The No. 15 (AFCA) and No. 11 (D2Football.com) University of Minnesota Duluth football team was led by the career efforts of Kyle Walljasper and Luke Dehnicke Saturday afternoon at James S. Malosky Stadium against the University of Mary, taking a 54-32 victory.

Walljasper entered a four-way tie with a career best six touchdown passes. Before this feat, his career best had been four passing touchdowns. He also threw for 258 yards with an 81% completion rate, one rushing touchdown, and 90 net rushing yards. Dehnicke caught four of Walljasper's touchdown passes for his career best and earned a career high 230 receiving yards, just 19 yards short of the program record (249 yds, Tim Battaglia).

After a failed first drive that saw UMD go for 40 yards on seven plays, UMary drove down 50 yards but was held to a field goal. The next drive, the Bulldogs jumped out ahead with both a touchdown and a two-point conversion from Dehnicke, which included a 75-yard touchdown pass from Walljasper.

With UMD leading 8-3, the Marauders found room to score after a 64-yard drive to break back ahead 11-8 after a two-point conversion. On the last Bulldog drive of the quarter, Walljasper would fumble after a two-yard rush to allow the Marauders the first possession in the second quarter.

UMD shut down the UMary offense starting the second quarter and scored on their first drive off a 27-yard pass to Francis O'Malley to jump back ahead 15-11 after an extra point from Drew Henson. On the third play of the following Marauder drive, Luke Humbert intercepted Jordan Polo Solomon to set the Bulldog offense up on the UMary 32-yard line.

Walljasper found an open Dehnicke on a 20-yard touchdown pass three plays in to mark his second receiving touchdown of the day. O'Malley rushed in the two-point conversion to lift a dominant 23-11 score over the Marauders.

UMary rallied for a nine-play 84-yard touchdown drive to inch back in at 23-18 with seven minutes to go before halftime. The first Walljasper pass of the UMD drive was picked off by Camani Cobbs to start their offense at their own five-yard line after a penalty. After driving for 41 yards, Polo Solomon fumbled, allowing David Gauderman to recover it and start the UMD offense at the Marauder 19-yard line.

This time, Walljasper rushed twice for a total of 19 yards to score a touchdown, and with a Henson kick, marked a 30-18 lead. The next UMary drive stalled for a loss of eight yards, allowing UMD to start at their own 44-yard line with 1:51 to go before halftime.

The Bulldog offense went on a quick touchdown drive in 52 seconds, culminating in another touchdown pass to Dehnicke for 27 yards to force a 37-18 lead into halftime.

UMary began the final half with possession, failing again after a 13-yard drive. UMD would then score on the next two drives with Walljasper passing to DaShaun Ames and Dehnicke to jump to a 51-18 lead with 4:07 left before the final quarter.

The Marauders scored with two minutes remaining to inch to a 51-25 deficit. The next Bulldog drive sputtered to allow UMary to start the fourth quarter with possession.

Eggert led UMD on their final scoring drive of the game on a seven-play 42-yard drive to get into field goal range to mark the score at 54-25 with 11 minutes to go. After a UMary drive that ended with an interception from Preston McQueen, the following Marauder drive found success in scoring a touchdown with 4:21 left, marking the final score at 54-32.

On the defensive side, McLeod and Mark Rendl each tallied a sack for a loss of over ten yards each. Humbert and McQueen each picked off the UMary quarterback, with McQueen gaining 27 yards afterwards. Joey Krouse and Humbert led the team in total tackles with eight apiece.

Jadon Apgar tallied nine kickoffs for 533 total yards (59.2 avg) with Henson going one for one on field goals and five for five on extra-point kicks. Ryder Patterson led the kick returns with 71 total yards.

As a team, UMD doubled the UMary rushing effort with 209 rushing yards to their 104. However, the Bulldogs were out-passed 354 yards to 300.

UMD heads back on the road to face NSIC conference newcomer, the University of Jamestown in Jamestown, North Dakota, on Saturday at 1:00 p.m.