DULUTH, Minn. (Malosky Stadium) - When a team rolls into a tooting an unblemished record and has steadily climbed the national polls all season, there must be a reason for it. Today at Malosky Stadium in Duluth, Minn., the Bemidji State University football team was an eye witness to one of the elite programs in the country.

The Beavers traveled to No. 6 University of Minnesota Duluth today for a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference North match up and were victims of the big play, falling to the Bulldogs 48-21.

Minnesota Duluth came out of the gates with all cylinders firing. The Bulldogs' offense scored on its first six possessions of the game and piled up 410 yards during the first 30 minutes of play, while its defense forced the Beavers to punt three times and watched BSU turn the ball over on downs twice to take a 41-7 lead into halftime.

UMD opened the game with 27 unanswered points scoring all four touchdowns in the first 15:36 of the game, but the Beavers responded with a nine-play, 69-yard drive on their second possession of the second stanza to bring the score to 27-7 with 10:59 to play in the half.

The Beavers' first half touchdown came on a 10-yard pass from Derek Edholm (So., QB, Anoka, Minn.) to George Kadlec (Sr., WR, Chicago, Ill.). The touchdown reception was the first of two on the day for Kadlec and marked the fifth consecutive game with a TD and the eighth game out of nine this season that the senior wide out has found the end zone.

In the third quarter, each team scored once, capitalizing on opponent miscues to gain good field position.

The Bulldogs were the first to get on the scoreboard in the second half when Cole Strilzuk scooped up a BSU fumble on the 31-yard line. Minnesota, Duluth needed just six plays to find the end zone.

When the Bulldogs turned the ball over on downs at their own 14 with 4:00 to go in the third, the Beavers bounced back with a touchdown drive of their own. A pair of complete passes by Edholm put seven on the board for BSU, with the second one going to Andrew Schultz (So., WR, Grand Forks, N.D.) from two yards out.

BSU would assemble two fourth quarter drives that would take then deep into UMD territory, but would come up with just seven points to show for them.

The Beavers engineered a 15-play 60-yard drive to the doorstep, but fumbled the ball on the eight-yard line with 4:32 remaining and the Bulldogs would take over. A weary BSU defensive unit would respond by pushing the Bulldogs back five yards and forcing UMD to punt after three plays and the Beavers would benefit from a poor punt to begin their final drive of the game on the UMD 46.

Edholm completed three of five passes on the drive. He found an open Kadlec in the back of the end zone on the final play of the drive and the senior made an acrobatic catch to haul in the pass and reel the Bulldogs to within 48-21.

The touchdown grab was Kadlec's 10th of the season equaling a school mark for single-season touchdown receptions. The senior now has 22 TDs on 75 career receptions and sits in a tie with BSU great Anthony Schreiber for fourth on Bemidji State's career touchdown receptions list.

Edholm finished the day completing 23-of-35 pass attempts for 261 yards and three touchdowns. He connected with six different receivers, finding Jody Henningson (Fr., WR, Elburn, Ill.) seven times--a career-best for the rookie.

BSU struggled to generate any sort of a ground attach in the game netting just 37 yards on 31 attempts.

The Bulldogs, on the other hand, saw their running game flourish. They rolled up 251 yards led by a career-best 139 from Isaac Odim. In addition, the Bulldogs got three touchdowns and 203 yards on 13-of-19 for from quarterback Ted Schlafke, while he tacked on another score with a 13-yard run.

The Beavers (3-6; 2-6 NSIC) are back in action next weekend as they return home to host the University of Mary (4-5; 4-4 NSIC) in a 1 p.m. NSIC match up at Chet Anderson Field.

--bsu--