AMES – The Iowa State football team has a history of clunkers, close calls and upsets in early-season games that have plagued Cyclones coach Matt Campbell's tenure in Ames.
Saturday bordered on being one of those days when Cyclone fans could never breathe easy. Iowa State was far from dominant but still opened the season with a 21-3 victory over North Dakota at Jack Trice Stadium.
Quarterback Rocco Becht threw for 267 yards and two touchdowns while also running for another. Receiver Jaylin Noel hauled in eight passes for 135 yards and a touchdown. The Cyclones needed every one of their contributions early on as their FCS opponent gave the Cyclones plenty of worries.
North Dakota never led but the Fighting Hawks never let Iowa State get truly comfortable during its first game, which was supposed to be a tune-up for the Week 2 in-state rivalry game at Iowa.
The day couldn’t have started much better for Iowa State. Becht began the game by hitting Noel with a perfectly placed pass into double coverage for a 54-yard gain. On the next play, Becht connected on 21-yard touchdown pass to Jayden Higgins to give the Cyclones a quick 7-0 lead.
But the celebrating quickly died down as Iowa State's defense struggled to get stops and its offense had issues running the ball. The Cyclones were also without star linebacker Caleb Bacon for most of the day after he suffered an apparent leg injury in the first quarter and never returned.
The Cyclones defense missed him, especially when North Dakota pieced together a long and draining drive in the second quarter.
The drive began on North Dakota's 3-yard line. The Fighting Hawks marched down the field with an 88-yard scoring drive that spanned 23 plays and took 12 minutes off the clock. The drive ended with North Dakota's C.J. Elrichs booting a 26-yard field goal to cut Iowa State's lead to 7-3.
Iowa State quickly responded with a big drive of its own. Becht hit Noel in the middle of the field for a 21-yard reception. Becht found him again a play later when the two connected on a 14-yard touchdown pass play to give the Cyclones a 14-3 lead in the second quarter.
The Cyclones, who went into halftime leading by 11, couldn't pull away until early in the fourth quarter when Becht capped off a 96-yard scoring drive with a quarterback keeper for a 2-yard touchdown run.
The competition will get tougher now, with the Cyclones headed to Iowa City to play the 25th-ranked Hawkeyes.
Tommy Birch, the Register's sports enterprise and features reporter, has been working at the newspaper since 2008. He's the 2018, 2020 and 2023 Iowa Sportswriter of the Year. Reach him at tbirch@dmreg.com or 515-284-8468.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa State football handles North Dakota in Cyclones' season-opening victory
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