Kilat Fitzgerald/Winonan
The Winona State University football team fell to No. 5 Sioux Falls 51-30 Saturday night in Sioux Falls despite four touchdowns and 304 yards passing from Warrior quarterback Jack Nelson.
The junior broke multiple records throughout the night, the first one coming early in the contest when he threw a 77-yard score to senior wideout Josh Mikes. Nelson’s fifth completed pass attempt gave the Warriors a 17-3 lead over the Cougars halfway through the first quarter. The connection gave Nelson a total of 499 completions in his collegiate career, the most of any quarterback in Winona State history.
“He’s a great student of the game,” head coach Tom Sawyer said. “Jack doesn’t lock in on one receiver at a time, which makes it difficult for defense to cover.”
The early lead increased when Carter McCauley made a 28-yard field goal on the first drive of the night, a six-play, 64-yard effort that took place in less than two minutes.
On the Cougars first possession, senior linebacker Collin Corcoran forced a fumble that was recovered by Dylan Thill, putting the Warriors on Sioux Falls’ 27-yard line.
Senior wideout Alan May received a pair of eight- and nine-yard pass attempts, putting Paul Preston in position for the 10-yard touchdown for a 10-0 score with two minutes of game play in the books.
The Cougar offense quickly tied the score 17-17 at the end of the first quarter thanks to a one-yard run by Jonathan Witt and a 20-yard connection from Luke Papilion to Brady Rose.
Senior defensive back Tamrick Atwood said the Warriors needed to execute better on the defensive end. Sawyer agreed.
“We just gotta do things right,” Sawyer said. “It’s assignment and alignments. When we do things right, we’re as good as anybody in the league.”
Papilion connected with Rose for the second time with a 3-yard pass right away in the second quarter and later the Cougar quarterback targeted Erick Albeck for another score, establishing a 14-point lead, 31-17, by the end of the second quarter to cap off 28 unanswered points.
“We couldn’t get any momentum because it was so back and forth. We weren’t doing well on third downs, offensively or defensively,” redshirt first-year Reid Peters said.
The deficit was cut when Nelson sent another record setting pass to May, however the lead of eight points was maintained by the Cougars after an extra point attempt by McCauley was blocked. It was the first time this season a kick by McCauley was blocked.
“Our left guard just got ran over,” Sawyer said.
Papilion added two more touchdown passes in the third quarter, finding Josh Angulo and Rose again, to build the lead 44-23 in Sioux Falls’ favor. Early in the fourth, Nelson connected with May again for the second time, a 21-yard score to make it 44-30, but a two-yard run from Papilion left the final score at 51-30.
Preston surpassed the 100-yard rushing mark for the third time in four contests, finishing with 105 rushing on 16 attempts.
Mikes led the receivers with 127 yards on a trio of catches, while May added 84 yards with seven receptions.
On the defensive end, Andrew Spencer posted his third interception of the season to go with eight tackles and broke up three pass attempts. Mike Imperiale and Kyle Coon led the way in tackling with nine apiece, while Corcoran joined Spencer with eight.
“We played hard but we just made mistakes,” junior defensive back Anthony Catanese said. “When you’re playing against a team of that caliber, you can’t do that. We just gotta keep that momentum.”
Winona State (3-3, 1-1 NSIC South) heads home to face Upper Iowa University Saturday at Altra Federal Credit Union Stadium. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m.
