RECAP: No. 23 UND Football wins 27-24 Over No. 4 Montana -KVRR Sports Report (9/7/24)

aara Center magic you hear it said in Grand Forks all the time but what does it truly mean I don't think anybody truly knows but whatever it is it showed its colors on Saturday night Montana entered the game ranked fourth in the FCS stats perform pole and it looked like it in the first half the Grizzlies scored on each of their first three drives and took a 24 to7 lead into half but that's when that magic started kicking in und's offense found life scoring 20 points in the second second half and und's defense putting up a donut allowing just 34 total yards and not a single first down until the final drive of the half CJ elich gave North Dakota the lead on a 40-yard field goal with just over two minutes to go Montana missed a 54 yd field goal in response and UND completed the comeback to get their first win on the season defensive lineman Craig Orlando and head coach Bubba schweer shared their thoughts on the team flipping the switch in the second half can kept it together as a team you know we stuck to the game plan first half we came out slow second half we knew we had to be a great team you know we got to achieve greatness and just keep playing our hearts out and I think that's what we did as a team there's not much to say how you going to respond that's what really we said you know we we put ourselves in a tough spot we knew we were going to get the ball really put it on our kickoff return team to take care of the ball and get us a good field position and get started and go down and score and once you score you get some momentum quarterback Simon rfo picks up his first career win as a starter in this one though his passing stats won't jump off the page 11 for 24 97 yards and a pick he completed big passes in the second half and used his legs seven rushes 57 yards and a score on the ground I mean some of those runs were really tough his touchdown run bad snap and he takes it up up the middle ends up in the end zone and you know just really played well and uh you know he'll keep getting better this his second start he's just so gritty and tough you know the guys will really rally around him and you know he just made several plays again in the second half that really helped our football team moved the chains and and scored some points 2724 the final from gr Forks as UND upsets the number four team in the FCS reporting in Graham Forks Ryan Bolan kvrr Sports