Box Score The University of Minnesota Duluth football team extended to it's sixth straight opening game victory after firing ahead to rout Winona State University, 35-7 Thursday night at TCO Stadium in Eagan, Minn.

"You always want to get out on the right foot and our guys played at an emotional high tonight," said Bulldog head coach Curt Wiese. "We had adversity and our young guys stepped up and made some big time plays."

In TCO Stadium's first collegiate game, redshirt senior quarterback Kyle Walljasper threw for 283 yards (71.4% completion), tossing three touchdowns and rushing for one. The UMD offense combined for 388 yards with the defense locking down the Warriors with four sacks, holding them to 58 rushing yards, and locking them to 144 passing yards.

UMD broke through three minutes into the match, as Walljasper connected with Alex Riley on a 20-yard pass for the Bulldogs first touchdown of the season. With a solid extra point kick from Jadon Apgar, UMD set an early unanswered 7-0 lead.

On the following kick from Apgar, a botched catch by the Warriors allowed Joshua Gonleh to make the first Bulldog recovery of the year to give the offense a start at the Winona 14-yard line. Two plays later Walljasper snuck a touchdown across the one-yard line with help from the offensive line to seal a 14-0 lead for the first quarter.

The Warriors didn't stay down finding room to push a touchdown in to cut the lead to 14-7 three seconds into the second quarter. At the 7:51 mark, Mojo Weerts broke free to sack Jackson Flottmeyer for a loss of two yards to mark the first UMD sack of the season.

Winona's defense didn't crack until the 4:36 mark where Walljasper sent a pass to Luke Dehnicke who broke loose for a 64-yard touchdown to mark a 21-7 lead. The Warriors went on to use up the rest of the four-minute clock to restart play in the second half with possession.

The starting drive of Warriors was ended by a sack from Mark Rendl and Weerts at the 13:57 mark. On the first UMD offensive play at 13:11, Walljasper sent another long pass this time to Chuck Gilbert III for a 49-yard touchdown to push to 28-7.

At 13:41, Weerts and Allen Pearson Jr. sacked Flottmeyer for the fourth time in the game to end the drive. The clock continued to wind down until 6:28 when Walljasper connected with Gilbert III for the second time for a 28-yard touchdown. With a 35-7 lead, Winona failed to find any room to score in the final 13 minutes.

Weerts led the defense with one solo sack, two sack assists, five tackles, and two tackles for a loss (seven yards lost). Pearson Jr. earned a career best two assisted tackles with Ackley and Rendl each earning an assist. Ross Rivord led the team in total tackles with a career high seven (four solo and three assisted).

UMD out gained WSU on offense 388-202, including nearly doubling the rushing effort 105-58.

The Bulldogs continue on the road next in the first Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference matchup Concordia University St. Paul on Saturday, September 6th at 6:30 p.m.

BULLDOG NOTES: UMD is now 66-22-4 overall in all-time season openers as a program with an impressive 9-3 record under Wiese (six straight since 2018). The Bulldogs now command a 39-10 historic record and 12 straight wins over the Warriors. Riley led the way in rushing yards with 38 with Dehnicke leading the way in passing yards with a career best 152 yards.