There are some quality matchups this week in the Northern Sun. Augustana at Minnesota Duluth, and Winona State at the University of Mary will highlight a couple of the big games in the conference this week.

But don't think for a second that it will be easy for Concordia in Northern, or for St. Cloud State at Wayne State. Heck, even (against my pick) USF is looking for a 4-0 start in the conference.

It's an interesting week in the Northern Sun, here is how I see it going!


Bemidji State (1-2) at University Sioux Falls (3-0)

I need to give credit where it is due, I thought the Cougars could be in for an upset last week, and for three quarters it looked to be a battle. With USF leading 26-20 after three quarters the Cougars turned up the intensity in a key fourth quarter, and rattled off 16-unanswered points in the game's most important quarter.

Cougar Quarterback Taylor Perkins tossed 4-touchdowns and threw for 287-yards on the day, if it wasn't for UMD's Chace Vogler, he probably would have been the Northern Sun's Offensive Player of the Week.

What impresses me about Perkins is how he distributes the ball, four Cougar receivers had three catches or more. Saturday against Minot, the big plays went to Jermiah Oates, he caught six passes for 126 yards and three of those four touchdowns.

That passing game will be a big test for Bemidji State, who has to be disappointed with their 1-2 start on the season. The Beavers struggled to beat Upper Iowa in Bemidji in the opener, lost to Minnesota State, then fell to Wayne State at home.

The disappointing thing for Bemidji is that last week, they held Wayne's offense in check, but despite outgaining the Wildcats by more than 200-yards last week, and throwing for 348 yards in the game, the Beavers couldn't convert consistently on third down, and couldn't turn drives into points.

Like many of the games this week, I expect a battle, but I like the Cougars in this one. USF gets the 4-0 start, Bemidji loses their third straight.



MSU Moorhead (0-3) at Minnesota State-Mankato (3-0)

The Dragons scored more points last week, than they had in their first two games combined, but still came up well short to Upper Iowa, in a 51-33 defeat.

On the positive side though Jake Hodge threw for 222-yards and a pair of touchdowns in the game.

What last week showed though is that the Dragons still have a long ways to go, and playing against this Minnesota State Mankato defense this week, is going to be a challenge this group has not yet seen.

It was that defensive unit, that allowed the Traveling Training Kit to return to Mankato for the first time in four years.

The NSIC Defensive Player of the Week , Maverick Defensive Tackle Chris Schaudt is fresh off his six tackle two sack performance against St. Cloud State last week. Most impressive though, was the way that as a group they held the Huskies to just 220 yards of offense, including just 23 yards on the ground.

That defense will shut down the young Dragons this week. I look for the Mavericks to win big at home.


Concordia (1-2) at Northern State (0-3)

Even though the Wolves don't have a win to show for it yet in the 2012 season they have played virtually everyone tough. Last week it was Winona State that the Wolves gave a battle too, falling 42-32 to the Warriors.

The Wolves had a tough time stopping Rayon Simmons last week, he rushed for 177 yards against them this week. But who doesn't struggle to stop Simmons.

I think the big thing in this game is actually on the other side of the football, and something that Concordia has to be very concerned with. The Golden Bear defense, gave up 70-points last week to Minnesota Duluth. 42 of those points went unanswered following a late first half touchdown by the Bulldogs.

Through three games the Golden Bears have given up 126-points, only Minnesota State Moorhead and Minnesota Crookston have given up more. By the way, 24 of those points they gave up, were to the Minnesota Crookston, in a game they had to rally back to win. In all, the Golden Bears gave up 675-yards to the Bulldogs last week, and 300 of those yards were on the ground. That was the second time this season (3-games) Concordia has given up 300 yards rushing.

Obviously, Northern likes to run the football, between Jon Hughes and quarterback Jared Jacobson the Wolves have the ability to run the ball well, especially if their offense is running to option well, against the Golden Bears, that could work really well or it could backfire completely. It all depends on how well Concordia is going to play to its assignments defensively.

Even when you get to Jacobson though, he is a problem to bring down, and Hughes can be elusive, and anticipates the hole well. Either has the potential to rush for 100 yards on any given day.

Looking into the forecast, I see the day is supposed to be windy again in Northern, like it was on the day the Golden Bears struggled early at Crookston. That could hamper Concordia's passing attack, but so could the Wolves secondary, I think that group is one of the most underrated in the Northern Sun. Marquis Mulkey is a solid cover corner, combined with solid safety play from Logan Dosch and Jayson Geditz, this group is capable of shutting down opponent passing attacks. Further, Concordia has been prone to the interception so far this year.

I think turnovers make the difference, but I am taking Northern to get the win.



Southwest Minnesota State (1-2) at Minnesota Crookston (0-3)

Second halves have not been too friendly to the Southwest Minnesota State Mustangs this season. Through three games, Southwest is being outscored 28-14 in the third quarter. The fourth quarter has been worse, the Mustangs have been outscored 46-11.

That stat alone explains why the Mustangs have found themselves seconds away from 0-3 to start the season.

The Mustangs have one of the top offenses in the Northern Sun, and they average about 5.5 yards a play, that's not bad, but a rebuilt defense is still giving up an average of 5.8 yards a play, including a 5.0 yards per rush.

