North Dakota Pulls Away from Portland State 47-23
North Dakota never trailed, never even got tied, and scored 21 points in about four minutes of the fourth quarter. The final was 47-23, and Portland State spent the second half chasing it.
North Dakota opened with two Jerry Kaminski touchdown passes (11 yards to Mason South, 1 yard to Tray Kuntz) and a 38-yard field goal for a 17-0 lead midway through the second quarter. Portland State got a 7-yard Gabe Downing pass to Tanner Beaman and a two-point conversion to make it 17-8, and North Dakota's Charles Langama replied 15 seconds later with a 99-yard kickoff return touchdown. A safety made it 26-8 at the half. That is a lot of points from plays that were not offense.
Portland State got a Cru Newman touchdown catch (and another two-point conversion) to close within 26-16 late in the third. Then the fourth quarter happened. Matt Lawson ran 26 yards, Korey Tai caught a 74-yard touchdown from Kaminski and Javance Tupou'ata-Johnson ran 10 yards, all in about four minutes, and it was 47-16. Darius Bailey's 39-yard score from Downing at 6:29 only made the number look better.
The yards were lopsided. North Dakota had 627, 336 passing and 291 rushing on 39 carries, better than 7 yards a carry. Portland State had 344. The home team lost a fumble and North Dakota threw one interception, so turnovers were not the story. Downing did throw three touchdowns, and his 28.5 points was a season high for him, but you cannot score 47 against someone and also get outscored.
North Dakota is 3-0. Portland State is 0-2. For fantasy purposes, Kaminski was the top scorer on the board at 37 points, which is what you get for owning the quarterback of the team that scores 47.