Wayne State’s defense forced two turnovers that the offense converted into points as the Wildcats won a wild 41-33 shootout over Minnesota State on homecoming Saturday at Cunningham Field.
In front of a crowd of more than 2,100, the Wildcats built an early 24-3, lead only to see the visitors come back with two late second-quarter touchdowns to make it a 27-13 game at the half.
Anthony Watkins got the Wildcats started with a 67-yard touchdown run after it appeared he rolled off a MSU tackler and escaped to paydirt. Alex Powders added a 26-yard field goal to make it 10-0, but MSU countered with a 54-yard field goal by Matthew Jaeger to make it 10-3.
Nick Bohn hit Mason Lee with a 45-yard touchdown pass early in the second, and a MSU fumble was picked up by Gerale Flye, who sprinted 34 yards to make it a 24-3 game.
Powders hit his second field goal of the game to make it 27-3 with 5:27 left in the first half, but the Mavericks scored on a 22-yard pass from Hayden Ekern to Grant Guyett and got a 34-yard field goal from Damian Chowaniec to make it 27-13 at the break.
Wayne State got a four-yard run from Jacob Keiser to make it 34-20, but the Mavericks came back with a touchdown early in the fourth. The extra-point kick was blocked to make it 34-26, and Wayne State followed with a 27-yard pass from Bohn to David Elder on fourth down to put the game out of reach.
MSU scored late and tried an onside kick, but the Wildcats recovered to seal the win and improve to 5-1 on the season, beating Minnesota State for the second straight year.
Both teams racked up big numbers on offense, with Wayne State holding a 545-541 edge. They balanced it with 279 yards rushing and 266 passing.
Watkins rushed for 116 yards on 12 carries and Bohn added 93 yards on 13 attempts, while also going 10-of-16 for 266 yards and two touchdowns passing. Elder had two catches for 71 yards and Shane Orr adde two catches for 40 yards.
Defensively, Alex Kowalczyk had another big game with 18 total tackles and a forced fumble. Dexter Larsen added nine tackles, J’Von France had four tackles, three pass breakups and an interception and Flye had three tackles and fumble return for a touchdown.
The Wildcats make the trip north to Sioux Falls on Saturday for a 1 p.m. matchup with South Division-leading Augustana.
