Written by Brendan Stiles at UPI.com
North Dakota State came to Kinnick Stadium with a reputation for beating FBS opponents. On Saturday, the Bison scored their biggest victory yet.
A 37-yard field goal by sophomore kicker Cam Pedersen as time expired gave North Dakota State a stunning 23-21 victory over No. 13 Iowa. The Bison moved to 3-0 with the win, while Iowa dropped to 2-1.
“I can’t say enough about the guys in the locker room. What a resilient bunch,” North Dakota State head coach Chris Klieman said. “We told them all week long that we belong. We belonged in the game. We belonged in the spotlight. What we had done in the past gave us the opportunity to believe that we belonged.”
The Bison had a chance earlier to take the lead when they capped a 15-play, 8:39 scoring drive with a 7-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Easton Stick to senior running back Chase Morlock. Trailing 21-20, North Dakota State opted to go for the 2-point conversion to move ahead, but was unable to convert when a Stick pass into the end zone was batted away. Klieman said he decided on going for two when the drive began, citing how the Bison had played overtime in each of their previous two contests this season.
Iowa’s offense then went three-and-out, giving North Dakota State a chance for the win. A 29-yard run up the middle by Stick highlighted what proved to be the game-winning drive.
“That was something we called and that we thought we could get to,” Stick said. “That momentum carried us through to the end of the drive.”
The clock showed five seconds when the Bison took their final timeout and Pedersen took the field to attempt the winning kick.
“It still hasn’t sunk in for me yet,” Pedersen said. “I thought I had hit it well, contact-wise, and I thought it was going to go in. It was a little closer than I would have liked, but we got the end result.”
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