Coming into Saturday, the University of Minnesota Duluth had never lost a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference North Division game at home and had never lost to the University of Mary anywhere.

The No. 5 Bulldogs kept both of those runs intact by mowing down the Marauders 55-0 at James S. Malosky Stadium to move to 10-0 on the season

Mary (0-10 overall) hung with the Bulldogs for the better part of the first half and trailed just 7-0 before UMD reeled off 20 points in the final five minutes of the second quarter to pull away for good. The shutout was the first of the season for the Bulldogs, who are now 37-0 in NSIC North Division home games and 12-0 all-time against Mary.

UMD rolled up a season-high 625 yards while holding the winless Marauders to just 59, including a minus-14 on the ground -- the lowest total by a Bulldog opponent since Oct. 19, 2013 (minus-45 by Minot State University). They also finished with 31 first downs (their most in past 23 games) compared to a mere four for Mary.

Redshirt freshman running back Zach Ojile scorched the Marauders for a career-high 120 rushing yards and one touchdown (UMD's first score of the afternoon) on just 12 carries.  Three Bulldog quarterbacks -- juniors Mike Rybarczyk and Ben Everhart and redshirt freshman Garrett Olson -- combined to throw for 296 yards and three scores. Everhart went 10-for-16 for 131 yards and two scoring strikes (both to sophomore wide out Johnny McCormick) while Rybarczyk made good on 7 of 10 passes for 114 yards and one touchdown.

The Bulldog defense, which has allowed the fewest yards (192.6 per game) and second fewest points (10.3 per game) of any NCAA II team in the country, came way with 12 tackles that resulted in lost yardage -- including seven quarterback sacks. Senior outside linebacker Alex Helmer had three of those sacks and recovered one fumble while junior free safety Bill Atkins was credited with a team-high six total stops.

"Our guys continued to play hard right through the fourth quarter on offense and defense," said Head Coach Curt Wiese, whose Bulldogs clinched at least a share of their 11th straight NSIC North Division title and ran their regular season winning streak to 18 games.  "We put together a few nice drives on offense and defensively we're continuing to play extremely well."
 
UMD will close out the 2018 regular season and look to become the sixth Bulldog club to do so with unblemished record next Saturday (Nov. 10) when it hosts Northern State University.