Badgers Keep Axe In Border Battle Win.

In what turned out to be another interesting Border Battle between the two teams, in which the Badgers had some plays that could have gone the other way, the Badgers held on to win, and kept Paul Bunyan’s Axe for the sixth straight year. In the 119th matchup between the two teams, the Badgers defeated the Minnesota Golden Gophers in their brand new home, TCF Bank Stadium 31 -28 on Saturday. The win gives the Badgers a 5 – 0 record overall (2- 0 Big Ten). It was the second game in a row that the ability of quarterback Scott Tolzien, the feet of John Clay, and some key plays by the defense, helped the Badgers win a game.

“I can’t say enough about the resiliency of this team,” said UW head coach Bret Bielema. “We tend to make things a little more difficult than they need to.”

The first half started out on a positive note for UW. After holding the Gophers on their first possession, the Badgers drove the ball down the field 59 yards in nine plays to put up the first points in the game.

Minnesota followed with field goal, and then a touchdown, which gave the Gophers a 10 -7 lead, after Badger quaterback, Scott Tolzien, threw an interception to Gophers' linebacker, Nate Triplett. 

"I was trying to throw it within a window between a safety and a linebacker,"said UW quarterback Scott Tolzien. "I thought I could stick it in there and the linebacker made a real good read on it. Good play by him, bad play by me."

The Badgers answered that with a field goal to start off the second quarter, followed by another touchdown by Minnesota right before halftime to make the score 13 - 10 at the break.

The beginning of the third qurter began with a couple of mistakes as well by both teams. A fumble by Tolzien, and then an interception by Minnesota quarterback Adam Weber.

After that though, the Badger running game started getting hot. Tailback, John Clay rushed for a total of 71 yards and a touchdown, to cap off the third quarter.

"He's a good running back, we knew that coming in," said Gopher head coach Tim Brewster. "He's a big strong physical guy who can get behind that big line that they've got and we just didn't do a good job of getting to the line of scrimmage like we wanted to, and they got some significant rushing yards."

The fourth quarter wasn't totally flawless for the Badgers, though, as Minnesota scored off of a fumble by tailback, Zach Brown. But Minnesota's defense still had trouble stopping John Clay and the Badger defense came through again to help seal the victory after Badger linebacker, Chris Borland, recovered a fumble by Gopher quaterback, Adam Weber, after being sacked by Badger defensive end, O'Brien Schofield with 1:13 left in the game.

"I can't say enough about O'Brien Schofield," said coach Bielema. "he is just playing with unbelievable passion."

The Badgers next game will be another good test. They are travel this week to Columbus, Ohio to take on the Buckeyes.