<p>FARGO, N.D. — Dominic Gonnella ran for 163 yards and two touchdowns and Jalen Bussey ran for 143 yards and North Dakota State rallied from a two-touchdown deficit to smash Eastern Washington University 42-20 on Saturday in an opening-round game of the FCS playoffs.</p>
<p>The Bison (7-2) advance to the quarterfinals to face No. 2-seed Sam Houston State in Huntsville, Texas on May 1.</p>
<p>Eastern Washington (5-2) scored three touchdowns in its first three possessions and built a 20-7 lead. In those first three drives the Big Sky Conference’s at-large bid piled up 217 yards of offense scoring on drives of 85, 53 and 79 yards. Eric Barriere’s 3-yard slant pass to Andrew Boston made it 20-7 for the Eagles with 10 minutes before halftime.</p>
<p>The Bison then put an end to EWU’s upset bid establishing its running game and containing EWU’s offense. Drives of 68 and 64 yards resulted in a 1-yard scoring run by Hunter Luepke and a 4-yard pass from Cam Miller to Noah Gindorff respectively gave the Bison a 21-20 halftime advantage.</p>
<p>North Dakota State increased pressure on Barriere and proceed to hold the Eagles to 90 offensive yards on their last six possessions.</p>
<p>Barriere finished with 246 yards passing and a touchdown.</p>
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