After a close home game against University of Minnesota – Duluth resulting in the first loss of the season last weekend, the Winona State Warriors hit the road this week to Bismarck, N.D. to play the University of Mary Marauders.
On the backline of the season so far is wide receiver Myles Tramill, a third-year student who is in his second year on the field. Back in 2019, Tramill scored a total of three game points and one assist.
As the team goes 3-1, Tramill reflected on the season so far and especially the loosing game against University of Minnesota – Duluth that upset all of Winona.
“Honestly it was tough taking that loss against UMD,” Tramill said. “You expect yourself to hold up a higher standard and no one likes losing, but mistakes were made.”
Moving into this game, the team went into it with a positive mindset with the same goal they always have of going 1-0 each week.
To start game four of the 2021 season strong, Javian Roebuck, graduate student from Phoenix, Ariz., had a touchdown three minutes in after a 10-yard run at the end of five plays and a total of 78 yards to kick off a good game for the Warriors.
In those five plays were catches from Jake Balliu and Jaylen Schleicher, both graduate students in their final season of college football. Both throws came from Owen Burke, starting quarterback from Lakewood, Colo.
To match Winona’s start to the game, University of Mary’s first-year kicker Kevin Powell took home a 25-yard field goal only three minutes after Roebuck’s touchdown.

Ethan Wittenburg, third-year from Franklin, WI, caught a 16-yard throw from Burke as the dynamic duo continues to impress as they have all season. The duo then had a 41-yard strike as Wittenburg caught a ball in the end zone to bring the score up to 14-0.
Continuing the back-and-forth effort in between the Warriors and the Marauders, UMary’s Logan Nelson passed to Luke Little resulting in their first touchdown of the game for the home team to end the first quarter.
The second quarter brought a struggle as UMary took advantage of a missed field goal by Scott and brought in two touchdowns in the quarter.
The first touchdown came six minutes into the second quarter as UMary’s wide receiver Danny Kittener passed 27 yards to Logan Nelson with a kick from Kevin Powell.
Scott redeemed the missed field goal as he tied the score 17-17 in between touchdowns from the opposing team.
The second touchdown and third for the Marauder’s also came from Kittener, as he had a shorter pass of only seven yards to Nelson after six plays and 59 yards.
This ended out the first half with a score of 24-17 and only hopes for improvement in what is usually a dominant second half for the team.
The defense started out the second half strong as Luc Leszczynski and Darius Manuel had a sack on first down to slow down UMary along with a third down from Corrie King to break up a pass.
The Warriors slowly gained their power back after five plays and 70 yards with an eight-yard run to a field goal from Dominik London.
With six minutes left in quarter three, Jake Balliu had a 61-yard punt received from UMary’s Kevin Powell resulting in his only touchdown of the season and racking up to five total in his collegiate football career. This put Winona State back on top at 31-24.
To end out the quarter, Kittener had a pass to Nelson after five plays to tie the game going into the last quarter.
At the beginning of the last quarter, Winona began to fall short as UMary’s David Small began with a four-yard run to a touchdown after nine plays and 70 yards.
Nate Wilcher discussed the challenges that could have arose during this game as he reflected on the tough game against Moorhead.
“I think the biggest worry is just the long bus rides,” Wilcher said. “Are we going to come out flat again or are we going to come out and show them what we are about?”
The Warriors were able to do the latter as they caught up and won the game with three last big plays.
Five minutes in, Noah Carlson switched the score to 38-38 with a touchdown as a result of seven plays over 69-yards.
London and Carlson were both put in after Javian Roebuck and Cam Gavin both were taken out of the game with injuries earlier in the matchup.
With four minutes left in the game, London had the longest run of the season for the Warriors so far with 78 yards to score a touchdown.
To end the game on a strong note, kicker Jacob Scott hit a final field goal to end the score at 48-38.
Scott ended the game 2-3 on field goals and perfect on PAT’s.
Also worth noting is the Warrior’s impressive defense, consisting of Schueffner with eight tackles, McCabe and Snitker with seven each and Snitker with an interception. Graduate students Devon Moore and Carter Duxbury also rang up five tackles.
Wilcher has also been on the back end of the season so far as he begins to dip his toes in the water of collegiate football during the Moorhead game after starting on the team last year during COVID-19.
When talking about how he has been adjusting to playing at a higher level, Wilcher had a lot to say.
“It was definitely challenging [(to come in during COVID]) but I think it helped us out because we got to learn to play the book a little bit slower, ease into it a little bit,.” Wilcher said. “We got to hit the books a little harder than football for the first time in our lives, so it was nice.”
The younger class has definitely shown the positives that can come out of a pandemic as they came into this season ready to go both on the field and in the classroom.
The Winona State Warriors now look ahead to their matchup on Oct.ober 2nd at 1 p.m. vs. Wayne State Wildcats located in Wayne, NEebraska on Bob Cunningham Field. In our last matchup against the Wayne State, Winona won in an action-packed show out that ended 48-38. This upcoming matchup already has some influential factors seeing as it’s expected to rain. All in all, it should be a good game.
The Winona State Warriors now look ahead to their matchup on October 2 at 1 p.m. vs. Wayne State Wildcats located in Wayne, Nebraska on Bob Cunningham Field. In the Warrriors’ last matchup against Wayne State, Winona State won in an action-packed show-out that ended 48-38. This upcoming matchup already has some potential outside factors to think about, seeing as it is expected to rain the day of the game.