Why would a team do anything but run the ball on the Mustangs? That's exactly what the University of Mary figured out in the second half, and run the ball they did, as Dariouse Gravely rushed for 150-yards in the game, most in this young season by any Marauder rusher.

That is going to have to be the area of focus for Southwest against a Golden Eagle team that is run heavy. Richard Haley is a legitimate Division I style runner, and he is going to give the Mustangs fits on Saturday.

If the Mustangs don't show more consistency in the second half of games Crookston's conference game losing streak could end on Saturday, that said, I expect Southwest to come out of Crookston with a hard fought win.

I expect it to be close but I will give the Mustangs a slight edge to get to 2-2.


Winona State (2-1) at University of Mary (2-1)

Winona State rebounded from a disappointing loss at Minnesota Duluth last week, with a scrappy home win over Northern State.

John Tiegland has played well for the Warriors to this point in the season, as he has thrown for 635 yards and six touchdowns, and we have well documented Rayon Simmons over the years here.

But Chiki Ojika was the one who iced the game last week for the Warriors. Quite honestly, he has the coolest name to pronounce in the Northern Sun (Chee-Kee Oh-chee-kah), but it was the 5'8 junior who broke free on a 34-yard run with about two and a half minutes to go to put the game away for the Warriors.

The run by Ojika was a direct response to a Northern touchdown that had just cut the Warrior lead to 35-25, and his breaking free put the game out of reach.

On the other side of the ball, the Marauders welcomed back Dariouse Gravely last week, and he instantly jump started the Mary rushing attack. Gravely rushed for 150-yards in the Marauder victory over Southwest.

He could be what Mary was missing to give them the offensive balance aside of Craig Bagnell. Tyler Steffan didn't play a lot for Mary against Southwest, and I believe he was only targeted one time, it ended in an overthrow and an SMSU interception. Something wasn't right with him last week, but I am not sure on his availability for Saturday.

At the start of the year, I liked Winona to be in position to go to the playoffs this season, a road game in Bismarck is the type of game a playoff team wins. If Winona wants to win, they have to not let Gravely do what he did last week to Southwest, and they need to find a way to get after Bagnell and that quick rhythym passing game.

I am going against my initial gut feeling, and may regret this one, because Mary was impressive late last week, but I am going to take Winona to get the road win.



Minot State (0-3) at Upper Iowa University (1-2)

I can't imagine there has been a lot of NSIC games played from schools that are further a part than the two playing today. The 691 mile trip can be made in just a shade over 11 and a half hours (according to my friends at google).

It is 60-miles longer for the Beavers to go to Upper Iowa, than it is for them to drive to Winona, and nearly 200-miles longer than Wayne State to drive to Minnesota Duluth.

That being said, Upper Iowa picked up their first win of the season last week, by beating Minnesota State Moorhead.

The Peacocks used that high powered offense to light the scoreboard up to the tune of 51 points. However, they also gave up 33-to the Dragons.

Minot last week gave USF their best battle to date, putting up 351 yards of offense, and scoring 20-points in the game, keeping themselves into it until late.

The Beavers though have had that problem this year, they have been outscored 37-6 in the fourth quarter of games so far this season. Zac Cunha started at quarterback for Minot last week, and has completed just 18 of a season high 39 pass attempts in the loss, he was also picked off three times.

While the Peacock offensive machine rolled up 248 yards on the ground led by Raymond Bradley who rushed for 138 in the game last week, and Cole Jaeschke threw for 304 yards and four touchdowns last week.

Minot is going to have problems stopping the Peacocks, they did a good job a couple of weeks ago at home against Wayne State, I am just not sure they will be able to go on the road and pull out a win in Fayette, nearly 700 miles from home.

So I will take the Peacocks.



Augustana (2-1) at Minnesota Duluth (3-0)

As you would imagine, Augustana's 61-0 win last week over Minnesota Crookston was pretty one sided. But then again, so was Minnesota Duluth's 70-24 routing of Concordia.

Dajon Newell barely had to break a sweat in rushing for 122 yards, it took him just 14-carries, and Josh Hanson threw a nifty 20-passes, while completing 13 of them for 195 yards and four touchdowns in the Viking onslaught.

The big thing the Vikings will need to do this week, is continue the job they did last week against Minnesota Crookston, they frustrated Richard Haley and the Golden Eagle runnning game all day. Haley finished with just 70 yards rushing in the contest.

That will be a tougher task against Minnesota Duluth front line, loaded with talent. The Bulldogs bullied Concordia last week, rushing for 365 yards in the game, and letting Chace Vogler loose as he threw for 310 yards and three touchdowns.

In fact, Saturday night's matchup by the lake, is a battle of the top two rushing offenses in the Northern Sun. It is also a battle of the two top scoring offenses in the league, Minnesota Duluth averaging more than 50-points a game, the Vikings averaging over 40 a game.

Something tells me that the Bulldog defense although not as dominant as it has been in previous years, will make things a lot tougher on Dajon Newell and Josh Hanson and company. Hanson would have to be really good on Saturday night to give the Vikings a chance. And he may be able to strike a time or two, afterall 10 touchdown passes in three games is nothing to ignore.

But, the Bulldogs will take the run away, and that has been the difference for the Vikings so far this year, so I like the Bulldogs to win by at least two scores at home.

Extra Point: The Bulldogs have won six of the eight meetings between the two schools, including five staright.