The Wildcat football team battled against the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs this past weekend and ended up falling in a double overtime heartbreaker. The Wildcats started off strong by scoring on their first two possessions to lead 14-0 with nearly eight and a half minutes to go in the first quarter.

Wayne State took the opening drive, and then pushed forward 80 yards
in just six plays to lead to a touchdown pass from senior quarterback Zach Osborn to senior wide receiver Nate Rogers, pushing the Wildcats ahead to a 7-0 lead. The Wildcats then converted a turnover into a
touchdown to further their lead to 14-0. UMD closed out the first quarter with a 22-yard field goal to make it a 14-3 Wildcat lead for the start of the second quarter.

The Bulldogs then took advantage of a fumbled punt return inside the five-yard line to cut the Wildcat lead to 14-10.

Following the UMD touchdown, “We told the kids that UMD would make some plays because they are a top tier program in the country,” said
Wildcat Head Coach Scott McLaughlin. “We would need to have short memories and continue to play hard. We recovered really well.”

Following the UMD touchdown, the two teams had five straight punts before each team scored in the final 32 seconds of the first half.

“Osborne then hit Rogers on the deep pass to put us back in the lead and gave our kids a huge morale boost going in at halftime,”
McLaughlin said.

Neither team scored in the third quarter. Wayne State did see an opportunity to score early following a Bulldog turnover that gave the Wildcats the ball at the UMD 21-yard line. On first and goal from the UMD 7-yard line, Osborn’s pass to the corner of the end zone intended for Nate Rogers was intercepted by the Bulldogs for a touchback.

“During the third quarter, we were trying to find ways to get after their quarterback, and that never really came to fruition,” McLaughlin said. “Their offensive line is big and their quarterback is a nice player.”

Minnesota Duluth took a 24-21 lead at the 12:21 mark of the fourth quarter. The Wildcats seized the lead back midway through the quarter when Glenn Harris, senior defensive back, had an interception and a 17-yard return to land the Wildcats on the UMD 18-yard line. Four plays later, the Wildcats scored on a seven-yard run that would give the Wildcats a 28-24 edge over the Bulldogs with less than six minutes to play in the fourth quarter.

UMD answered in the next three minutes with a touchdown to push ahead
of the Wildcats 31-28. Wayne State then marched down the field to get three more points from Ethan Knudson, sophomore kicker/punter, which tied the game at 31 to head into overtime.

To prepare the team for overtime, “I just told (the team) that we had a new life,” McLaughlin said. “Let’s get excited to keep playing. Our defense was out first. They wanted that challenge. They answered the bell.”

UMD started with the ball in the first overtime until the Wildcats got an interception from senior linebacker DeWayne Scott on the WSC 7-yard line. After running on one play for no game, WSC tried for a 20-yard field goal by Knudson, but UMD had a big block to send the game into a second overtime.

Wayne State had the ball first in the second overtime, but the Bulldogs intercepted Osborn on a 3rd and 13 from the 28 to give the Bulldogs the ball. The Bulldogs brought in their kicker for a 27-yard field goal giving the Bulldogs the 34-31 double overtime victory over the Wildcats.

“We have to compete every play against great teams,” McLaughlin said. “We couldn’t punch the ball in from the goal line in two separate situations. We couldn’t get off the field on third down in the fourth quarter. We fell asleep in coverage and we couldn’t get pressure on their quarterback late in the game.”

The Wildcats will face Augustana Saturday.

“We will approach this rivalry week as a bigger game than the last one,” McLaughlin said. “It starts division play and we need to compete in practice this week.”