GRAND FORKS – When Dale Lennon spoke to the UND football team on Friday, he certainly hit on one topic.

“If anyone cares,” UND coach Bubba Schweigert said, “he talked about the magic of the Alerus Center. And our guys believed him.”

UND’s home stadium has been a huge advantage during Lennon’s tenure as head coach since it opened in 2001. UND won an NCAA Division II national championship that season and its reputation endured.

UND added to the Alerus Center’s winning streak on Saturday night by overcoming a 24-7 halftime deficit to win 27-24 against No. 4 seed Montana, which played for last season’s NCAA FCS national championship.

It was the first time UND overcame a 17-point halftime deficit since 2011, when it beat South Dakota in Grand Forks, when UND moved to Division I.

“The crowd helped tonight,” Schweigert said. “It was a great atmosphere. In the first half, we couldn’t get the crowd involved. You have to play well. We always tell our guys, ‘You have to make plays that get the crowd excited.’ But (the Alerus) have something special. We firmly believe we’re going to win.”

The Fighting Hawks have now won their last 30 home games 27-3.

Two of the three losses came against teams that went on to win the NCAA national title that season. Winners included North Dakota State, South Dakota State, South Dakota, Montana, Montana State, Sam Houston State, Northern Iowa and Southern Illinois.

UND has often struggled on the road. The Fighting Hawks have a record of 7-23 in their last 30 road games at Alerus.

But no matter who the opponent is and what the circumstances are, the Fighting Hawks continue to prove that anything is possible at home.

The list of dramatic victories is long.

In 2016, UND trailed 31-10 against Northern Arizona midway through the third quarter but fought back with four straight touchdowns to win 38-31, securing the Big Sky title.

2019 saw two dramatic victories. Brady Leach kicked a last-minute 46-yard field goal to beat UC-Davis 38-36. A few weeks later, Jayson Coley scored on a blocked punt late in the fourth quarter to beat Montana State 16-12.

In 2020, the magic of the Alerus Center didn’t take a break for the pandemic-altered spring season. The Fighting Hawks went 4-0 and beat four ranked teams by double digits – Southern Illinois, South Dakota State, South Dakota and Missouri State.

There was even more drama in 2021. UND overcame a 21-10 fourth-quarter deficit against Youngstown State to win by three points. Three weeks later, UND broke a late-fourth-quarter tie with a touchdown run by Gavin Ziebarth to defeat Illinois State.

Last season the Fighting Hawks had two more.

After trailing Indiana State by three points with 47 seconds left, UND quickly got within field goal range, sending the game into overtime by CJ Elrichs. The Fighting Hawks won on a touchdown pass from Tommy Schuster to Quincy Vaughn. And a few weeks later, Ziebarth beat Illinois State again with a late touchdown. This one came with 25 seconds left to give the Fighting Hawks a 22-21 victory.

On Saturday things looked bleak.

UND trailed by 17 points at halftime. The Griz, who had not squandered a 17-point halftime lead in six years, were allowed 15 first downs and 286 yards of offense.

But after the break, the tide quickly turned.

UND held Montana to one first down and 36 yards in the second half. Offensively, it used the running strength of quarterback Simon Romfo and a strong push from a newly formed offensive line to score on all four drives (except for the two game-tying kneeldowns).

Elrichs scored the decisive field goal with 2:16 minutes left.

When Montana missed its chance to tie the game from 54 yards out, the UND sideline cheered. The Alerus Center roared. And it had another magical moment and another magical play to add to its list.

“I believed the whole time,” UND defensive end Craig Orlando said. “Our team played great. We played great complementary football in the second half. When you do that, you always have a chance to win. I wouldn’t say there was a specific point (I thought we had a chance to win). I always had hope.”

Schlossman has covered college hockey for the Grand Forks Herald since 2005. He has been named best sportswriter for the Herald’s circulation division four times and North Dakota sportswriter of the year once by the sports editors of the Associated Press. He lives in Grand Forks. He can be reached at [email protected].