No.8 UND Football Beats St.Thomas 62-26 In Potato Bowl USA Game

(KNOX) – The UND Football team is now 2-0 to start the 2026 season with a 62-26 win against St.Thomas. The Fighting Hawks had a 43-12 lead at halftime, and recorded nine touchdowns overall.

Quarterback Jerry Kaminski had a career high five touchdown passes, but the defense put UND on the board first.

50 seconds into the game, Safety Avery Dixon caught an interception and returned it for a touchdown from 34 yards out. After that, the Hawks would go eight for nine in the red zone, and score touchdowns on their first three drives.

Kaminski finished the game with 233 passing yards, five touchdown passes and one interception. He and the rest of the starters were taken out in the third quarter.

Kaminski threw two touchdowns to Wide Receiver Korey Tai. Tai finished the game with 6 catches for 61 yards, where he had both an eight yard and an 11 yard touchdown catch.

Wide Receiver Deng Deng had a six yard touchdown catch with four catches and 82 yards. Wide Receiver Sam Strandel had a six yard touchdown catch and Tight End Mason South had a five yard touchdown reception.

UND also got offense from their running backs. Charles Langama finished with 11 carries, 120 rushing yards and a 15 yard rushing score. He also had 96 yards off kick returns and finished with 216 all purpose yards.

The Hawks also had Griffin Broderick total six carries, 44 yards and a one yard rushing score, while Colton Brunell had 11 carries for 65 yards. Backup Quarterback Javance Tupou’ata-Johnson got the team to over 60 points when he recorded a one yard rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter.

Kicker Kenten Laughman went eight for eight on PAT’s. He started in place of Luke Silvernale, and Silvernale had one punt for 52 yards.

UND finished with 528 total offensive yards, and they have now outscored LIU and St.Thomas 104-47 in their first two games. The Hawks also ended up scoring a touchdown in each quarter, with six of them in the first half.

St.Thomas finished the game with 293 total offensive yards. They had a passing touchdown and a defensive touchdown off Kaminski’s interception. They also had two field goal makes and scored 16 points off turnovers.

UND beat St.Thomas in the 60th Annual Potato Bowl USA game. The Fighting Hawks are now 48-12 all time in the Potato Bowl and have won seven straight dating back to 2019.

The Fighting Hawks will start a three game road trip next week. Next Saturday, they will play at Portland State at 9pm Central. They will play at Nebraska on September 19th, and at Indiana State on September 26th.