MOORHEAD, Minn. – For just the second time in ten outings, the University of Mary has left behind the Paddle Trophy. Despite winning the first seven Battles for the Paddle and eight out of nine overall, the Marauders were unable to maintain their history of dominance in the series as MSU Moorhead rolled past U-Mary 37-0 in Northern Sun football.
The Dragons set an early tone in the game behind two big offensive plays. On MSUM's third play of the day, Kayne Griffith bolted 72 yards for a score. The next time the Dragons offense touched the ball, Preston Prince pranced 64 yards for a touchdown and the Marauders trailed 13-0 at 9:53 of the first quarter.
Looking to score on their third straight possession, the Dragons drove to the Marauders 26 yard line before
Patrick Ryan recovered an MSUM football and returned it 15 yards to the visitor's 46 yard line.
After the two teams exchanged punts, the Marauders drove to the Dragons 2 yard line, keyed by
Zach Podoll catches of 13 and 22 yards of
Caleb Buck passes. Unable to reach the end zone, U-Mary turned the ball over on downs.
MSU Moorhead broke into the end zone one more time before intermission, scoring on a Demetrius Carr 24 yard pass to Cory Ambrose just 33 seconds before half to increase the Dragons lead to 20-0.
Following a third quarter touchdown and a fourth quarter field goal, the Dragons completed the scoring by returning a blocked punt 8 yards with 9:10 remaining in the game. It was the second straight week a blocked punt was returned for a score against the Marauders.
A week after rushing for over 300 yards in a win over the University of Minnesota Crookston, U-Mary managed just two yards on the ground on 32 carries. The Marauders passed for 129 yards. The Dragons ran the ball 54 times for 354 yards while adding just 45 yards through the air.
Buck threw for 128 yards for U-Mary, completing 17-of-31 passes. Podoll had two catches for 35 yards.
Nick Kottre made two grabs for 26 yards.
Zach Graves caught four passes for 20 yards.
Ryan recovered two fumbles for the Marauders. The senior linebacker also had ten tackles and forced a fumble.
Preston Tescher posted a game-high and career-best 17 tackles.
Seth Walton added 13 stops.
Landon Smith had 1.0 tackles for loss, the ninth straight game he made a stop behind the line.
Nick Nelson recorded the Marauders lone sack of the day.
Herman Gray led MSUM with 108 yards rushing with one touchdown. Griffith added 97. Carr ran for 17 yards and was 5-of-8 for 45 yards and one score through the air. Defensively Joe Rademacher made 11 tackles, including a sack, and broke up two passes.
The Marauders return home to close out the 2015 season on Saturday, Nov. 14, when St. Cloud State University visits.
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