As purple and white striped sections filled the seats of Bill Snyder Family Stadium, the town of Manhattan was ready to see the Kansas State Wildcats take on the North Dakota Fighting Hawks.
K-State was the first to score, paving the way for their 38-35 win. While the Fighting Hawks kept up with the Wildcats and made it a close game during the second half, it wasn’t enough to overtake this purple lineup.
Despite the game clock not being on K-State’s side, the team pushed down the field, making an 81-yard drive under the two-minute mark. With 42 seconds left on the game clock, quarterback Avery Johnson found running back Joe Jackson for a 6-yard touchdown pass, putting the Wildcats up 38-35 and leaving North Dakota with no time for another touchdown or possible play. Jackson had a solid night in the stat book, producing 11 carries for 55 yards.
“You gotta have a short memory at this position,” Johnson said. “I had all the confidence in the world in my teammates, so we go out there and finish the game, and we were lucky to do that tonight.”
While Johnson took the lead and was calm during this tough quarter, the first half was chaotic.
The Wildcats started adequately when kicker Louis Rodriguez cleared a 30-yard field goal. The Fighting Hawks responded not much later with a 1-yard touchdown rush from Jerry Kaminski and an extra point added by C.J. Elrichs to put North Dakota up 7-3.
At the end of the first quarter, Johnson made a 44-yard pass up the middle to wide receiver Jayce Brown for a touchdown. Jayce Brown was a stat standout tonight with a career-high 12 catches for 109 yards and a touchdown.
“Jayce Brown keeps getting better and better,” K-State head coach Chris Klieman said. “[He] keeps having a chip on his shoulder of wanting to have the ball thrown to him.”
Throughout the night, it was a back-and-forth game. After the Wildcats’ touchdown, North Dakota also scored, putting them up 14-10.
“[If we] don’t fix the issues we have, they’re going to keep coming back,” Klieman said. “I’ll be up late tonight, watching the film and writing a lot of notes on where we broke down, where we need to improve, where we have to address.”
Making a touchdown with 4:15 left in the second quarter, Johnson found wide receiver Jaron Tibbs for a 30-yard touchdown reception, along with an extra point made by Rodriguez. Rounding out the first half, Sawyer Seidl of North Dakota made a 16-yard touchdown rush with an extra point cleared by Elrichs. Even with this touchdown, the Fighting Hawks would stay behind, 21-17.
Coming back after halftime, the ‘Cats were determined to put more points up on the board. Back-to-back touchdowns late in the third quarter were scored by running back DeVon Rice, along with both extra points cleared by Rodriguez.
“DeVon has been getting better and better and just needs an opportunity,” Klieman said. “With Dylan Edwards down, he was able to get that opportunity. He runs really hard.”
The first touchdown Rice produced was a 9-yard rush and the second run was a 13-yard rush. Throughout the night, Rice had two touchdowns and seven carries for 40 yards.
“I challenged them pretty good at halftime,” Klieman said. “We came out and we had real good urgency and energy about us, and got the two-score lead again.”
North Dakota would try and make a comeback, completing two touchdowns themselves. One was a 22-yard touchdown pass, along with a 20-yard touchdown rush. Even though the Wildcats would lose the lead 35-31, they would soon regain it and enjoy the satisfying victory.
“We’ve got to get a lot better,” Klieman said. “We’ve got to improve in all areas, not just one area, in all phases we’ve got to improve. But I’ve been in this business too long. You’d better enjoy every opportunity you have to get a victory. So we’re happy about the victory.”
