Wayne State College fought to win at very close battle with the University of Mary with a score of 26-23.

The game last weekend was close throughout every quarter. Wayne State College and U-Mary had a well fought battle from both teams in windy and cold conditions Saturday. Because of windy conditions both teams were forced to run more than they intended to because the wind would interfere with passing plays. Wayne State College rushed for over 300 yards to beat U-Mary 26-23 in North Dakota. With that win Wayne State College improved their record to 3-5 overall while handing U-Mary another loss dropping their record to 1-7.

The Wildcats had the only score in the first quarter of the game coming from the kicker Ethan Knudson, who made a 29-yard field goal to make the score 3-0. Later moving into the second quarter U-Mary scored on a 27-yard Logan Nelson run to put the U-Mary in front 7-3. Wayne State College responded with a 65-yard in five plays finishing the drive with running back Lorenzo Logwood’s 18-yard run putting Wayne back in front 9-7 after a blocked extra point.

Later in the game, Mary intercepted a pass from redshirt freshman Tavian Willis. U-Mary capped off the drive with a 17-yard touch down pass to tight end Brandon McFarlane to give them 16-9 lead in the third quarter. Wayne State forced a turnover with a fumble caused by Ryan Parker on a sack on quarterback Logan Nelson. Wayne linebacker Austin Coffman returned the ball to the Mary 1-yard line. Logwood scored a one-yard run giving him two touchdowns in the game and bringing the score to 16-16.

Wayne State defense stood tall and forced U-Mary to punt the ball and later in that drive Wayne State kicker Ethan Knudson gave them the lead making the score 19-16. U-Mary later took the lead back in the fourth quarter making the score 23-19.

With the game being close and WSC wanting another win on their record redshirt freshman Devin Merkuris had 41-yard touchdown to put Wayne in position to win the game making the score 26-23.

“I just try to put my team in the best position I can to win and on that play I just saw my opportunity and took,” said Merkuris.

WSC Starting linebacker Tyler Thomsen secured the win by intercepting the ball with 2:00 left. Nicholas Joynt had multiple stops on defense to secure the win.

“I was just playing my part and communicating with my teammates out there to make sure we could do everything we could to get the win,” Joynt said.