The Wildcats, currently ranked second to last in the Northern Sun – South Division, played the Minnesota State Mavericks, the number one team in the South league and the third ranked team in the nation and faced a staggering 7-62 loss.

The Mavs overpowered the Wildcats from the first kickoff. The host scored on every possession and were leading the game by 24-0 at the end of the first quarter. From there, Wildcats never recovered and they were forced to punt numerous times during the first half.

The Mavericks built their already comfortable lead to 45-0 before intermission. Minnesota added two more scores during the third quarter for a 59-0 lead over WSC.

The Wildcats finally answered by putting together a 65-yard scoring drive on eight plays in the early portion of the fourth quarter. Senior running back Lorenzo Logwood capped the drive with a one-yard run to get the Wildcats on the scoreboard with 12:50 left in the game.

Minnesota State gained 556 yards in the contest, with 271 yards running and 285 passing. WSC had 214 yards of total offense with 88 on the ground and 126 through the air.

Senior tight-end Corbin Foster thinks that the team had chances to get a good result but it was getting difficult after being behind by 21 points after just eight minutes

“We couldn’t finish our plays and our special teams had a few mistakes on their side,” Foster said. “We set the [Mavericks] up for easy scores. We made mistakes and a good team will capitalize, and that’s what they did.”

Logwood was the top Wildcat rusher with 38 yards on five carries and one touchdown.

Devin Merkuris added 29 yards on 10 attempts.

Quarterback Andy McCance completed 8 of 18 passes for 81 yards.

Redshirt freshman Jason Hawkins, was the top receiver for the Wildcats with six receptions for 71 yards, followed by tight end Conner Paxton with two grabs for 13 yards.

Defensively, senior linebacker Tyler Thomsen recorded 13 tackles with one forced fumble, while sophomore linebacker Nicholas Joynt added 10 stops.

Junior running back Ryyan Wilkins thinks that the team should learn from the mistakes of last weekend and keep their heads up.

“Just going into the next two games, we are trying to finish with the best record we can,” Wilkins said. “We have won three games so far, and hopefully we can get our record to 5-6. We are still not going to be over .500, but hopefully we can do the best we can for the rest of the season.”