Northern Colorado Falls 23-13 To North Dakota

GREELEY, Colo. (AP) - Three straight wins at the end of last season wasn't enough to get North Dakota into the FCS playoffs. Eight straight wins this year may make it impossible to keep the Fighting Hawks out.

Backup quarterback Ryan Bartels threw a TD pass and the UND defense suffocated Northern Colorado as North Dakota beat the Bears 23-13 on Saturday.

The Fighting Hawks (8-2, 7-0) have won eight straight games and play Northern Arizona next week with at least a share of the conference championship on the line.

"It's a heck of an opportunity we have here. We're just taking it week by week," said running back John Santiago, who had 204 of UND's 290 rushing yards.

The Bears (5-4, 3-3) came into the game averaging 36 points and 448 yards per game. The Hawks held them to just 275 total yards, including just six yards rushing.

"We gave up the early score and then really regrouped on defense," UND coach Bubba Schweigert said. "And really controlled the ball on offense."

Bartels started for injured Keaton Studsrud and completed 10 of 16 passes for 89 yard and a score. "He competed hard. We're really proud of him," Schweigert said.

The Bears scored on their first and last possessions. In between they lost a fumble and had a pass intercepted.

UNC quarterback Kyle Sloter was 26-for-47 for 269 yards. The senior transfer from Southern Miss tossed a 4-yard TD pass to Theron Verna on the Bears' first drive. Sloter threw for 74 of the 75 yards.

Sloter added a 20-yarder to Stephen Miller on the Bears' final drive.

North Dakota responded to UNC's first score with its own 75-yard drive, capped by Brady Oliveira's 20-yard TD run. Oliveira ran for 67 yards in the game

The Hawks' went ahead 10-7 on Reid Taubenheim's 24-yard field goal with 10:36 left in the first half.

With less than a minute left in the half, Torrey Hunt intercepted a Sloter pass at the end zone and returned it to the 33. The Hawks drove to the Bears' 22 and settled for a Taubenheim 40-yard field goal as time ran out. He added a 34-yarder in the third quarter.

"Those are huge," Schweigert said of the interception. "Great play by Torrey to get the pick and John makes a run to get us field position."

Santiago had 112 yards at half.

Bartels made it 20-7 with a 9-yard TD pass to Luke Mathewson with 7:52 left in the third quarter.

UND's winning streak is its longest since winning nine in a row in 2005. A ninth straight win would mean a Big Sky title.

"That's just amazing. As a senior and what I've seen here ." Mathewson said. "Something we've never done here is come up with a D-I conference championship."

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