Stick figures in 14-1 Bison’s return to throne

TEXAS» Fargo to FRISCO, Frisco is a thing again at North Dakota State.

Easton Stick threw a 50yard touchdown pass to Darrius Shepherd and the Bison took back the Football Championship Subdivision title, beating James Madison 17-13 on Saturday. The victory came a year after their five-year run atop the FCS ended against the Dukes in the semifinals.

NDSU (14-1) also preserved its division-record 33-game winning streak from three years ago, ending James Madison’s run at 26 straight, denying the Dukes a second straight title and spoiling what would have been their first undefeated, untied season.

By winning six championships in seven years in the suburb north of Dallas, the Bison tied Georgia Southern with the most FCS titles.

“It’s a legacy,” said linebacker Nick Deluca, who was injured and missed last year’s 27-17 loss to James Madison in Fargo that denied the Bison their annual trip to Texas. “That’s everything that we work for and all those workouts, all that extra stuff we do in the offseason, it’s for this moment and for this stage. Just happy to get back here.”

The Dukes (14-1), who trailed 17-3 late in the first half, had a chance to win after punter Harry O’kelly ran 24 yards on a fake. But Bryan Schor’s desperation throw to the end zone on fourth-and-16 fell incomplete with 58 seconds left.

James Madison couldn’t overcome the deficit because the mistakes that helped put the Dukes behind kept happening.