UMC FOOTBALL STRUGGLES DURING SECOND HALF IN LOSS TO ST. CLOUD STATE

The University of Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagle Football team struggled to keep the offense on the field in the second-half as. Several timely third-down conversions led the St. Cloud State Huskies to a 44-14 victory in an NSIC game played at Ed Widseth Field in Crookston.
UMC started the game with a six-play drive when they stalled and were forced to punt.   St. Cloud State returned the punt 48 yards and started their first offensive series on the UMC 32-yard line.  A Husky penalty stalled the drive and they kicked a 46-yard field goal to take a 3-0 lead, just over four minutes into the game.  UMC’s second offensive series was similar to their first when they had to punt after six plays.  The punt was only 24 yards and St. Cloud State had great field position for the second straight series.  The Huskies completed a pass for 11 yards and three plays later they completed a 19-yard pass to get to the UMC 27-yard line.  On the next play, Dwayne Lawhorn found John Pass for a 27-yard touchdown pass and after the extra point, the Huskies led 10-0 with 5:45 left in the first quarter.
UMC answered in a big way when they put a nice drive together sparked by a Jalin Scott (Jr. Houston, TX) 37-yard pass to Andy Groebner (Fr., Andover) to get to the St. Cloud State 35-yard line.   A few plays later, UMC had a third down and 12 situation and the Golden Eagle quarterback, Scott, scampered 26 yards for a touchdown and with the Jared McLemore (Fr., Lucas, TX) extra point kick St. Cloud State’s lead was cut to 10-7. “That’s why we brought (Jalin Scott) here, he’s a dynamic player,” explained Minnesota Crookston head coach Mark Dufner. “He made some plays with his feet and some nice throws.”
Early in the second quarter, St. Cloud State put an 11-play drive together with a couple big passing plays and the Huskies got the ball to the UMC six-yard line.  On a third down and one-yard play, the Huskies ran the ball and didn’t gain anything on the run and had to settle for a 23-yard field goal for a 13-7 lead with nine minutes left in the first half.  UMC had good field position and didn’t take advantage in their drive and were forced to punt.  The punt went into the end zone for a touchback and the Huskies had the ball at their own 20-yard line.  St. Cloud State had an impressive 11 play, 80-yard drive that chewed up over five minutes off the clock and the drive was capped with a Gregory Lewis five-yard run for a touchdown and after the extra point kick, they led 20-7.
The third quarter started well for Minnesota Crookston as the Golden Eagles forced a punt on St. Cloud State’s opening drive. On UMC’s subsequent possession, the Golden Eagles went three and out following a fumbled snap on Minnesota Crookston’s first offensive play of the second half. St. Cloud State appeared headed for a similar fate on their next possession after a 3^rddown and three passes hit the turf falling incomplete, but a penalty flag against the Minnesota Crookston bench for sideline interference gave the Huskies fifteen yards and a fresh set of downs. On St. Cloud State’s next play, UMC was flagged for pass interference gifting the Huskies another free fifteen-yards. SCSU capitalized on the penalties completing their drive with a 6-yard touchdown carry from running back Curtwan Evans on 4^thdown and one to give the visitors a 27-7 lead.
Minnesota Crookston countered with their offensive highlight of the game when Tristan Robbins (Fr., Muskegon) fumbled a double-reverse lateral before picking up the loose football and flinging it downfield to a wide-open Andy Groebner (Fr., Andover) for a 70-yard touchdown pass cutting the Golden Eagles’ deficit to 27-14.
St. Cloud State answered with a big play of their own on their next possession. Facing 3^rddown and four from their own 30-yard line Dwayne Lawhorn found an unmarked John Solberg cutting across the middle of the field and going untouched past the goal line for a 70-yard touchdown catch to push the Huskies’ lead to 34-14. “Coach (Jared) Hottle had been working on that in practice, they didn’t draw it up to drop it on the ground, but fortunately they stuck with the play and finished the play,” noted Dufner. “(Tristan Robbins) is still in the mix there and that’s just kind of our recruiting philosophy. Our QBs are going to be our most dynamic players on the team so we can move them around, put them at receiver and we can move the defensive side. I’d rather burn his redshirt earlier rather than late.”
Minnesota Crookston’s next drive took the Golden Eagles down to the St. Cloud State 11-yard line, but a holding penalty put UMC in an obvious passing situation of 3^rddown and 17. Jalin Scott avoided two sacks in the backfield and rolled to his left before putting a throw up for grabs at the goal line. The pass was intercepted by St. Cloud State’s Jamari Manuel ending Minnesota Crookston’s hopes of a comeback bid. St. Cloud State iced the game with another big third-down conversion as Dwayne Lawhorn hit John Pass for a 64-yard catch and run to give SCSU a 41-14 lead. The Huskies added one more field goal with 6:22 remaining before running out the clock on their next drive to improve to 2-0 with a convincing 44-14 win. “Effort was good but there are still some things to clean up,” summarized Dufner. “I think there are still some things we did better, but better isn’t always good enough. We cleaned up a few penalties, but we still had a few miscues in pivotal situations and that can’t happen. It led to St. Cloud State extending drives and leads to us shooting ourselves in the football and our offense getting off the field.”
The Golden Eagles fall to 0-2 on the season and will travel to Chet Anderson Stadium next Saturday for the Hubcap Rivalry against Bemidji State at 4 p.m. with the Riverview Health Pregame Show beginning at 3:20 p.m. St. Cloud State improves to 2-0.