Field Level Media
Sep 8, 2019
Freshman kicker Michael Lantz drilled the first field goal attempt of his career, a 37-yarder in the second overtime Saturday night, to lift Minnesota to a 38-35 win over Fresno State in Fresno, Calif.
Austin Winfield preserved the win when he made a leaping interception of Jorge Reyna's pass in the end zone, enabling the Golden Gophers to improve to 2-0. The Bulldogs fell to 0-2, their losses coming by a combined 11 points.
Minnesota forced overtime when Chris Autman-Bell made a terrific leaping catch and got one foot down in the back left corner of the end zone on a 20-yard strike from Tanner Morgan with 46 seconds left.
Morgan later extended the game to a second overtime with a 3-yard touchdown run.
Morgan finished the game 16 of 23 for 234 yards and two touchdowns, while Reyna hit 24 of 35 passes for 288 yards with three scores and two interceptions.
Minnesota started the game with a classic 11-play, 75-yard drive that lasted more than six minutes. Morgan finished it by finding his favorite target, Rashod Bateman, with a short pass in the left flat that Bateman turned into a 15-yard touchdown.
Bateman finished with seven catches for 105 yards.
Fresno State got on the board with Cesar Silva's 48-yard field goal at the 10:07 mark of the second quarter, but the Golden Gophers responded with Rodney Smith's 1-yard plunge with 4:38 left in the half for a 14-3 advantage.
The Bulldogs answered back with their first touchdown with 2:02 remaining in the half. Reyna and Ronnie Rivers polished off a six-play, 75-yard march with a 25-yard connection that made it 14-10.
Fresno State took its first lead in the third quarter.
Silva's 30-yard field goal with 10:35 left sliced the deficit to a point, and Reyna found Jared Rice over the middle for a 14-yard scoring strike at the 5:05 mark to take a 21-14 lead following Josh Hokit's run for the two-point conversion.
--Field Level Media