ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Winona State football team took a 38-0 lead into halftime and rolled to a 51-7 blowout win over Concordia-St. Paul Saturday in front of 2,118 fans on the Golden Bears' Homecoming.
The Warriors, who have been plagued by red zone miscues much of the season, scored on 8-of-9 red zone opportunities.
WSU, which came into the game with the league's top passing attack compared to a league-worst aerial attack from the Golden Bears, more than doubled up CSP in total offense, with a 532-255 differential.
Jack Nelson racked up another 300-yard passing game – the 11th of his career – going 20-of-31 for 333 yards and three touchdowns. For the first time this season the junior quarterback did not throw an interception nor was he sacked.
It took the Warriors a little while to get on the board, as their first drive was three-and-out, but WSU's second possession was an 11-play, 65-yard drive that resulted in a seven-yard touchdown pass from Nelson to Josh Mikes for a 7-0 lead.
WSU's Kyle Coon then picked off Concordia QB Ben Schramski's pass on the ensuing play, which set up a quick two-play drive where Nelson found Fritz Rock for a 40-yard catch to the Concordia five yard line and Eric Birth ran it in on the next play for the first of his two scores on the day and a 14-0 lead.
Carter McCauley added a 23-yard field goal early in the second quarter before Nelson and Mikes connected on their second touchdown of the day, this time a 65-yard strike to up the lead to 24-0.
Just more than a minute later, Birth plunged in from two yards out for his second score of the day and the rout was on as WSU had a 31-0 lead midway through the second quarter.
The Warriors weren't done yet, as Nelson picked up his third touchdown of the half with a five-yard pass to Cameron Johnson with 1:18 left to send the Warriors into the locker room with a commanding 38-0 lead.
Paul Preston – who finished with 104 yards on the ground on 17 carries – scored his lone touchdown of the day early in the third quarter with a 3-yard rush to stretch the lead to 45-0. McCauley's second field goal of the day – this time a 35-yarder – made it 48-0 midway through the third before the Golden Bears finally got on the board at the end of the quarter with a 15-yard pass from Schramski to Bruce Russell.
McCauley added his third field goal of the day with a chip-shot 19-yarder as part of the only scoring in the fourth quarter as WSU ran away with the 51-7 win.
The Warriors played a clean brand of football, penalized just three times for 30 yards.
Senior Alan May caught six balls for 64 yards, while Mikes had six receptions for 123 yards and his two scores.
Gage Ridenour led the Warrior defense with seven tackles, while Collin Corcoran had five tackles, a sack and two tackles-for-loss.
Winona State (3-2) is on the road again next week when it travels to No. 4 Sioux Falls (5-0) for a 6 p.m. matchup at Bob Young Field.
