FARGO, N.D. _  Saturday afternoon's one and only showcase game for the top-ranked powerhouse North Dakota State nearly turned into their first loss since 2017.

The No. 1 Bison, the three-time defending FCS national champion, had to rally from a 28-25 deficit with a little more than 10 minutes remaining to down the No. 11 University of Central Arkansas Bears 39-28 in a national showdown at the Fargodome.

"I feel like we did enough to win the game. I thought our guys played hard enough to win the game,' said a dejected UCA head coach Nathan Brown. "We didn't come up here for moral victories. We didn't come up here to lose 39-28. But look, there's been a lot of teams to come up here and not have much success, and we were right there knocking on the doorstep and feel like we had a shot.
 
"If that's the best team in the the FCS in the last 10 years, and it obviously is, we like where we're at in our progression. We're not far behind, and our guys proved that today. But again, we don't want moral victories at Central Arkansas.'

The Bears (2-2) were playing their fourth game of an 11-game season while the Bison (1-0) were playing their only game of the fall semester, a planned showcase for its senior class, in particular highly touted quarterback Trey Lance. The Bears nearly ruined the afternoon for the limited number of NDSU fans allowed in the normally raucous Fargodome, playing the Bison even for three and half quarters. 

But NDSU, which has won eight of the past nine national titles, scored the final two touchdowns of the game in the last 7:35 to seal its 38th consecutive victory dating back to the 2017 season.

"We have a chance moving forward, if we channel this in the right way, to be a really good football team,' said Brown. "This team, what they've weathered to this point in 2020, playing the schedule they've played, and then you're playing a team that is only playing one game, this is their Super Bowl, this is their showcase game... And to be honest with you, had every chance in the world to win it, it's just unfortunate. We're that close.'

The first half was a defensive battle, with the Bears taking advantage of a turnover to take an early 3-0 lead on a 33-yard field goal by junior Hayden Ray. UCA sophomore linebacker Darin Davenport stripped the ball from Lance and senior noseguard A'Javius Brown fell on it at the NDSU 14, setting up Ray's first of two first-half field goals.

He added his second, this one from 41 yards, with 11:53 left in the half, good for a 6-0 lead on the Bison. NDSU took advantage of a targeting call against UCA sophomore safety Cameron Godfrey to set up a touchdown pass from Lance to Josh Babicz at the 9:00 mark. Jake Reinholz then added a 27-yard field goal after UCA's defense stiffened deep in its own territory, giving the Bison the 10-6 halftime advantage.

UCA had 100 yards of total offense and NDSU 129 in the first half, with Lance completing only 6 of 16 passes for 47 yards.

The Bison received the opening kickoff of the second half and scored in two plays, with Lance going 54 yards around right end for the touchdown. NDSU's two-point conversion was good on a run by Nathan Goldade, good for an 18-6 lead. But UCA answered quickly with Nakwaasah's interception and return that set the Bears up at the NDSU 43. Smith connected for 39 yards with Lujuan Winningham and then 22 yards with Tyler Hudson for the touchdown, pulling UCA within 18-13.

Just three minutes later, UCA capped a four-play, 43-yard drive _ aided by a pass interference on NDSU _ with a 3-yard scoring pass from Smith to Winningham, giving UCA the lead at 20-18 with 9:44 left in the third.

Lance then capped a eight-play, 65-yard drive by turning a broken play into a 14-yard touchdown run that returned the lead to the Bison at 25-20 with 13:21 remaining. But Smith found Winningham again for an 11-yard fade pass in the right corner of the end zone, then ran in the two-point conversion himself, giving UCA a 28-25 advantage with 10:35 on the clock.

But once again, the Bison responded as Lance hit a wide open fullback Hunter Luepke with a 23-yard touchdown pass to make it a 32-28 NDSU lead with 7:35 left to play. The Bison tacked on a late score on a 13-yard rush by Luepke to cap the scoring.

The Bears' defense, missing several key players in the second half, limited Lance to 149 passing yards as he completed 15 of 30 with two touchdowns and his first career interception. UCA sophomore safety Nick Nakwaasah picked off Lance early in the third quarter, breaking a career streak of 318 passes without an interception. He threw 28 touchdown passes with no interceptions during an All-American season in 2019.

Lance was more successful, however, on the ground, rushing 15 times for 143 yards and a pair of touchdowns. 

"We've got two really good corners, DeAndre Lamont and Robert Rochell,' said Brown. "They are as good as they come at the FCS level. I think we kept them off balance with our fronts. I thought Coach (Chad) Williams did a great job mixing up his fronts and mixing up some blitzes. We didn't let him set his feet very often. And when he did, we were able to keep him off a little bit with some coverages. We played a lot of man coverage, but we also sprinkled in some good zone coverages to keep him off balance. 

"Our defense put together a great game plan. If it wasn't for the quarterback runs, I think we would have just about played as good a game as you could.'

UCA junior quarterback Breylin Smith had better passing numbers than Lance, completing 25 of 38 for 226 yards and three touchdowns. Winningham, a junior from Humble, Texas, caught four passes for 55 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Hudson, a sophomore from Spring, Texas, had four receptions for 58 yards and a score, one of nine UCA players with receptions.

UCA sophomore punter Seren Hughes-Ford was a weapon the entire game, punting nine times for a 44.9-yard average, pinning the Bison at their own 8 and 3 yard lines on first-half punts. Junior linebacker Dre Matthews led the Bears with 10 tackles, including one of UCA's three sacks of Lance. Senior defensive end JW Jones followed with 7 tackles while linebacker TJ Campbell turned in a 12-yard sack.

"That's not a moral victory. We went out to win this game, we wanted to win this game, we played to win this game,' said Brown. "They've been preparing for us probably for four or five weeks. I thought it was an unbelievable effort on offense. I thought our defense got shorthanded pretty fast in the second half but they fought their tails off. I thought one of our strengths was our defensive front and they played their tails off for really three quarters. We just got wore down there at the end. The quarterback run was the equalizer.

"But if this was a normal year, I'd love to have another shot to come back ujp here and play them again in the playoffs. We're not that far off.' 

UCA returns to the road again next week for the fourth time in five games when it travels to Jonesboro to take on FBS Arkansas State, a game postponed on Sept. 19 and rescheduled for Oct. 10.