11 tackles, while Houghton had four tackles, three tackles for a loss and two sacks.

MSU travels to Minnesota State University Moorhead Saturday for its final road game of 2016.



About Minot State
Minot State University is a member of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) and NCAA Division II offering 14 men's and women's varsity intercollegiate athletics programs. The NSIC is a premier NCAA DII, 16-member conference featuring teams in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska and Iowa. The Beavers are the only public NCAA Division II institution in the state of North Dakota.