This might just be the greatest sports weekend of the whole year. We’ve got so much going on in Duluth this weekend, that maybe this should have been homecoming week. Or maybe the Bulldogs should have two.

Sports fans can watch baseball, with the World Series in full swing; football, with what looks like a perfect weekend for a Saturday afternoon home game for UMD against Bemidji State. The Bulldogs (and St. Scholastica) are trying to give us undefeated seasons, and high school football playoffs are underway, while the Gophers are having more success than any of us anticipated. And the Vikings...well, never mind.

Hockey season is underway, with UMD’s men and women both showing flashes of brilliance and both playing at home this weekend, while the Wild are off to an impressive start as well. In volleyball, UMD keeps rolling along in its most impressive season ever.

The UMD men’s hockey team has had to rally from behind the first night before winning impressively the next night, but the Bulldogs will need to get off to a strong start and play Friday night as though it’s Saturday against Mankato. UMD fell behind Minnesota State-Mankato 4-1 last Friday at AMSOIL Arena before rallying to tie the game - only to lose on a power-play goal awarded to Zeb Knutson in overtime.

But the Dogs stormed back at Mankato the next night, winning 6-2. Actually, it wasn’t that lopsided; the Bulldogs scored two open net goals to widen the gap. Impressive how Dominic Toninato has started the season, with five goals already. The former Duluth East centerman, playing between Alex Iafallo and Adam Krause, has developed into one of those goal-scorers with a magical goal-scorer’s touch. Iafallo and Krause work hard and can make things happen, as well as create goals, but Toninato often shows up just at the right moment, as the deflection or rebound lands on his stick.

This weekend, however, the shooting starts in earnest in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, as Denver comes to AMSOIL. Interesting, but after facing Minnesota and Notre Dame, then playing an old rival in MSU-Mankato, it seems weird to realize that Denver is by far the most important foe the Bulldogs will face thus far. This one counts in the NCHC, and we can be sure the Pioneers will be fired up for the pair of 7 p.m. games Friday and Saturday.

For the UMD women, facing Lindenwood at 3 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday won’t necessarily be easy, but it will be a welcome break from the most rugged start of any hockey team in the country.

The Bulldogs went on the road for a nonconference at Connecticut, then came home to open the WCHA season against No. 2 Wisconsin, and the Bulldogs went down twice to the Badgers. Then came No. 1 Minnesota, in what looked like a hopeless weekend, but UMD, after dropping a 3-0 opener, came back to skate to a 3-3 tie and beat the Gophers in a shootout.

That official tie caused the Gophers to drop to No. 2 while undefeated Wisconsin climbed to No. 1 - until Minnesota went to Madison and swept, to reclaim No. 1 and drop the Badgers to No. 2 again. The Bulldogs, meanwhile, went off to North Dakota last weekend, meaning their first three WCHA series were against their top three ranked foes.
Had to be a wrenching opener, when UMD was clinging to a 1-0 lead until the closing minutes in the opener, then gave up the tying goal and eventually lost 2-1. Still, Kayla Black came back in goal for a shutout, and a 1-0 victory on Megan Huertas’s goal.

The volleyball team continues its amazing run. After its only loss of the season, to No. 1 Tampa, UMD won 14 straight matches, but more impressive is they won 25 consecutive games, which some v-ball types call “sets.” After losing one game at Upper Iowa, the Bulldogs took off again, and after beating University of Mary and Minot State last weekend, they now have won 17 straight games. That means, as they take their show on the road this weekend, UMD has won 42 games and lost one, and now stand 20-1, with a perfect 13-0 NSIC slate.

John Gilbert has been writing sports for over 30 years. Formerly with the
Star Tribune and WCCO. He currently hosts a daily radio show on KDAL AM.

UMD Extends Perfect Season, Bemidji Next

The bizarre stuff in football happened in Division 1 and the NFL last weekend. Here in Duluth, everything was status quo for the UMD Bulldogs and their homecoming crowd. UMD whipped Northern State 43-30, but they had to keep scoring to outrun the Wolves and move to 7-0 in the NSIC, and the No 2 rank in NCAA Division 2.
The reason for the need of continuing heroics was that Jared Jacobson, Northern State’s senior quarterback, kept making plays going the other way. He wound up completing 29 of 49 passes for 408 yards and three touchdowns, while running for another TD.
Yet UMD did make some big plays on defense. Hunter Malberg, for example, went high in the end zone to intercept a potential touchdown pass that might have made it tighter at the finish.
Offensively, the Bulldogs relied again on superb balance. Logan Lauters got loose for his first 200-yard day, on 15 carries, and Austin Sikorski added 61. Quarterback Drew Bauer was up to his old tricks. While passing for an acceptable 182 yards, on a 15-28 day, he also took off for a 47-yard touchdown run to start the scoring in a wild first quarter that saw UMD gain a 17-14 lead. Bauer wound up with 126 rushing yards on 12 carries - some by design.
Bauer also ran for a second touchdown, and threw a TD pass to Aaron Roth, who played another remarkable game on offense, defense, kick returns, and all one-handed, with his left arm weighed down by a partial cast and heavy taping.
If you want bizarre, you could have watched the major college showdown between Notre Dame and Florida State, both unbeaten and ranked in the top five. It was a highly entertaining and nationally televised game, with Florida State scoring late to take a 31-27 lead. But quarterback Everett Golson brought the Irish down the field, calmly reaching the Seminole 3-yard line in the closing seconds.
The Irish ran an interesting play, with two wide receivers lined up on the right. At the snap, both receivers went straight ahead, and were confronted by defenders. As they jostled, into the end zone, Corey Robinson swung behind them, into the front right corner of the end zone. Golson flipped him a perfect pass, and Notre Dame obviously had won the game.
But wait! A flag came in late, and the officials called offensive pass interference on C.J Prosise, one of the two wide receivers confronting those defensive backs. Incredible call. The ruling was that the congestion created by those receivers was an illegal pick to free the successful receiver, and it was quickly supported by the broadcast guys, who, remember, are under contract with the NCAA and rarely criticize officials.
My feeling is that we can’t know if one of those wide receivers was, indeed, the primary receiver, in which case it should have been defensive pass interference! We also know that neither of those defensive backs would have left their coverage to chase Robinson, or their man would have been free for the pass. A great play, well-executed, ruined by what I saw as the worst call of the season. Also ruined, undoubtedly, are Notre Dame’s hopes of reaching the bowl playoff top four, while Florida State now is a virtual shoo-in.
In the NFL in Sunday, Seattle is learning that every team will offer its best effort to the defending Super Bowl champions. The St. Louis Rams, huge underdogs to the Seahawks, pulled off a stunning 28-26 upset. And they did it, partly, with a trick play against a team known for trick plays. This was one I’ve never seen before.
Seattle was about to punt, and as the punter booted the ball, the coverage guys raced down the field. They saw a receiver, over by the left sideline (from the receiving team’s perspective), preparing to catch the ball while the blocking brigade set up ahead of him. The coverage guys raced for that corner, without realizing the ball actually had been punted toward to right sideline. The Rams guy caught the ball and raced unmolested 90 yards up the right sideline for a touchdown.
In a game where Seattle outgained St Louis 463-272, and where Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson passed for 313 yards and ran himself for 106 as the game’s leading rusher, the trick-play touchdown proved pivotal.