Battle of the Beavers comes to the Chet

The Bemidji State Beavers and Minot State Beavers meet Saturday at 1 p.m. at Chet Anderson Stadium

The Bemidji State University Beavers prepare to host Minot State University Saturday at 1 p.m. for the Battle of the Beavers. This weekend’s game is presented by the Bemidji Lions Club, who will be honored in a special ceremony at halftime. Also, in celebration of October being Breast Cancer Awareness month, BSU’s Student Athlete Advisory Committee has planned a “Pink Out” and is inviting all fans to support the cause by wearing pink.

BSU currently sits in fifth in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference with a 3-2 conference record and 4-2 overall. MSU is just two spots behind with a conference record of 3-3 and 4-3 overall.

This is the 24th time the two teams have met since their first game on Sep. 4, 1999, when Bemidji State grabbed a 28-7 win over Minot State. Since that meeting, the Beavers of BSU have marked 22 total wins, allowing just one 35-28 loss on Sep. 7, 2022. Bemidji State currently holds a 19-game win streak spanning from Sep. 6, 2003 to Oct. 1, 2022. Outside of the cancellation of the 2020 season due to Covid-19, the Battle of the Beavers has missed just one season since the beginning of the series with the teams not meeting last year.

The 4-2 BSU Beavers spent last weekend on a bye week after falling, 14-13, to the Northern State University Wolves on Oct. 5.

BSU has proven to dominate on third and fourth down conversions this season, grabbing 11th in the NCAA for both and taking first and second in the NSIC, respectively. Defensively, it’s a similar look with the Beaver defense taking 15th in third down conversion defense and 37th in fourth down conversion defense.

The Beaver defense leads the NSIC in first down defense with 87 and scoring defense with an average of 14.8. This also puts the Beavers in 22nd in the NCAA for first down defense and 15th in scoring defense.

BSU has had plenty of time on offense this season, leading the NSIC with 33:05 minutes per game, 15th in the NCAA.

On the ground, running back Jayden Washington leads the charge. Washington has marked 390 net rushing yards on 72 attempts with two rushing touchdowns. He averages 65.00 yards per game and 5.4 per carry.

Through the air, quarterback Sam McGath holds a 63.01 completion percentage with 109 completions on 173 attempts with seven interceptions. This season, McGath has tallied 1310 yards for 218.33 per game and 14 passing touchdowns.

The Beavers’ receiving core is led by Brice Peters and Drayton Lehman this season. Peters has marked 612 yards on 34 receptions with an average of 18 yards per target. Lehman has seen 33 targets with 289 yards, grabbing two touchdowns with an average of 48.17 yards per game.

Defensively, Colton Hinrichs leads the Beavers by nine tackles. The Bemidji native has marked 37 tackles with 17 solo and 20 assisted. Additionally, Hinrichs has one interception for 34 yards, a grab that set the Beavers up for a 10-play, 27-yard drive to the endzone to pull within a point in the final seconds against Northern State two weeks ago.

Grad student Stephen Hoffman has marked six tackles for a loss this season with 25 TFL yards and three sacks for 19 yards. Close behind Hoffman is Marcus Hansen who has tallied 5.5 tackles for a loss with 32 TFL yards and 3.5 sacks for 22 yards.

On the special teams kicking front, Connor Mantelli has marked 21 punts for 778 yards, an average of 37.05 per punt, with a long of 53 yards. He has also found himself taking 22 kickoffs for the Beavers, grabbing 1178 yards and averaging 53.5 yards per kick. Joey Prondzinski is the specialist the Beavers have looked to for kicking between the uprights with Prondzinski marking three field goals and 16 good point after touchdown kicks.

Drayton Lehman has become the Beavers’ lead returner on special teams, marking five punt returns for 66 yards and eight kickoff returns for 146 yards. Lehman averages 13.20 yards per punt return and 18.25 yards per kick return.

Following this weekend, BSU will travel to the southeast corner of Minnesota to take on the Winona State University Warriors Oct. 26 at 1 p.m.