BEMIDJI, Minn. – Minot State's Dawson Macleary, Nathan Young, and Peyton Lamoureux all provide career-best efforts on Saturday, leading the way for the Beavers who battled to within a score of host Bemidji State in the fourth quarter before falling 49-35 in the two teams' NSIC North Division contest.

Macleary, a redshirt freshman making his second collegiate start, threw for 408 yards and three touchdowns on the day, completing 28-of-40 passes, and also ran for two touchdowns, the second of which got Minot State (0-5 overall, 0-1 NSIC North) as close as 43-35 back with 10 minutes, 55 seconds left to play. The 408 yards passing broke the NCAA Division II school record of 370 passing yards set by Zac Cunha in 2014.

Bemidji State (3-2, 1-0) kicked a pair of field goals in the final five minutes to secure the win in the "Battle of the Beavers."

"Our guys played hard today, and if it wasn't for a couple turnovers, the outcome could have been very different," Minot State coach Mike Aldrich said. "We had some big individual performances today, which we will keep building on as we prepare for our homecoming game."

Minot State next hosts Minnesota State Moorhead next Saturday, Oct. 9, at 2 p.m. for Homecoming.

Young, a redshirt freshman wide receiver, caught half of Macleary's passes (14) for a career-high 190 yards and a touchdown, and Lamoureux, a junior, added seven receptions for a career-high 159 yards and two more scores. Young's 14 catches broke the NCAA Division II school record of 11 set by Porter Sturm in 2012, and Lamoureux's two TD catches tied an NCAA Division II school record achieved multiple times.

Ali Mohamed totaled 117 yards to lead the Beavers' ground attack in the game, picking up 4.9 yards per carry along the way. Evan Lovett also tacked on 10 yards on the ground, picking up 5 yards per carry.

Jonathan Leon led the defense with nine tackles, including one for a loss, while Caleb Ness added eight tackles for the road Beavers, including 1 ½ tackles for loss.
Minot State converted on 46.7 percent of third-down attempts on the day, and the offense took advantage of its visits to the red zone, scoring touchdowns on all four trips.

How It Happened
Minot State responded to an early 22-0 Bemidji State lead with a first quarter touchdown to narrow the deficit to 22-7. The visiting Beavers then scored again, narrowing their deficit to 22-14.

After Bemidji State scored to increase its lead to 29-14, Minot State responded with a touchdown with 1:22 left in the second quarter lead to cut the deficit to 29-21. Bemidji State scored to increase its lead to 36-21 before Minot State got on the scoreboard again to narrow the advantage and make it a 36-28 game.

Bemidji State increased its lead to 43-28 until Minot State scored again to close the gap with 10:55 left in the fourth quarter and make it a 43-35 game. Minot State didn't score again and Bemidji State added six more points to finish off the scoring.

Game Notes
» Minot State had two players reach the promised land multiple times, as Macleary scored two touchdowns and Lamoureux added another two.

» Minot State and Bemidji State both surpassed the 500-yard mark of total offense with Bemidji State holding a slight advantage, 554-522, while the road Beavers had a 408-313 advantage through the air.

» The Beavers got 100 yard receiving days from Young and Lamoureux.

» Minot State had their highest scoring quarter in the second period, when they put up 14 points.

» Minot State converted 7-of-15 third downs while Bemidji State was successful on 6-of-14.

» The Beavers had two players with more than eight tackles in the ballgame led by Jonathan Leon, who had nine.

» Minot State went 2-for-4 on fourth down, converting on 50 percent of its attempts.

» Minot State put together two touchdown-scoring drives of 90 yards or more, the longest drive going 96 yards.

» Minot State won the time of possession battle 37:14 to 22:46.

» Macleary completed 70 percent of his passes on the day, going 28-for-40 while averaging 10.2 yards per attempt.

» Brandon Alt led the Beavers passing attack, completing 12 of his 33 attempts for 301 yards and four touchdowns.

» Makaio Harn led the Bemidji State rushing attack with 131 yards and one touchdown.
 

This story created through content automation technology from Data Skrive.