Right from the get-go, it looked like this was going to be Beau Bofferding's day

The University of Minnesota Duluth senior returned the opening kickoff 92 yards and scored on a two-yard run on the very next play en route to a five-touchdown afternoon as he and his Bulldog teammates mowed down the University of Minnesota Crookston 54-23 Saturday. Bofferding found the end zone three different times in the first quarter alone in helping the No. 21 Bulldogs (8-1 overall) build a 26-0 lead and go on to post their eighth consecutive victory while keeping the Golden Eagles winless (0-9) this fall. He rushed for four first-half touchdowns and then caught a 10-yard scoring strike from senior quarterback Drew Bauer 5:11 into third quarter before calling it a day. Those five touchdowns were just one shy of the program record set by All-American running back Ted McKnight against Southwest Minnesota State University back in 1976.

"Beau is such a resilient athlete," said UMD head coach Curt Wiese. "There are not a lot of Beau Bofferdings out there and we are certainly fortunate to have one of them."

The Bulldogs received plenty of other offensive contributions in their Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference North Division victory at Crookston's Ed Widseth Field. Bauer, for example, connected on 17 of 21 passes for 269 yards and three touchdowns while sophomore Jason Balts and junior wide out Nate Ricci both had six receptions. Balts finished with 177 receiving yards -- the most by a Bulldog since Oct. 29, 2005 (Greg Aker with 185 yards versus the University of South Dakota) --  and hooked up with Bauer for a 74-yard first-quarter score.  UMD also registered its first defensive points of the 2016 season with four minutes to go in the fourth quarter when redshirt freshman safety Bill Atkins parlayed his first collegiate interception into a 20-yard pick six.

UMD was held to a season-low 446 yards of total offense, getting nearly half of that output (209) in the opening 15 minutes of play, but limited the Golden Eagles to just 280 overall yards, including eight on the ground. For the first time since the two clubs met a year ago, the Bulldogs failed to hold the upper hand in time of possession (37:13 to 22:47 in Minnesota Crookston's favor). The Bulldogs came into the afternoon averaging an NCAA Division II-leading 38:15 possession time per game.

Defensively, the Bulldogs came away with nine quarterback sacks (one short of the school single-game record) and were led by sophomore linebacker Gus Weding (a personal-best 12 total tackles) and senior linebacker Beau Bates (10 stops and 2.5 sacks).

UMD will return to James S. Malosky Stadium next Saturday (Nov. 5) to take on the University of Mary in its 2016 regular season home finale.