{"id":189179,"date":"2020-01-11T14:41:31","date_gmt":"2020-01-11T20:41:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=189179"},"modified":"2020-01-11T15:04:56","modified_gmt":"2020-01-11T21:04:56","slug":"dramatic-ending-seals-bison-championship-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=189179","title":{"rendered":"Dramatic ending seals Bison Championship win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Frisco, Tx\u00a0 (ESPN) \u00a0 Ben DiNucci’s end zone pick <\/a>,by\u00a0 James Hendricks seals FCS Championship of Bison, Saturday.<\/p>\n

FRISCO, Texas (STATS) — It’s easy to say North Dakota State winning another FCS national championship was fate, destiny, something supernatural.<\/p>\n

But don’t.<\/p>\n

To help college football move toward the conclusion of its 150th season, North Dakota State fittingly beat James Madison 28-20 on Saturday while playing the 150th game of one of the greatest decades the sport has ever witnessed.<\/p>\n

Quite frankly, the Bison have taken “dynasty” by the horns and not relied on magical powers; they are the power in the FCS and create the magic. To cap the 2019 season under first-year coach Matt Entz, the first FCS program to finish 16-0 made it three straight national titles and eight in the final nine seasons of the decade. Their record was a gaudy 137-13 (.913), including an FCS-record 37-game winning streak since 2017.<\/p>\n

Redshirt freshman Trey Lance<\/a>, fresh off winning the Stats Perform FCS Walter Payton Award Friday night, was named the championship game’s most outstanding player,<\/strong> carrying the ball 30 times for 166 yards, including a 44-yard touchdown scramble to open the fourth quarter, which made it 28-13.<\/p>\n

Still, the top-ranked Missouri Valley Conference champ had to hold on against James Madison (14-2) in the closing seconds. The Dukes, who stalked the Bison all season at No. 2, pulled within 28-20 on quarterback Ben DiNucci<\/a>‘s second 5-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Riley Stapleton<\/a> with 6:55 left. They got the ball back with just under three minutes to go and drove to the Bison 3 with eight seconds left, but safety James Hendricks<\/a> intercepted DiNucci at the goal line to preserve the win.<\/p>\n

A raucous Toyota Stadium was electrified by the highly anticipated playoff rubber match in a four-year span. North Dakota State’s only postseason loss since 2011 was to James Madison, but the Bison captured the rematch in the 2017 national championship game.<\/p>\n

James Madison, the CAA champ which also had a first-year coach in Curt Cignetti, made quite the game-opening statement with a 17-play, 86-yard touchdown drive, capped by DiNucci’s first touchdown pass. But North Dakota State settled in behind Lance and never trailed after Adam Cofield<\/a>‘s 1-yard plunge tied the game to end the Bison’s first drive.<\/p>\n

The Bison simply made game-winning plays. To open the second quarter, a motioning wide receiver Phoenix Sproles<\/a> took a handoff and sold James Madison defenders on a faked reverse before scoring from 38 yards out for a 14-7 lead. The Bison then faked a field goal attempt on their next drive and Hendricks — the holder — went untouched around left end for a 20-yard touchdown and a 21-10 advantage.<\/p>\n

Field goals aren’t going to beat North Dakota State. Three times, James Madison settled for attempts from FCS field goal leader Ethan Ratke<\/a>, who made a pair while also misfiring with a doink off the upright.<\/p>\n

James Madison, behind DiNucci’s 204 passing yards, outgained North Dakota State 365-353. But the Dukes had allowed only one opponent to surpass 100 rushing yards this season, and North Dakota State finished with 281 yards on 45 carries.<\/p>\n

North Dakota State linebackers Jackson Hankey<\/a> and James Kaczor<\/a> had 17 and 14 tackles, respective<\/p>\n

<\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Frisco, Tx\u00a0 (ESPN) \u00a0 Ben DiNucci’s end zone pick ,by\u00a0 James Hendricks seals FCS Championship of Bison, Saturday. FRISCO, Texas (STATS) — It’s easy to say North Dakota State winning another FCS national championship was fate, destiny, something supernatural. But don’t. To help college football move toward the conclusion of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":189192,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,27,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-sports","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=189179"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":189191,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189179\/revisions\/189191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/189192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=189179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=189179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=189179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}