The game came down to a battle of two very well coached special teams. Both USF & UND entered the game with six blocked kicks under their belt. USF would tally one more on the season, but the Fighting Sioux broke through the Cougars line to block three kicks, two field goals and one extra point attempt, resulting in seven very costly points left on the field by USF, en route to a two point loss.

Special teams sparked the Cougars' first score, when senior receiver Michael Hicks returned a punt 62 yards to the UND 20 yard line. It only took one play for junior quarterback Taylor Perkins to hit the newly turned receiver, Carrington Hanna on an out route that he turned into a 20 yard touchdown to give USF and early 7-0 lead.

UND answered with a seven play 75 yard drive, gaining most of their estate when Brent Goska identified a breakdown in the Cougar coverage and found Greg Hardin deep for a 45 yard score to tie it up 7-7.

The second quarter was full of big plays by both the defensive units and again, the special teams. First, it was USF's junior safety Robert Virgil. He put a stop to UND's drive, when he intercepted Goska's pass 48 seconds into the second quarter, but the Cougars couldn't capitalize on the turnover.

Next the USF defense forced UND to a three and out and received another big play from special teams, as Ryan Graber snuck behind the Fighting Sioux's line to block Brett Cameron's kick and record USF's seventh block of the year.

The block gave the Cougars great field position. They took over on UND's 20 yard line, but again were unable to convert as their drive ended in a three and out, followed by Wieking's attempt that was blocked Saturday.

USF scored the final touchdown of the game on their next drive, when Perkins threw a beautiful 35 yard pass to Hicks only to setup an 11 yard fade for a score to Jeremiah Oates the very next play. Oates' touchdown gave him nine on the year.

However, the drive and score was overshadowed by another blocked kick. Wieking's extra point was blocked as the Cougars entered the half with a 13-7 lead.

The second half was one where the Cougars were outgained 163-76 yards on offense. It wasn't pretty for either side, but three game changing plays would occur. The first was in the third quarter, when Zeb Miller's 29 yard field goal cut USF's lead to three heading into the 4th quarter.

UND's would then control the fourth quarter, where they held a 12:14-2:46 advantage in time possession. It maybe repetitive, but it was all special teams as Brett Cameron's punt at the 6:41 marked pinned USF down on their own one yard line and resulted in a safety that cut the Cougars' lead to one point and returned the ball to UND with 5:49 left in the game.

The Fighting Sioux started at their own 40 yard line and although USF's defense played stout all game, UND methodically milked the clock against an exhausted defense, to ultimately setup for Miller's game winning kick as time expired.

The most telling stat was the Sioux's play and time possession advantage, as UND ran a total of 79 plays over 40 minutes of possession, while USF recorded 46 snaps during just under 20 minutes of possession.

The game was the final of USF's provisional year and their performance showed not only how much the team has grown this year, but proved they can and will remain a competitor at the NCAA level.