MOORHEAD, Minn. – It was not the start to the season the Winona State football team had hoped for, as MSU Moorhead held the Warriors largely in check en route to a 42-17 victory Thursday night in front of 3,818 fans on the new Scheels Field in Moorhead.
The loss came despite wide receiver Alan May's best effort, as the senior captain hauled in 11 passes for 161 yards. The 11 catches is tied for the fifth-most in WSU single-game history while the 161 yards enters the record book as the 24th-best game.
The Warriors had chances early on in the game. A promising opening drive that started on the WSU 32 yard line ended up at the MSU Moorhead seven yard line after a 15-yard completion from Jack Nelson to newcomer Fritz Rock, but a Direll Clark fumble on the next play kept the game scoreless.
After the WSU defense forced a second straight punt to start the game, the Warriors marched down the field with relative ease yet again highlighted by pass plays of 24 yards and 25 yards from Nelson to May, the latter of which got the Warriors down to the five yard line again. But after a one-yard Eric Birth rush, Nelson's pass intended for May was off his hands and picked off in the end zone, thwarting another opportunity.
The Winona State defense continued its spirited play in the first quarter, and a third straight forced punt kept the score 0-0 at the end of the first quarter.
Neither team could get on the board until the midway point of the second quarter, when MSUM quarterback Jack Hodge found Preston Prince for a 28-yard passing touchdown to make it 7-0. Running back Zayne Medhaug then found the end zone with an eight-yard rush with just over a minute remaining in the half to put the Dragons up two scores.
The Warriors got an important score out of the break when Clark barreled in from one yard out to cut the lead in half, but three minutes later the Dragons answered with a Hodge to Medhaug 11-yard passing score to put MSU Moorhead up 21-7.
WSU – which made just two field goals all of last season – converted its first of the year when Carter McCauley split the uprights from 31-yards out to cut the lead to 21-10.
From there, though, it was all Dragons, as they pulled away with touchdown grabs of 49, 39 and 14 yards to make it 42-10 with just over three minutes left.
Nelson was in jeopardy of recording the first game of his career without a touchdown pass until he found redshirt freshman Will Claussen for a 23-yard score with 42 seconds to play to bring the final score to 42-17.
Nelson finished the night 28-of-45 for 349 yards and a score while being sacked twice. It was the eighth time in his career that he's had a 300-yard passing game.
The loss snaps a 14-game Winona State winning streak over the Dragons dating back to 1996.
Winona State (0-1) has nine days to prepare for its home opener on September 12, when it hosts Minot State at 1 p.m. at newly-named Altra Federal Credit Union Stadium in Winona.
