Southeastern defensive end Walter Vaughn (50) puts the heat on North Dakota quarterback Danny Freund (7) during the Lions’ 38-35 thriller over the Fighting Sioux Saturday night in Strawberry Stadium. Photo by John Lenz

Saturday night may be a lousy night for network television but it is turning into a great night for drama for Southeastern.

North Dakota’s Brandon Hellevang’s 49-yard field goal sailed wide left and short as time expired as the Lions escaped with a 38-35 non-conference win at Strawberry Stadium Saturday night.

It was the second straight home game and the third one this season the Lions have won on the final play of the game.

“I told everybody that North Dakota is a good football team,” SLU coach Mike Lucas said. “When you win as many games over a 10-year period as they have won, you expect to win. You have confidence no matter how many points you are down. They just kept coming and coming.

“Their coaches did a great job. We tried man coverages, we tried two-deep zones, three-deep zones and those suckers kept coming and coming. I was hoping it wouldn’t turn into a shootout but it did.

“The Lions win. That is the most important thing right there.”

Southeastern moved to 3-2 going into its Southland Conference opener at Stephen F. Austin next Saturday. It's the first time the Lions have a winning non-conference record since joining the SLC in 2005.

North Dakota (4-1) cut a 38-21 deficit to five with 7:10 to play after driving 60 yards in nine plays. Danny Freund completed six passes on the drive, including the 6-yard touchdown to Alex Nicholas on a slant. Pierre Quinten knocked down Freund’s two-point pass attempt, keeping the score at 38-33 with 7:10 left in the game.

Southeastern got into North Dakota territory and could have clinched the win but Jay Lucas was stopped a yard short on fourth-and-2 from the North Dakota 36 with 2:47 remaining.

Freund drove the Sioux right back down the field, including a 35-yard completion to Brady Trenbeath to the SLU 25. Freund was pressured by Tommy Connors and called for intentional grounding, and then on 3rd-and-25 Hammond High grad Trey Douglas jumped in front of Trenbeath to intercept the pass at the 1 with 1:37 left.

But the game was not over yet. After running the ball out to the 7, SLU elected to take a safety rather than punt, and Cody Samples stepped out of the end zone with 34.3 seconds left. North Dakota took over at its 37 following the free kick.

Freund scrambled for 18 yards and fumbled, but Nicholas fell on the ball at the SLU 45 with 12 seconds left. Freund then hit Ryan Konrath on the left sidelines for 13 yards to the 32, setting up Hellevang’s attempt with 6.6 seconds left.

“We thought that was the right thing to do,” Mike Lucas said of taking the safety. “If we punt out of the end zone and they get the ball on the 30-yard line, then they would have needed a touchdown. We felt like by taking the safety, we could run some time off the clock and at least kick it off and make them have to drive further. In hindsight, I thought it was the right call.”

Connors, who had 11 tackles and intercepted a pass, was glad Lucas showed confidence in the defense.

“That’s why we play the game,” Connors said. “We felt like we were ahead the whole game. We expected to win the whole game and that is how we like to play. The end of the fourth quarter, we had to step up...

“We stepped up like we had to like we did against South Dakota. (But) our nerves will be gone when we come to conference.”

The teams combined for 787 yards, 351 by Southeastern. Babin completed 18 of his 28 passes for 257 yards and three touchdowns — and he even caught a touchdown pass. Jasper Duckworth had 55 yards on five carries.

Freund overcame a slow first half to finish 29-of-46 for 319 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. Trenbeath had 13 catches for 201 yards and one score. Josh Murray, who had over 200 yards the previous week, was held to 77 yards on 22 carries. He scored twice.

“We made too many mistakes early in the ballgame that put us behind,” North Dakota head coach Chris Mussman said. “There were a couple of situations where we didn’t tackle too well and didn’t handle some of their trick plays real well. But our guys battled and they kept believing and we had the momentum.”

Mussman said just getting Hellevang an opportunity to tie it was a positive.

“It was one of those things that whether he made it or not, I was smiling because we were in that situation where there were times where it looked like there were no way we could be in that situation,” Mussman said.

North Dakota cut a 24-7 deficit to three early in the third quarter when Freund found a wide open Trenbeath in the middle of the end zone from 23 yards out. Hellevang’s extra point made it 24-21 with 12:25 left in the third quarter.

Andre Cryer returned the kickoff 40 yards to the Lions 49. Four plays later, Babin rolled right and found Cryer in the right side of the end zone for a 37-yard score. Jeff Turner tacked on the extra point for a 31-21 lead at the 10:24 mark of the third quarter.

SLU needed just two plays to go 45 yards on its next possession. Ducksworth got a block downfield on a 36-yard run to start the drive, then took a screen from Babin around the left side for the 9-yard score. Turner’s kick built the Lions’ lead back to 38-21 with 8:46 left in the quarter.

But it almost wasn't enough. Trenbeath, who caught six passes for 124 yards in the quarter, pulled in a 43-yarder to the SLU 6, and Murray scored on a 3-yard run. But Hellevang's point-after was wide right leaving it 38-27 and setting up the wild finish.

After losing 11 yards on its first two possessions, Southeastern scored on its next four. The Lions got the ball at the North Dakota 46 when Kendrick Johnson tipped Freund’s pass and Connors intercepted — Freund’s first interception in 240 pass attempts.

Babin hit Simmie Yarborough for 30 yards to the 6, then shovelled a 6-yard TD pass to Yarborough. And after forcing a punt, the Lions drove 58 yards in four plays to make it 14-0, using a little trickery.

After converting a 3rd-and-8 on Babin's 44-yard pass to Wilson, the Lions fired a direct snap to Jay Lucas, who started left, then tossed back right to a wide open Babin for the 12-yard score on the first play of the second quarter.

North Dakota quickly answered with a four-play, 59-yard drive capped with Murray’s 34-yard touchdown burst on a draw play.

SLU countered with another trick play to cap a four-play, 74-yard drive. On first down from the North Dakota 18, Brady Miles took a reverse from Andre Cryer around the left side, got a block from Babin and went in for his first career touchdown to make it 21-7 with 11:19 left in the half. The score was set up by Babin's 55-yard completion to Krishna Muhammad.

Turner's 42-yard field goal made it 24-7 with 6:38 remaining in the half, but the Sioux stormed back to get within 24-14 at intermission with a 12-play, 79-yard drive capped by Murray's 13-yard run up the middle with 35 seconds left in the first half.

“I think there were some protection problems,” Mike Lucas said of the Lions’ early struggles. “They came in with some blitz schemes that were a little different and that we hadn’t seen yet and they were getting some pressure up front. We made some adjustments in our protection and that gave Brian more time to throw.”