Bison stop Nevada in wild affair, reach bowl eligibility

FARGO — When the dust settled from the 33-year-old brick building in north Fargo around 9:30 Saturday night, with 18,261 fans probably not having much of a voice left, North Dakota State left Gate City Bank Field at the Fargodome bowl eligible in its first season of Division I FBS. That was the prize. The fight was something else. The Bison held off Nevada 31-17 to move to 6-1 and 3-1 in the Mountain West Conference. It takes at least six wins to qualify for a postseason bowl game, all the while NDSU remained near the top in the Mountain West standings. "Man, we talk about last week inability to overcome adversity and human elements of a football game, we were better tonight," said head coach Tim Polasek. "It's a four quarter game and I hoped (fans) had enough juice left." It was a wild affair that featured two unlikely plays in a 100-yard touchdown return of a missed field to conclude the first half by Jackson Williams and a return of a fumbled Nevada two-point conversi