NDSU’s had its share of troubles

The Bison are just 3-7 heading into Saturday’s season finale against YSU.

By PETE MOLLICA

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

YOUNGSTOWN — North Dakota State coach Craig Bohl is in his seventh season with the Bison. The past two he’s not too happy about.

Bohl, who is 52-24 in his careeer (seven years), has lost 12 of those games in the past two years, including a 3-7 record this season, which is only the second losing year for the school in the last eight years.

Bohl and the Bison will play their final game this year on Saturday when they play host to Youngstown State (5-5, 3-4 Missouri Valley Football Conference) in a 2 p.m. kickoff at the Fargodome in Fargo, N.D.

Bohl knew that this season might be a long one since he had only six returning starters, but he also felt last year was a big disappointment.

North Dakota State, which posted back-to-back 10-1 records in 2006 and 2007 and finished both seasons ranked nationally in the top 10, were looking for big things a year ago and finished with a disappointing 6-5 record. And it all started with 32-24 loss at YSU. The Bison were ranked No. 2 in the country going into the game.

“It was disappointing and things just seem to fall apart the rest of the year after Youngstown took it to us pretty good on their home field,” Bohl said.

“We’ve got a very young team this season and we figured we might take some lumps, but you never stop trying and we’re still working very hard to finish the year on a high note,” he said.

The Bison have had a five-game losing streak this season and that’s the longest since 1975 at the school, but with only four senior starters on offense and just two on defense Bohl is excited about the team’s future.

In the three years prior to this season North Dakota State has posted a 7-3 record against FCS ranked opponents and went 3-3 against FBS teams including a 10-9 loss at Minnesota in 2006.

“We know we’ll have our hands full this weekend with Youngstown State,” Bohl said. “They are coming off a big win over Illinois State and they need a win to have a winning season. We expect another battle.”

One of the seniors that Bohl will be losing this season is running back Pat Paschall, who is the leading ground gainer in the FCS.

The 5-foot-11, 198-pounder has rushed for 1,257 yards on 180 carries this season and has scored 13 touchdowns. Last week in a 56-17 win over Indiana State he had his ninth 100-yard rushing game of the season and had a career-high four touchdowns.

“He’s a complete player and a great leader and I’m going to be sorry to see him leave,” Bohl said.

The Bison have switched quarterbacks since the start of the season as redshirt freshman Jose Mohler (5-11, 177) has taken over the starting role the last three games, two of them wins. Senior Nick Mertens started the first seven games and went 1-6 before Mohler took over. Mohler’s completed 27-of-49 passes for 397 yards and four TDs in those three games.

North Dakota State opened the season with a 34-17 loss at Iowa State and also dropped a 48-45 contest to Sam Houston State before beating Division II Wagner 59-28. But then the Bison dropped five straight and all in the conference to Southern Illinois 24-14, Illinois State 27-24, Northern Iowa 42-27, South Dakota State 28-13 and Missouri State 21-17 before finally getting a conference win at Western Illinois 14-7 and then last week at Indiana State.

The Bison’s top defensive player is sophomore linebacker Preston Evans (5-11, 220) who leads the team with 88 tackles, six for losses with one sack, and has blocked a kick.

Defensive end Coulter Boyer (6-4, 255) leads the team with 10 tackles for losses and seven sacks and also has a fumble recovery.

mollica@vindy.com