Wildcats rise up: defeat the Bison, 31-28

 Arizona Wildcats Football

Arizona  31  North Dakota State 28

Second-year head coach Jedd Fisch rushed on to the playing field at Arizona Stadium last night. No! He stormed on to the field: a winner. Fisch shook hands with the Bison head coach Matt Entz at midfield, while his Wildcats jumped for joy around him.

Arizona won the hard-nosed, fast-paced game, 31-28, over a team that brought along 10 percent of the Fargo, North Dakota population. The Bison, favored at kickoff by three points, lost by three points to a determined Arizona crew that counterpunched its way to victory and a 2-1 start to the 2022 season. 

Yes, it is Pac-12 opponents from here on out, but last night the Wildcats shined brightly both on offense and defense and beat a team that will probably win the FCS title for the third time in three years. 

Arizona won despite a bruising, hard-running fullback by the name of Hunter Luepke, who rushed for 115 yards and caught three key passes for 65 yards for the Bison, while scoring three touchdowns.

The Wildcats countered with quarterback Jayden de Laura, who ran for a touchdown in the opening quarter and then finished with 229 passing yards -- including a TD toss to Jacob Cowing late in the fourth quarter for the winning score. At the same time, de Laura engineered a running game that saw two of his backs -- Michael Wiley and Jonah Coleman -- cross the goal line for touchdowns. 

Over 41, 000 fans were in the stands -- over 33,000 were happy Arizona fans.

Way to go, Wildcats!