GRAND FORKS — When Dale Lennon addressed the UND football team on Friday, he made sure to address one topic.

“If anybody wants to know,” UND coach Bubba Schweigert said, “he talked about that magic at the Alerus Center. And our guys believed him.”

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

UND extended its run at the Alerus Center on Saturday night by overcoming a 24-7 halftime deficit against fourth-seeded Montana, a team that played in last season’s NCAA FCS national championship, to win 27-24.

It was the first time UND had come back from a 17-point halftime deficit since 2011, when it defeated South Dakota in Grand Forks, when UND was advancing 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’ve got to play well. We always tell our guys, ‘You’ve got to make plays to get the crowd excited.’ But there’s something about (the Alerus). We have the belief that we’re going to win.”

The Fighting Hawks are now 27-3 in their last 30 home games.

Two of the three losses were against teams that won NCAA national titles that season. The victories included North Dakota State, South Dakota State, South Dakota, Montana, Montana State, Sam Houston State, Northern Iowa and Southern Illinois.

UND often struggles on the road. The Fighting Hawks are 7-23 in their last 30 road games against the Alerus.

But no matter the opponent or the circumstances, the Fighting Hawks prove time and time again that anything is possible when they play at home.

The list of spectacular victories is long.

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

There were two dramatic victories in 2019. Brady Leach hit a 46-yard field goal in the final minute 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, beating four ranked teams by double digits: Southern Illinois, South Dakota State, South Dakota and Missouri State.

There was more drama in 2021. UND rallied from 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 Gavin Ziebarth touchdown run to beat Illinois State.

Last season the Fighting Hawks had two.

After trailing by three points with just 47 seconds left against Indiana State, UND quickly drove to field-goal range for C.J. Elrichs to send it to overtime. The Fighting Hawks won it on a Tommy Schuster touchdown pass to Quincy Vaughn. And a few weeks later, Ziebarth beat Illinois State again with a late touchdown, this one with 25 seconds left, to give the Fighting Hawks a 22-21 victory.

Saturday looked bleak.

UND trailed by 17 at halftime. It had given up 15 first downs and 286 yards of offense to the Griz, who hadn’t given up a 17-point halftime lead in six years.

But after the break things quickly changed.

UND held Montana to one first down and 36 yards in the second half. Offensively, it used quarterback Simon Romfo’s running ability and a big push from a new-look offensive line to score on all four drives (excluding the two game-clinching kneel-downs).

Elrichs hit the go-ahead field goal with 2:16 remaining.

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

“I believed the whole time,” UND defenseman 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 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 recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors four times as the Herald’s top reporter for its circulation division and once as the North Dakota Sports Reporter of the Year. He lives in Grand Forks. He can be reached at [email protected].