Gophers Football Suffers Setback Against Purdue

FOOTBALL:  The Golden Gophers bowl hopes suffered a setback Saturday with a big loss to Purdue 49-30. After trading touchdowns Minnesota got out to an early lead with a 38-yard Field Goal capping a 12-play drive. Purdue then scored a TD and the Gophers got another Field Goal in the quarter before Purdue started to pull away. The Boilermakers would outscore the Gophers 28-7 to pull away. Purdue’s Devin Mockobee and Tyrone Tracy Jr. each had over 100 yards rushing. The Gophers’ Athan Kaliakmanis completed 18 of 42 passes for 292 yards and three touchdowns in the game. The loss drops the Gophers to 5-5 overall and 3-4 in the Big Ten. They will play Ohio State next.

--North Dakota State University would turn a tight halftime game into an easy win Saturday. Leading just 13-10 over Southern Illinois at halftime, the Bison would score 21 unanswered second-half points to win 34-10. Cam Miller was an efficient 15 of 19 passing for 232 yards and one rushing touchdown. North Dakota had eight ball carriers combined for 217 rushing yards in the game.

-- St. John’s rolls in their final regular season game beating up on Concordia-Moorhead 48-21. The Johnnies jumped out to a 20-0 lead and would never look back. Aaron Syverson threw for 449 yards and five touchdowns, bringing his season total to 37, an MIAC single-season conference play record.  St. John’s is in wait-and-see mode now for the playoff seeding.

MEN’S COLLEGE HOCKEY:  For the second night in a row the Gophers overcame a third-period deficit to gain points. Saturday they fought back from 2-1 in the third and earned a 2-2 tie with Michigan. Michigan scored late in the second period to take the 2-1 lead and it would take the Gopher Jimmy Snuggerud’s goal with less than five minutes to play to get the game evened up. After a scoreless overtime, the Wolverines would earn the extra point by winning the shootout 1-0. The Gophers did extend their unbeaten streak to four games and add a point to their Big Ten total with the tie.

-- The SCSU hockey team upset the 12th-ranked Western Michigan Broncos on the road 3-0 to gain a weekend sweep. Senior goal tender Dominic Basse made 22 saves in recording his third shutout of the year already. Veeti Miettinen, Joe Molenaar, and Grant Ahcan scored for St. Cloud State who are now 4-0 in the conference and 6-4 overall.

--St. John’s would have no problems with Concordia-Moorhead on Saturday beating them 5-2. Their special teams would prove the key in the win as the Johnnies scored twice on the power play, and twice shorthanded. Five different players would score for St. John’s in the win. Next up is St. Scholastica on Thursday.

WOMEN’S COLLEGE HOCKEY:  The University of Minnesota would get a weekend sweep over Minnesota State-Mankato when Madison Kaiser would score with just over six minutes to play to give the Gophers a 2-1 lead and the win. Down 1-0 in the first period, Emma Kreiza and Ava Lindsay would team up on a goal to get things evened at 1-1. It was the Gophers' sixth straight win over the Mavericks and are now 104-4-3 all-time against Mankato.

--The College of St. Benedict stormed back from being two goals down in the third to get a win. The Bennies would get goals from Emily Wendorf and Ava Stinnet in the third to force overtime. It wouldn’t take long for them to earn the win as Corrine Brown scored just eight seconds into overtime to earn St. Ben’s the 5-4 win. St. Ben’s improved their record to 2-0 in the conference and 2-3 overall.

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MEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL:  St. Cloud State improved to 2-0 in the early season with a 74-64 win over Henderson State in the Central Region Challenge in Kansas City. The Huskies were led by Lucas Morgan’s 10 points and 11 rebounds. Anish Ramlall would add 14 points and Tony Dahl 13 points for SCSU. The Huskies will get most of the week off before taking on Minnesota State-Mankato at home on November 18^th.

WOMEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL:  St. Benedict’s earned their second win of the season with a 79-70 win over Northwestern-St. Paul Saturday afternoon in the CSB Tip-Off Tournament. Northwestern would take an early 24-16 lead but the Bennies would storm back thanks in part to Sophia Jonas’s 22 points. Jonas would also earn tournament MVP honors. Carla Meyer would score 17 points and Kira Young 13 points to round out the Bennies' top scorers. Up next for St. Bens is the University of Wisconsin-River Falls on Thursday.

--The Huskies opened up their 2023-2024 season with a trouncing for Valley City State 77-43. SCSU was led by Ashley Sawicki’s 13 rebounds and six points. St. Cloud had four players in double-digit scoring: Dru Henning with 12, Morgan Draheim, Jada Eggebrecht, and Paige Lambe all had 10. They also had four players make their team debut in the win. Like the men’s team, they are off until November 18^th when they will take on the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in Kenosha, WI.

  VOLLEYBALL:  The St. Cloud State Volleyball team would close out their regular season with a tough loss to top-ranked Wayne State 3-1 (27-25, 25-19, 26-24, 25-21). Mistakes and Mishaps would hamper the Huskies' effort as they made 49 errors across the four games. Kenzie Foley led the team with 21 kills and 18 digs for her eighteenth double-double of the season. Hannah Bruskiewicz had 13 kills and Sam Zimmerman 12 kills for the Huskies. SCSU will start their playoff run in the NSIC quarterfinals Tuesday at home against Northern State.

JUNIOR HOCKEY:  The St. Cloud Norsemen bounce back from their Friday loss to Aberdeen to beat the Wings on Saturday 2-1. Hagen Moe and Michael Coleman scored for St. Cloud.

--The Granite City Lumberjacks had another strong scoring output Saturday and beat up the Alexandria Blizzard 6-2. The Lumberjacks would get goals from six different players: Ashton Ericksen. Sam Brennan, Justin Lesser, Easton Portner, Nolan Widman, and Jack Louko.