Jamestown, N.D. – The University of Jamestown football team was defeated 33-0 by the Bemidji State Beavers Saturday afternoon at Charlotte and Gordon Hansen Stadium in their second-to-last home game of the 2026 season.
Jamestown falls to 0-8 overall while the Beavers improve to 3-5 and 3-4 in the NSIC.
The Jimmies received the first kickoff and got a huge catch when Jacob Mattick connected with Jabari Strader for a 34-yard pass. However, right after this, the Jimmies failed to capitalize and were forced to punt.
The Bemidji State offense did take advantage on their first drive, scoring a touchdown on a 26-yard pass to put the Beavers up 7-0 with 9:15 left in the first quarter.
The Jimmies punted again on the second drive but got a turnover on the next BSU drive. Quarterback Connor Carver was rushing up the left side and trying to get out of bounds, but Jackson Walters hit him hard to force a fumble. The initial call on the field was that Carver was out of bounds before he fumbled, but the call was overturned after replay review. Walters got credit for a forced fumble, and Luke Van Den Berg earned the fumble recovery.
Jamestown got all the way to red zone at the 20-yard line on their next drive, until they fumbled themselves right in the red zone as the ball went back into possession of the Beavers. Not long after, the first quarter expired with the score at 7-0 Bemidji State.
The next Beavers drive resulted in a touchdown, but the Jimmies gained quite a bit of yardage on their next chance. Initially, UJ appeared to be stopped around midfield as they were forced into a 4th-and-9, but in punt formation, a fake led to a 12-yard rush from Evan Smith down the left side of the field which roared the crowd alive with the Jamestown first down.
A 16-yard pass completion to Gage Solano followed by a couple of rushing plays then put the Jimmies at 2nd-and-goal with less than half of a yard. However, three failed rushes got nowhere and after a 4th-and-1 was stopped, the Jimmies turned it over on downs with a heartbreaking drive coming to an end.
Halftime later came around with the game at 14-0 in favor of the Beavers.
It was later 20-0 Beavers with 13:11 left to play in the first half, but Weston Vildibill intercepted a pass that was due for a touchdown for another defensive highlight as the Jimmies forced their second turnover of the day.
However, this was about the only thing that went right for the Jimmies the rest of the game. Later in the third quarter, BSU returned a fumble for a touchdown to make the game 27-0, which ruined a nice drive for Jamestown in which Gage Solano had three catches for a total of 28 yards. A field goal later in the third quarter made the score 30-0 with 15 minutes remaining.
Jamestown's defense got stops after an early field goal by the Beavers in the fourth quarter, but their offense was quiet. UJ only got one first down the rest of the game, that being three-straight rushes by Mason Whitley for a total of 15 yards. The final score wrapped up at 33-0 with Bemidji State becoming the second team to shutout Jamestown at home this season.
Mattick completed 12 of 24 passes for a total of 127 yards in the air. The junior was also second on the team with 38 rushing yards, only behind Whitley at 42. Solano led reception yards with 44 yards while Strader and Ethan Hoffman had 34 and 24 receiving yards, respectively.
Defensively, Vildibill had the first interception of the season for the Jimmies as well as one pass break-up. Walters forced a fumble, and Van Den Berg recovered one. Evan Smith and Josh Bosacker both posted sacks with each of them totaling four tackles on the afternoon as well.
Bemidji State outgained the Jimmies 368-249 in total yardage with passing yards won by the Beavers 194-127 and ground yards 174-122. First downs were fairly close in the contest with BSU holding a 22-16 edge. Jamestown held an advantage in time of possession at 37:34 to 22:26 and had great 3rd down defense, holding the Beavers to 0-for-6 in that category.
The Jimmies will next play the top team in the NSIC North on Halloween, Saturday, October 31 when they head over to Minnesota Duluth to take on the Bulldogs at 12:00 p.m.
