UND football in the middle of string of Top 10 clashes

Oct. 26—GRAND FORKS — The UND football program has one final regular-season opportunity Saturday to do what has proven to be a major challenge around the Missouri Valley Football Conference: Steal a road win at one of the Top 10 programs.Not much has separated the top of the MVFC pack this season, evidenced by the recent Stats Perform FCS Top 25, which includes No. 4 Youngstown State, No. 5 South Dakota State, No. 6 South Dakota, No. 9 UND and No. 10 Illinois State.Coming off a home win over No. 5 and a road overtime loss at No. 6, the Hawks now travel to Youngstown, Ohio, for an 11 a.m. matchup with the Penguins."You've got to be able to handle hard better," UND head coach Eric Schmidt said. "We did not play up to our standard (last Saturday) in the first half and South Dakota had a lot to do with that. To our guys' credit, on the road in a tough environment and down 17, found a way to get back into that thing and have the ball at the end with a change to go win."That's what this time of year is all about. When you're playing good teams week in, week out and playing Top 10 teams, you know the margin for error."The Penguins, led by reigning Walter Payton Award winner Beau Brungard, are 6-2 and coming off a bye. The two losses are to Kentucky and a seven-point loss at SDSU.The Penguins beat USD by 19 at home at Stambaugh Stadium in late September.In conference games, Youngstown State has the No. 1 scoring offense in the Missouri Valley at 37.4 points per game and the No. 1 MVFC total offense at 474 yards per game.Brungard leads the MVFC in passing with 2,061 yards with 19 touchdowns to four interceptions. He's also the league's No. 3 rusher with 129 carries for 647 yards and 11 touchdowns. He averages 80.9 rushing yards per game.The Fighting Hawks sit at 6-3 with three games remaining. UND finishes at Youngtown, then home against Illinois State and Southern Illinois.UND's start will be magnified against Youngstown. The Hawks' last two road games have included deficits of 24-7 at Northern Iowa and 20-3 at South Dakota. In both of those games, UND shut out the opponent in the second half (USD scored a touchdown in overtime)."We have a big challenge in front of us," Schmidt said. "In this league, it's about being able to defend your home turf and then finding ways to win on the road. We've got to get to work here early in the week and correct some things, improve and get off to a better start."