WINONA, Minn. – The Winona State football team got the job done in all three phases of the game, with the end result a 38-7 victory over Minot State in front of 3,141 fans Saturday afternoon at a sunny Altra Federal Credit Union Stadium.

The Warriors – who made just two field goals all of last season – got a tremendous performance from sophomore kicker Carter McCauley, who was a perfect 3-for-3 on the day. After splitting the uprights on a 25-yarder in the first quarter to give the Warriors an early 3-0 lead, he would later boot a WSU record-shattering 53-yard field goal with 10 seconds to go in the half to put WSU up 20-7.

That record would not last long, as McCauley bettered his mark with a 54-yarder in the fourth quarter to break his own record. The previous record for the longest field goal by a Warrior was 47 yards, set by Cullen Fahey in 2008 against Concordia-St. Paul.

WSU's passing game was mostly clicking throughout the day, with quarterback Jack Nelson passing for 303 yards and three touchdowns, one of each to his top three targets in Alan May, Josh Mikes and Cameron Johnson. May finished the day with three receptions for 90 yards, while Mikes caught four balls for 88 yards and Johnson added four catches for 51 yards.

After McCauley's early field goal got the Warriors on the board, WSU extended its lead to 10-0 on the first play of the second quarter when Nelson found Johnson for an 11-yard touchdown strike.

Minot State cut into the lead toward the midway point of the half when Jarvis Mustipher found the end zone from one yard out to cut it to 10-7, but that's all the Beavers could muster.

The quick-strike Warriors opened the lead back up just 48 seconds later after a two-play drive culminated in a perfect 62-yard pass into the hands of May in stride for a 17-7 lead. McCauley then with 10 seconds left extended the lead to 20-7 going into the locker room with the first of his two record-breaking kicks.

The Warriors racked up 200 first half passing yards, compared to 90 for Minot State. The Warriors were unable to get a ground game going, though, rushing 16 times for a net of five yards.

The third touchdown pass of the game came with 3:39 to play in the third quarter, when Nelson found Mikes for a 21-yard touchdown pass. Mikes then made an acrobatic catch in the back right corner of the end zone to tack on the two-point conversion and put the Warriors up 28-7.

McCauley's second 50-plus yard field goal of the day upped the WSU lead to 31-7 early in the final quarter before redshirt freshman Eric Birth put the exclamation point on the day with a 5-yard touchdown rush with 4:51 to play for the 38-7 final.

Birth, who chewed up much of the fourth-quarter clock, finished as the team's leading rusher, carrying the ball eight times for 49 yards.

Nelson ended his day completing 19 of 33 passes for 303 yards, a trio of touchdown tosses and a pair of picks.

Collin Corcoran led the stingy WSU defense, picking up eight tackles – including 1.5 for loss. Jeff Brown had a fine performance in the trenches, recording two sacks and three tackles-for-loss to go with six total tackles. Brown also forced a fumble on one of the sacks.

The Warriors picked off three Lucas Romanski passes, including a 48-yard interception return from Andrew Spencer, as well as one apiece from Aikan Major and Mike Imperiale.

Austin Opfer had seven tackles with a sack and two tackles-for-loss. As a whole, the WSU defense held the Beavers to just 215 total yards while WSU racked up 400 yards of offense.

The win snapped a five-game home and overall losing streak for the Warriors.

Winona State (1-1) heads to Bemidji State next Saturday night for a 6 p.m. matchup with the Beavers.