The University of Northern Colorado football team’s season ended Saturday the way it began.
With a win. A much-needed win.
The Bears defeated Portland State 24-13 in a Big Sky Conference game at Nottingham Field in Greeley, ending a five-game losing streak and sending the team into the offseason on a high note for the first time in head coach Ed Lamb’s three years with the Bears.
“It’s huge,” said Zach Nowatzke, a senior linebacker who had five tackles and an interception in his final game with the Bears. “I think it’s huge for the program, I think it’s huge for the seniors. And, I think it’s also huge for the underclassmen. It’s great for the program going into the offseason. All those younger guys continue to use this as motivation and fuel to continue to improve.”
The win was the fourth for the team this year, which is the most wins in a season for the program since 2016. The victory was also the first in the Big Sky Conference at home under Lamb, who was hired in December 2022.
UNC beat Weber State on the road in October 2024 for the program’s first Big Sky win with Lamb. This year, UNC beat then-nationally ranked Idaho in a high-scoring game on the road last month. The Oct. 11 win was also the last time the Bears won a game before facing Portland State.
The Bears finished the year 4-8 and 2-6 in the Big Sky. Portland State ends its year 1-11 and 1-7 in the Big Sky.
The Vikings had their way at times offensively with UNC. PSU racked up chunk plays against the Bears’ defense, and the Vikings bested UNC in first downs (23-11), time of possession (36:59 to 23:01), total yards (326-309) and number of plays (75-49).
The Vikings also had more penalties. The Vikings totaled nine for 81 yards — to six penalties for 65 yards for UNC.
“To me it would’ve been a helluva game if both teams were penalty-free,” Portland State coach Bruce Barnum said. “For us, they cropped up at times we can’t have them — on a touchdown, on a big first down — some critical situations.”
Barnum also said the Vikings’ offense was good between the 20-yard lines, but “we didn’t cash them out.”
PSU quarterback John-Keawe Sagapolutele threw the interception Nowatzke returned for 13 yards, and UNC blocked a field goal at its own 23-yard line that linebacker Hudson Voggesser returned 18 yards. Voggesser was UNC’s leading tackler with 11.
Safety Darrell Bryant Jr. had nine tackles, defensive lineman Dominic Butts, who played at Severance High School, had eight tackles — four for loss of yards with a half-sack.
Sophomore defensive lineman Blake Weslin, who had two tackles, a sack and two pass breakups, said the Bears buckled down and “bow up in the red zone” on defense.
“I think overall defensively, we had a good game plan for them,” said Weslin, who is from Lakewood and Green Mountain High School. “Watched a lot of film and kind of knew what we were expecting. We just bow up when we need it.”
After starting the season 3-3, things then got rocky for UNC following the Idaho game. UNC lost the next week at Sacramento State 40-35 after being at the Hornets’ goal line in the final seconds. The Bears had a chance to win despite quarterback Eric Gibson Jr. throwing four interceptions. He also threw three touchdown passes on a 300-yard plus passing day.
Big Sky losses followed to nationally ranked UC Davis, Montana State and to Northern Arizona, which was receiving votes in national polls. UNC lost to Montana State and Northern Arizona by a combined score of 104-17.
The Montana State game was particularly ugly. The Bobcats’ 55-7 win in Greeley came on a day when frustration was high on the sidelines. A team Lamb said was the closest he’d ever seen didn’t stay together through adversity as they did earlier in the season in tough losses.
Lamb said UNC was “a broken team” heading to Eastern Washington for the final road game of the season.
Saturday’s win against Portland State gave Lamb hope the win will mend the break with progress in the program. Earlier this week, he called the game a “must win.”
UNC didn’t win a game in Lamb’s first season in 2023. The Bears won one game last year and four games this season, including two in the Big Sky Conference. UNC won nonconference games over Chadron State in the opener and at Houston Christian on the road three weeks later.
“I have some hopes that it’s a tangible, somewhat linear progression for the guys who have been around here,” Lamb said. “I think that for those players that came here specifically to turn it around, because all of our guys had other options, no matter what those were. They could’ve chosen to go play somewhere else. To some degree, they all chose this place because they believed they could be part of that and I think there’s no math that doesn’t point to it’s not headed in the right direction.”
One of the best signs of the Bears’ progress came in its running game against Portland State, Lamb said. UNC outrushed the Vikings 215-163, while scoring all three of its touchdowns on the ground.
UNC has had issues this season in both running the ball and stopping the run. Portland State, despite its record, has been effective running the ball this year, Lamb said, so the Bears’ work in the ground game was significant.
Senior running back Justin Guin led the Bears’ ground game with 115 yards and a touchdown. Guin, who appeared to be more a part of the offense in recent weeks, carried the ball just nine times for a whopping 12.8 yards per carry average.
Back Brandon Johnson scored on a 1-yard run and Mathias Price added a 3-yard run in the third for a 21-10 lead.
Guin also had runs of 44 and 59 yards, which are the longest for the Bears this season. Guin scored on the 44-yard run early in the second quarter to get UNC on the scoreboard. Before that run, UNC’s best run of the year was 30 yards by Johnson last week at Eastern Washington.
Guin added the season-high 59 yarder inside of two minutes left in the game to set up a 22-yard field goal from Jacob Willig to cap the scoring.
“We had a great rushing attack coming in,” Guin said, also giving credit to assistant coaches Nick Nissen and Terrance Grant. “The backs, the line, we all did our jobs and got the job done on the ground game. We knew we had to come in and win this game. This will keep everyone happy. And you know, our faith never wavered, in coach Lamb and all the coaches and each other. We all rallied behind each other and got this great win.”