By Kristin Farris
Published 9:47 am on November 18, 2024
The Bemidji State football team took down No. 10 Augustana 17-10 on Saturday afternoon at Chet Anderson Stadium, scoring a playoff-clinching upset that puts the Beavers in the NCAA Tournament for the fourth year in a row.
During the NCAA selection show on Sunday, the confident aspirations turned to official confirmation. BSU was the last team revealed in the 28-team field and will face Angelo State, Super Region Four's No. 3 seed, at 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 23, in San Angelo, Texas. View the complete bracket by clicking here.
As for the game, the Bemidji State defense put on a stellar show, and the offense supported them with just enough scoring to secure a big-time win.
Midway through the second quarter, wide receiver Drayton Lehman and quarterback Sam McGath combined to claim the first points of the day with Lehman's 22-yard touchdown reception. The 13-play, 71-yard drive gave the Beavers a 7-0 lead that held until Augustana's Jake Pecina landed a 38-yard field goal as the clock expired for the first half.
The third quarter gave the Vikings hope as they took a 10-7 lead with 4:50 remaining in the frame. But BSU wouldn't settle for this and grabbed 10 points of its own in the final quarter.
Just three minutes into the fourth, Connor Mantelli booted a career-long field goal at 47 yards, the longest by a Bemidji State kicker since Isaac Aanerud nailed a 50-yard kick in 2017. It tied the score at 10-10 and restored order after Augustana momentum started to build.
And after a pair of big stops from the Beaver defense, McGath marched down the field with a 29-yard pass to Bubba Peters and, soon after, rushed into the end zone for a 2-yard TD.
The score gave BSU a 17-10 lead with 4:31 remaining. Augustana's ensuing drive reached Bemidji State's 21-yard line, but Kamron Gothard came up with a fourth-down pass break-up with 28 seconds left on the clock for the game-clinching stop.
McGath went 10-for-19 on the afternoon with 114 passing yards and one touchdown. He also dominated the run game, grabbing 64 net yards on 18 rushing attempts and tallied the game-winning touchdown. Jayden Washington sat just behind McGath with 62 rushing yards on 13 attempts. Peters led the receiving game with two receptions for 60 yards. Peters is now just 15 yards shy of hitting 1,000 receiving yards this season. Lehman ended with six receptions for 55 yards and one touchdown.
Defensively, Colton Hinrichs and Marco Cavallaro led the charge with seven tackles each. Savon Cameron marked the team high in solo tackles with five of his own. The Beavers marked nine tackles for a loss, and Cade Barrett grabbed 2.5 of those tackles for eight yards. He also marked the Beavers' lone sack, a strip sack that ended a Vikings drive in the fourth quarter.
With the victory and Sunday's selection to the NCAA Tournament, Bemidji State has now made the national tournament in each of the past four seasons. The Beavers are just one of five teams to accomplish that feat and are tied for the third-longest postseason streak in the nation. Only Ferris State (10) and Slippery Rock (six) have more consecutive berths, while BSU is tied with Grand Valley State and New Haven at four.
Behind the football and men's hockey teams, Bemidji State also made a little more history on Saturday. With football's win over No. 10 Augustana and men's hockey's win over No. 3 Minnesota, Saturday marked the first time that two BSU programs beat top-10 opponents on the same day since Jan. 22, 2021.
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