The Wayne State College football team used four touchdown passes from redshirt freshman quarterback Brady McGill, as well as a defensive effort tallying six forced turnovers and six sacks to take down Southwest Minnesota State 51-6 on Homecoming.
McGill, making his first career start in place of injured starter Bennett Dannenbring, finished the game 11-of-19 for 178 yards and four touchdowns.
“Brady was ready to go,” Head Coach Logan Masters said. “He’s a cool cat. Going back to last year, Boston [Hensley] got hurt in pregame at Winona, so Brady had to kick field goals. That’s just Brady. He prepares the right way and is a great athlete, which is a good combination.”
The Wildcats raced out to a 23-0 lead at the end of the first quarter as they scored on three of six possessions in the opening quarter. All three first quarter touchdowns came through the air, an 11-yard grab for Dane Peterson, five-yard catch to Dawson Forgy, and a 64-yarder to Colton Andrews. The Wildcat defense also came away with a safety in the first.
Early in the second quarter, McGill tossed his fourth TD of the half, a second to Forgy. The Wildcats also got a fumble return for a score from defensive lineman Kaden Sutton and a rushing touchdown from running back Brennan Hayes to head into halftime with a 44-0 lead.
SMSU scored the only touchdown of the third quarter on a 15 yard pass from Drew Kluender to Zander Wolf. Wayne State turned the offense over to senior Dillan Krause for the second half.
The Wildcats rounded out the scoring in the fourth quarter when running back Jason Jones found the endzone from 8 yards out. Jones was one of seven players to register a carry for the Wildcats. He was second in yards with 40, only behind Akeem Knox [50 on 11 carries], on 12 rushes.
“It [this game] allowed us to play more guys,” Masters said. “You never know in football when someone’s going to go down and it’s next guy up. We got some young guys experience to play in game where if they go in during crunch time, it’s not their first time in a college football game.”
Defensively, Wayne State was led by Jes Krcil with 10 tackles, including 3.5 tackles for loss, two sacks and a forced fumble. The Wildcats got interceptions from Kaden Johnson, Luke Lambert, Alex Kowalczyk and EJ Davis. They also had fumble recoveries from Max Chapman and Sutton.
The Wildcats are now 3-2 on the season, including a 3-1 record in conference play. They will go on the road this Saturday for a game against Winona State at 1 p.m.
