N. Dakota St. brings winning tradition here

By Pete Mollica

The Bison were a power in Div. II before moving up to the FCS this season.

YOUNGSTOWN — The tradition of the North Dakota State football program in the 1980s is parallel to Youngstown State’s during its run in the 1990s.

While the Penguins won four Football Championship Subdivision titles and played in six championship games in the 1990s, the Bison won four Division II titles and played in six title games in the 1980s.

The Bison won their last Division II title in 1990 and, satisfied they could do no more in the division, elected to move up to FCS after the 2002 campaign.

The man the Bison picked to make that move was Craig Bohl, who in the last five seasons has posted a 43-12 record, including back-to-back 10-1 campaigns.

This year the Bison are eligible for the FCS postseason and they face their first major step in the division when they come into Stambaugh Stadium Saturday.

North Dakota State (2-1) will be making its debut in the Missouri Valley Football Conference against the Penguins. YSU (1-2) lost its conference opener two weeks ago to South Dakota State, 40-7.

The Bison are coming off a 16-13 loss to Wyoming on a last-second field goal. They opened the season with a 41-6 win over Austin Peay and a 50-14 win over Central Connecticut State.

“We are definitely going to need to play much better this week than we did last week,” said Bohl. “We didn’t play as well as we could have and I’ll be very surprised if we don’t come back very focused this week.”

North Dakota State, which won its first 10 games a year ago before dropping the season finale to South Dakota State 29-24, has a lot more going for it this season.

“Last year we knew that we were only going to play 11 games no matter how we did, because we weren’t playoff eligible,” Bohl said.

The Bison return 18 starters from that team, but they did lose their veteran quarterback, Steve Wallace, the two-time Great West Conference offensive player of the year.

Junior Nick Mertens has taken over for Wallace and he has All-American senior running back Tyler Roehl. Roehl was injured against Wyoming and is questionable for Saturday’s game.

Roehl had only four carries against Wyoming before being injured and replaced by junior Pat Paschall (5-foot-11, 198 pounds), who now leads the team in rushing with 197 yards on 35 carries.

Mertens has completed 40-of-71 passes for 705 yards and seven touchdowns, although he has throw four interceptions. His top receiver is senior Kole Heckendorf (6-2, 188), who has caught 12 passes for 306 yards and three touchdowns.

“We definitely need to have Roehl back, but we probably won’t know until game time whether he’ll be ready or not,” Bohl said.

Bohl expects a tough game against the Penguins.

“You look at their track record, they play very well at home and this is a big conference game,” he said. “I know they had a quarterback quit and that they lost a NFL caliber defensive lineman. But I know their tradition and I know we are going to have our hands full.

“We’re in a great football conference and to open it on the road against a team like Youngstown State is going to be a great challenge for our football team,” Bohl said.

Defensively the Bison are led by senior linebacker Ramon Humber (5-11, 222), who was named the MVFC defensive player of the week. Humber has 27 tackles on the season, including three for losses and three sacks.

Bohl said he spent some time this summer talking with Ohio State coach Jim Tressel.

“We talked a great deal about Youngstown State, especially about their great tradition,” Bohl said. “It’s really going to be exciting going there and playing in their fine stadium.”

mollica@vindy.com