Bison take care of Youngstown State to open spring season

The Bison football team took down Youngstown State 25-7 on Sunday as the Herd improved to 2-0 on the season, with their two wins coming four months apart from one another. The Bison nearly pitched a shutout on defense while outrushing the Penguins by nearly 200 yards.

A masked-up Fargodome crowd of 6,578 were able to take in Sunday’s Missouri Valley matchup as the sports world slowly inches back towards full-capacity stadiums.

With Seth Wilson going down early in the first quarter with a leg injury, Kobe Johnson and Jalen Bussey were asked to step up and tote the rock for the Herd. The two backs delivered, and Johnson rumbled his way to a career-high 114 yards on 16 carries and a touchdown while the redshirt freshman Bussey punching in a pair of scores himself.

Bison quarterback Zeb Noland attempted just 18 passes in his first start in green and gold as the Herd rode a run-heavy attack to their second victory of the year.

The game was just like many other Bison wins in their decade run of dominance. The Herd jumped out to an early lead, dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, didn’t commit any turnovers and won the field possession battle. Both teams played a relatively clean game with the Penguins committing four penalties to NDSU’s one.

Junior linebacker Jackson Hankey led both teams with 14 tackles for the Bison as the Penguins dual quarterback attack never seemed to get in a rhythm. Six different Bison were in on tackles for loss against Youngstown with Spencer Waege leading the way with 2.5 and Lane Tucker and Michael Tutsie notching one each.

The Bison are now 1-0 in Missouri Valley Conference play as their focus now turns towards a road matchup with Southern Illinois next Saturday. A win against the Salukis would bring the Herd’s winning streak to 40 games.