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WAYNE STATE USES A SAFETY, INT FOR A TD TO BEAT UMC FOOTBALL

The University of Minnesota Crookston (UMC) Golden Eagles Football team forced two first-half turnovers while holding the Wayne State Wildcats to 7 first-half points, but the hosts scored 23 points in the second half in route to a 30-7 win in an NSIC game played at Bob Cunningham Field/Memorial Stadium in Wayne, Nebraska. 

FIRST HALF-
Wayne State won the coin toss and deferred to the second half, so UMC started the game with the ball. The Golden Eagles struggled in their first three plays and lost a total of six yards (including a five-yard delay of game penalty) and were forced to punt. After a 44-yard punt, Wayne State started their first drive of the game at their 31-yard line. The Wildcats ran two plays for seven yards before their quarterback, Tavian Willis (Fresh. Ferguson, MO) ran for 58 yards down to the UMC nine-yard line. “That was a third down, and they had a good call into what we were running (defensively),” said Minnesota Crookston head coach Mark Duffner. “That’s all it boiled down to. It was a good call by them based on tendencies. We ran a blitz there, so it wasn’t an ideal match. Someone had to step up and make a play on that. We needed to shore up a little bit sooner in the run game than we did.” Lorenzo Logwood (Sr. Oakland, CA) ran for six yards, and on the second carry, he scored on a three-yard run, and after the extra point kick, Wayne State led 7-0. The drive was a five-play 74-yard drive that only took 2:23.
The Golden Eagle’s second drive of the game was significantly better as they slowly marched down the field on a 13 play, 70-yard drive down to the Wayne State 13 yard line. The drive stalled, and UMC tried a field goal, but the kick was wide left, and Wayne State held on for a 7-0 lead. 
The next Wayne State drive ended on a fumble as Willis broke another big run (59 yards), but he was caught from behind by a UMC player who forced a fumble and the Golden Eagles Anfernee Cooper (Jr. Fort Worth, TX) recovered the ball on the UMC 27 yard line. “I think guys were just reading their keys and doing their jobs,” added Dufner of his team’s first-half defensive performance. “On third down, we had some more sound calls.”
In the second quarter, Wayne State had an eight-play drive that was over 40 yards but fumbled the ball, and UMC recovered for another big stop. Both offenses struggled the rest of the quarter with a total of five punts and a total of 97 yards between the two teams.  Wayne State took a 7-0 lead into halftime. “Guys were positive,” added Duffner at halftime. “The offense had moved the ball pretty well. We just hadn’t finished it off. We weren’t able to get the points on the board. Our defense was getting stops and forcing takeaways. We’d done some good things in all three phases, really.”

SECOND HALF –
Wayne State started the second half with the ball, and after accumulating over 200 yards on the ground in the first half, they wisely decided to keep the ball on the ground. The Wildcats gave the ball to Logwood twice for nine yards before Willis picked up a first down on a two-yard gain. Logwood added 11 yards on two carries before Devin Merkuris carried the ball four times for a total of 47 yards, including a two-yard touchdown run and Wayne State led 14-0 with 11:36 left in the third quarter. “That’s something we’ve been talking about,” said Duffner. “We’ve got to start the second half better than we have. That’s something we’ve got to look at and figure out.”
On UMC’s fourth offensive play of the second half, they fumbled the ball, and Wayne State recovered the ball to get the ball at midfield (Wayne State’s 46-yard line).  Wayne State was forced to punt on the drive, but they pinned UMC back at their own 15-yard line.  The Golden Eagles ran the ball for a loss of three-yards and threw two incomplete passes and were forced to punt.  On the UMC punt, Wayne State had a player get by the blockers and was going to block the punt, so the Golden Eagle punter, Alex Folz scrambled and was tackled in the end zone for a safety, and the Wildcats took a 16-0 lead with 7:20 left in the third quarter.
Wayne State had the ball after the UMC free-kick and pieced together an impressive nine-play (all rushing plays) 64-yard drive and scored another touchdown to take a 23-0 lead 2:56 left in the third quarter. “It’s always tough when (the defense) is out there so much,” added Dufner. “We try and rotate guys defensively, but they were starting to get on the field quite a bit. We talked about we need to start finding a way to finish drives offensively. The fewer reps our offense is getting, the more reps our defense is getting.”
UMC finished the third quarter and started the fourth quarter with their best drive of the game as Tristan Robbins completed two passes for 31 yards to get the ball across midfield and down to the Wayne State 37 yard line. After a carry for no gain, Robbins completed a pass for 14 yards before running for seven yards to get into the red zone. After a loss of four yards, Robbins carried the ball for eight yards on two carries and ended the drive with a touchdown pass to Kyler Banks (Jr. Cannon Falls) for a 12-yard score and UMC trailed 23-7 with 14:25 left in the game. “That’s something the offensive coaches have been talking about and working on,” explained Dufner. “That was just one of the adjustments they made at halftime.”
Wayne State ran three plays and was forced to punt, and UMC started a drive at their own 38-yard line. Robbins ran for 12 yards on the first play of the drive, and the Golden Eagles tried to go through the air on the second play, and Wayne State’s J’Von France intercepted the pass and returned it 41 yards for a touchdown for a 30-7 lead with 11:14 left in the game.
Minnesota Crookston failed to generate any more points the rest of the game while the Wildcats were more interested in running clock rather than adding to their lead to secure the 30-7 win on homecoming. “The guys battled hard,” summarized Duffner. “I think overall our we cleaned up a lot of our discipline issues from last week. Our focus was pretty good here today. Offensively, we’ve got to finish drives. Defensively, we’ve got to make sure we’re not giving up big plays. On special teams, we’ve got to be more consistent. We’ve just got to keep getting better.”

Minnesota Crookston falls to 0-5. The Golden Eagles return home to Ed Widseth field next Saturday when UMC hosts Sioux Falls at Noon on KROX with the Riverview Health pregame show beginning at 11:20 A.M. Wayne State improves to 2-3.

Box Score 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Final
UMC 0 0 0 7 7
Wayne State 7 0 16 7 30


1st Quarter-
10:10 – WSC – Lorenzo Logwood 3 yard run (Ethan Knudson kick)

2nd Quarter–
No Scoring

3rd Quarter –
11:36 – WSC – Devin Merkuris 2 yard run (Ethan Knudson kick)
7:20 – WSC – Nicholas Joynt safety
2:56 – WSC – Deshawn Massey 19 yard run (Ethan Knudson kick)

4th Quarter –
14:25 – UMC – Tristan Robbins 12 yard pass to Kyler Banks  (Jared Mclemore kick)
11:13 – WSC – J’Von France 41 yard interception return (Ethan Knudson kick)

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