UND football game at Youngstown State postponed due to UND coronavirus issues

Mar. 26—The UND football team's hopes of rebounding from its first loss of the season will have to wait.

The No. 6 Fighting Hawks' game Saturday at Youngstown State was called off Friday morning due to coronavirus issues within the UND travel party.

A UND release said the issue was due to a positive COVID-19 test and subsequent contact tracing in UND's Tier 1 personnel, which consists of athletes, coaches, managers and staff.

UND athletic director Bill Chaves said he was alerted of the positive test at about 8:15 a.m. Friday.

Chaves said he doesn't know if there was more than one positive test.

"At this point in time, we don't know because one positive led us to now having to trace and do all the things you do when you have a positive," Chaves said. "We literally are in the midst of assessing the situation. I'll have a better read in the next 48 hours as far as what we're looking at."

UND, 4-1, was scheduled to play at Stambaugh Stadium in Youngstown, Ohio, at 11 a.m. Saturday. After starting the season 4-0 and rising to a No. 2 national ranking, the Fighting Hawks lost to North Dakota State last Saturday in the Fargodome.

The Fighting Hawks were scheduled to fly out of Grand Forks at 1 p.m. Friday.

Earlier this week, UND's final road trip of the season at Illinois State was called off as the Redbirds have decided to opt out of the remainder of the spring season due to health concerns.

According to a release from the Missouri Valley Football Conference, UND and Youngstown State will play April 17, an open week in the league schedule set aside for COVID postponements. A start time will be released at a later date.

UND's next scheduled home game is now April 3 at home against Missouri State at 11 a.m.

YSU will now play UND coming off two road games — at Western Illinois on April 3 and at Missouri State on April 10. The Penguins are coming off their first win of the season — a 28-10 victory over South Dakota.

Chaves said he's been in contact with Missouri State's athletic administration and will keep them informed on developments.

"We need to let each day in the next 48-72 hours occur, and we'll have a way better understanding as far as where we might be for next week," Chaves said. "We'll be doing testing and get information and figure out if we've got the right numbers to actually play a football game. As of this phone call (Friday afternoon), we have plans to play but obviously we have to get more information."

Chaves said there's technically a chance for a false positive test but hinted that UND's situation might include a symptomatic individual.

"I think we've got a pretty good understanding now of how certain positives feel more positive than others," he said.

Throughout the season, the UND football team and staff are tested on a three-day cadence, which has routinely been Sunday-Tuesday-Thursday.

The choice to cancel the trip came down to the timing of the positive test and the unknown, Chaves said.

"The last thing we want to do is infect folks otherwise uninfected or, worst case, infect another team," Chaves said.