Beaver Football Ends Season in Dominating Fashion - Eric Story - Story #6

Beaver Football Ends Season in Dominating Fashion

Missed opportunities hamper 2010 campaign despite milestones

Beavers take the field for final game of season
Photo by : BSU AMR

Eric Story

Story #6

On a cool overcast Saturday afternoon the Beavers were anything but, hanging 45 points on the Golden Eagles. In the final game of the season, the senior class extended their win-streak to a perfect four for four over the University of Minnesota, Crookston. The Beavers extended their all-time record to 17-1 against Crookston.

“It really hasn’t sunk in yet,” said senior wide receiver Adam Berg. “It feels good to finish off strong and we came out today and got a nice victory. It feels like yesterday I was a redshirt freshman, coming in being a boy among men. It goes by so fast and I wish I could start over and do it all again.”

The win over Crookston gave the Beavers a 6-4 record in conference action tying Winona State for fifth place. The Beavers were picked to finish fifth in the 2010 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) Preseason Coaches’ Poll to start their season, but that’s not where the team felt they would finish.

“We didn’t plan on our season ending today,” stated defensive lineman Bryan Syrstad. “We had high hopes for this season, we thought we had a good shot at making the playoffs. Things just didn’t pan out.”

In their season opener BSU took to the road for their only non-conference game, with a matchup against the Minot State Beavers in the annual Beaver Bash.  BSU has dominated the annual matchup and this game was no different.

Bemidji State opened the scoring on its second drive of the game, moving the ball 91 yards that was capped by a 62-yard touchdown catch and run by junior wide receiver Adam Berg from senior quarterback Derek Edholm.

The lone bright spot for Minot State came from kick returner Johnny Lester, who broke multiple tackles and returned the kick-off from two yards inside the end zone to put MSU on the board and close the first quarter at 10-7.

Every time you thought the Beavers where going to get a win-streak rolling, a crushing defeat lay waiting around the next corner. In the home opener against Augustana, the Beavers suffered a devastating 10-0 loss in which the offense mustarded a measly 106 yards of total offense. Beaver kicker Jesse Sundby finished the afternoon with 11 punts for 394 yards.

Even with senior quarterback Derek Edholm, the school’s all-time passing leader at quarterback, leading the way the Beavers offense sputtered at times.

BSU responded the following week with a road win over Southwest Minnesota State, looking to take the momentum into their matchup on the road against nationally ranked No. 2 Minnesota Duluth.

With a chance to make a statement and knock off perennial conference power Duluth, the defense couldn’t slow the opposition and the offense couldn’t match blow for blow falling 44-24.

Lead by senior wide receiver Andrew Schults and is career milestone, the Beavers blew past Upper Iowa University 51-12. Shults past the 1,000 career reception yards mark on a 19 yard touchdown reception as head coach Jeff Tesch improved to 11-4 in homecoming games.

“I couldn’t have written the script any better,” said Tesch. “Everybody got to play, everybody got in the lake, no one was injured, it was a beautiful day, it really couldn’t have been more of a perfect day. We controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides and played a complete game on both sides. It was a well rounded game by everybody.”

Costly mistakes lead to a yet another close loss, this time on the road against Concordia-St. Paul 20-14. The loss ended a four-game win streak against CU.

With wins over MSU Moorhead 14-6, University of Mary 23-22, and Northern State 41-13 the Beavers were finally able to put together much needed winning streak before falling at No. 25 St. Cloud State.

The Beavers entered the final weekend of action 5-4 overall, but they could hang their hat on the fact that all four losses were to the top four conference teams.

As snowflakes began to fall Edholm took his final snap at quarterback on guiding the Beavers and the seniors to one final win.

Edholm finished his BSU career as the schools most prolific passer.  He set school records for touchdown passes, passing yardage, passing attempts, passing completions, and total offensive yardage in a career.

“The guys did a lot for the program,” said Tesch. “We’re going to miss them in the locker room, the things they did in the community and just that camaraderie. They’re just a great group of kids.”

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Beavers look on from sideline
Photo by: Eric Story