A huge third-quarter defensive stand turned the momentum in Wayne State’s favor and a fourth-quarter interception turned into a cushion that gave the Wildcats a 28-18 upset win over No. 17 Minnesota Duluth on Homecoming weekend at Memorial Stadium’s Bob Cunningham Field.
After giving up a first-quarter field goal, Wayne State scored on a 10-yard pass from Nick Bohn to Kendrick Watkins-Hogue on the first play of the second quarter.
Duluth responded with a score to go up 10-7, but the Wildcats came back on a one-yard sneak by Bohn to make it 14-10 at the half.
Duluth held the ball for 10 minutes at the start of the third quarter and drove down to the Wayne State 1-yard line, but the Wildcats came up with a big defensive stand, stopping Duluth quarterback Kyle Walljasper short of the goal line.
Later in the period, Latravious Boyd eluded the Bulldog defense and raced down the near sideline for a 75-yard score to give Wayne State the 21-10 advantage.
Duluth got within three early in the fourth quarter and had the ball when the Wildcat defense came up big again. Joe Morrison picked off a pass and took it 46 yards to the Duluth 29. The Wildcats converted the turnover into points as Bohn scored on a three-yard run with 8:20 to go to close out the win.
Wayne State faces another ranked conference foe at home next week when No. 14 Bemidji State comes to town for the Hall of Fame Game, starting at 12 p.m.
Complete story in next week’s edition of The Wayne Herald.
