Copy of Rapid City Journal story (link)

Minot State holds on for 17-10 victory over Mines

By Padraic Duffy, Journal staff

RAPID CITY — The South Dakota Mines football team kept trying to capitalize on momentum-changing plays Saturday at O’Harra Stadium, but in the end an overmatched offense just couldn’t quite get them over the hump during their Homecoming festivities.


The Hardrockers lost 17-10 to Minot State in a Dakota Athletic Conference football game that saw neither team light the scoreboard in the second half.

The Hardrockers failed to score an offensive touchdown all day as defensive back Dustin Meneley was the only Mines player to visit the end zone, scoring on a 100-yard interception return as the halftime horn sounded.

“There are things that we have got to do better on offense,” Mines head coach Dan Kratzer said. “We’re playing good defense and our special teams are playing well. We need to step up with our young guys on offense.”

The Hardrockers were out-gained substantially by the Beavers as Minot running back Nick Banks rushed for 200 yards and a couple of touchdowns to lead an offense that racked up 478 yards to Mines’ 185.

“I thought they did a great job,” Minot head coach Paul Rudolph said of his defense. “Other than that first drive where (Mines) went down and got a field goal out of the deal everything went great.”

The Beavers didn’t force any turnovers, but they held the Hardrockers to an average of 2.9 yards per play, and came up big whenever Mines threatened.

One of those occasions came on the first possession of the second half after the Hardrockers had gone into the locker room at the half with a huge momentum boost from Meneley. The Beavers were leading 17-3 after a couple of short Banks touchdown runs and had the ball on the Mines 3-yard line with three seconds remaining in the half. Instead of trying a short field goal the Minot coaching staff decided to go for a touchdown. Quarterback Jon Meier made a poor throw into the left flat that Meneley picked off and returned down the sideline to make it a 17-10 ballgame at the half.

“We told them that we played pretty decent for the most part,” Rudolph said of trying to keep his team’s spirits up. “That was probably a bad play call to let go to the field in the first place and the kid made a good play and took it 100 (yards).”

That led to the first possession of the third quarter when Mines used a fake punt on 4th and 1 from their own 42-yard line to break into Minot territory. The Hardrockers had 1st and 10 from the Beaver 30 but the Minot defense sacked Hardrocker quarterback Joe Sanchez and forced one of Mines’ eight punts on the day.

“In the third quarter when they were backed up against the wall and got a stop, that was huge,” Rudolph said. “I thought they were fantastic today.”

And they stayed that way as the game remained a one-possession contest until the very end, but the Hardrockers just couldn’t ever string together enough offense to tie the game.

“We just aren’t matching up with teams on the offensive side of the ball very well right now and we should be,” Kratzer said.

The Hardrockers (2-3 overall and 0-2 in the DAC) head to Spearfish next week to take on Black Hills State. The Beavers (2-3, 2-0) will host Dickinson State.


(Seth A. McConnell/Journal staff)

Minot State running back Andre James shrugs off the tackle by an airborne Dustin Meneley after a short gain during the second quarter Saturday afternoon at O'Harra Stadium.