Wayne State 38 Southwest Minnesota State 20
The Wayne State College offensive attack was too balanced for the Mustangs defense to contain in the Wildcats 38-20 victory over Southwest Minnesota State Saturday evening in Marshall, Minnesota. Sophomore Evan Johnson and senior Frederick Bruno combined for five touchdowns on the night to lead the Wildcat offensive attack. Bruno returned a kickoff 91 yards for a TD and caught two touchdown passes from Johnson who also rushed for two touchdowns of his own. The win makes Wayne State 4-1 overall and 3-1 in the NSIC and the loss drops the Mustangs to 2-3 and 1-3 in the conference.
The Wildcats got on the board a little over three minutes into the first quarter on a one yard touchdown run by Johnson to give WSC 7-0 advantage. Wayne State would stretch their lead to 14-0 a little more than nine minutes later when Johnson found Frederick Bruno on a five yard touchdown pass on a drive that took 16 plays and went 73 yards.
The Mustangs got on the board with 16 seconds left in the opening quarter as Ryan Ratekin found Warren Matthews on a 41 yard touchdown pass beating the Wildcat defense on a blitz package to make the score 14-7.
The Wildcats took no time to expand their lead back to fourteen as Bruno, Wayne State's all-time leader in kickoff returns and kickoff return yards as well as NCAA Division II kickoff return yard leader this season took the kickoff 91 yards to the house to give WSC a 21-7 lead. WSC took a 24-14 lead into halftime after a 33 yard field goal by freshman kicker Nick Bell who is a perfect 5 for 5 on the season.
Wayne State had 200 yards of total offense in the first half with 96 rushing yards and 104 yards through the air. WSC also moved the sticks in the first half with 15 first downs in the stanza.
Wayne State's defense was stingy in the second half only allowing 17 rushing yards and six points to the Mustangs offense.
The Wildcats took a 31-14 lead on a spectacular catch by Bruno who made a one handed catch with three Mustang defenders around him to haul in the 22 yard touchdown pass by Johnson.
Wayne State took a 38-14 lead on another touchdown run by Johnson as the sophomore scored his second of the game and fifth of the season on a five yard scamper.
The Mustangs added six points on a touchdown pass from Tyler Peschong to Lester Lewis to make it 38-20 WSC with 2:38 remaining in the fourth quarter. The Mustang drive went six plays in just under two minutes.
The Wildcats and Mustangs each had the ball in the final minutes of the game, but neither team could tack on any more points as Wayne State walked away with a 38-20 win.
The Wildcats accumulated 342 yards of total offense on the night. Wayne State had 193 yards through the air and 149 yards on the ground. The Wildcats had a season high 23 first downs on the night. Johnson was 16 for 20 for 193 yards and two touchdown passes. Johnson also rushed for 78 yards on 24 carries to lead the Wildcats' ground game. Bruno added 218 all-purpose yards to go along with three scores. Bruno had six receptions for 73 yards to go along with a 91 yard kickoff return for a touchdown. Nick Pulscher had five receptions for 49 yards, Pulscher also rushed for 60 yards on 16 carries.
The Wayne State defense held the Mustangs to 282 yards of offense. SMSU only had 53 yards of rushing offense. The WSC defense held NSIC South Division Preseason Offensive Player of the Year Ryan Ratekin to only 159 passing yards. Wayne State was led in tackles by Ben Perry and Cole Fischer who each recorded six tackles on the night. Anthony Hale added five tackles along with a pass breakup. Mark Janssen had two tackles for loss in the ball game.
Wayne State will be on the road again next weekend as the Wildcats head to Bismarck, North Dakota to face the University of Mary Marauders at 2:30 p.m. at the Bismarck Bowl.
