(Photo Gallery) Twenty six up and 26 down.
No Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference North Division opponent has ever tasted victory at James S. Malosky Stadium and Saturday afternoon it was the University of Minnesota Crookston's turn to try to break that hex.
The Golden Eagles, however, were no match for the University of Minnesota Duluth, which came away with points in each of its first 10 series of the game en route to a 66-17 victory. The No. 20 Bulldogs scorched Minnesota Crookston with a season-high 378 yards on the ground and 541 yards overall while improving to 6-2 on the year. UMD, which hiked its home winning streak to 15 games with its 10
th consecutive victory over the winless Golden Eagles (0-8), is now 26-0 all-time against NSIC North Division competition in Duluth.
Junior running back
Darren Walker, a 2015 transfer from Los Angeles Harbor College, turned in his first 100-yard rushing day as a Bulldog, running for a game-high 136 yards and one touchdown on just eight attempts. In all 11 different Bulldogs registered carries, including senior nose tackle-turned-fullback
Jonathan Harden, who bowled in from one yard out six minutes into the first quarter to put UMD up 21-0. Freshman running back
Jamiah Newell rushed six times for 64 yards and added two more scores..
Junior quarterback
Drew Bauer put the ball up on just 11 occasions, completing eight of those throws for 130 yards and a pair of scores. His backup, junior
Nate Ricci, came in one series into the second half and added another 33 yards while going 3-of-3. He also scored the Bulldogs' final touchdown of the afternoon, a 20-yard keeper around left end.
Junior
Beau Bofferding,
Justin Fowlkes and Ricci all paced UMD with two pass receptions each. Bofferding, who leads the 2015 Bulldogs in both catches (21) and scoring (60 points on 10 touchdowns), has now been on the receiving end of at least one pass in each of the past 21 games.
UMD spread the scoring wealth Saturday as eight different Bulldogs generated touchdowns. Two of those eight, sophomore tight end
Keynon Phillips and Harden, scored for the first time as collegians.
"We're proud of our guy's effort today and the way they stayed focused for all four quarters," said UMD head coach
Curt Wiese, who is 30-5 in his two-plus seasons with the Bulldogs. "Obviously we controlled the game in the first half offensively (when UMD bolted to a 45-14 lead). I thought our guys upfront played as well as we've seen."
The Bulldogs will be in Aberdeen, S.D., next Saturday to face Northern State University in the first of two consecutive road engagements.
