MINOT, N.D. – One game into the season and it's time for the Beavers to hit the road.

After a strong effort on their home turf, the Minot State football team (0-1 overall) heads to South Dakota to take on Sioux Falls (1-0), and the Beavers are set to put what they learned from game one into practice against a new opponent.

"Last week the guys played tough, physical football and competed until the final whistle," Minot State coach Mike Aldrich said. "Offensively, we ran the ball well at times, and we need to do so consistently. We did a great job of converting third downs, protected the quarterback and protected the football."

Ali Mohamed led the ground game with 78 yards on 22 carries, leaving him 313 yards shy of the NCAA Division II-era all-time rushing record at Minot State.
Dawson Macleary added a 21-of-38 effort through the air for 184 yards and one touchdown, that a scoring toss to Erik Palmquist who caught three passes for 36 yards.

"Defensively, other than one big run, we played strong against the run, created turnovers and were very good on third downs," Aldrich added.

Isaiah Bigby led the defense with 12 tackles and an interception, while Caden Shannon added a fumble recovery for the Beavers.

"Special teams were crucial in the game last week by creating good returns, limiting return yards against us, flipping the field on our punts, and even recording a safety with our punt-block team."

Led by that effort, Minot State took an 8-0 lead, cut the difference to 17-10 with that safety, and nearly tied the game in the third quarter before the visiting Winona State Warriors used a goal-line stand to wrestle away the momentum and secure the 24-10 victory.

Making sure that moments like the goal-line possession don't go without points has been one key focus for Minot State in preparation for their game against the Cougars this weekend.

"Our focus has been to be more consistent in the critical areas of the field, which are down near the goal-line," Aldrich said. "Both in scoring situations and backed up situations.

"We also were able to identify little things to focus on more now that we have a game under our belt, including the officials timing between possessions and on substitutions," Minot State's coach said. "But most importantly our focus was on overall improvement and consistency in everyone's specific assignments and tasks on any given play."

Everyone will need to play well against a Sioux Falls team that posted an NSIC-high 484 yards on offense in a 27-14 win at Minnesota State Moorhead, and defensively allowed just 209 yards, second fewest in the league's opening weekend.

The Cougars spread the ball around on the ground with 1^st Team All-NSIC running back Thuro Reisdorfer leading the way with 19 carries for 81 yards, while quarterback Adam Mullen completed 24-of-40 passes for 309 yards and a touchdown.

Defensively, senior defensive back Giovanni Purpura intercepted two passes for the Cougars who took advantage of four turnovers by the Dragons.

"Sioux Falls is a veteran team and returns a lot of experience from last year," Aldrich said. "They have a very strong rushing offense and a highly accurate and efficient quarterback. They are big on the line of scrimmage and they play a very physical brand of football. 

"The key to beating a team like USF is having the ability to stay on schedule on offense, win at the line of scrimmage and protect the football. Defensively we must be assignment sharp, extremely disciplined, tackle well and create turnovers."

Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. on Saturday, and the game can be watched live online at https://www.nsicnetwork.com/usfcougars/