The Winona State University football team improved its record to 5-2 after defeating the University of Minnesota Crookston, 51-13, on Saturday, Oct. 14.

Coming off of a dominant 54-13 victory against the University of Mary it was more of the same this week, though this week the Warriors had to overcome bad field conditions and a cold and windy day in Crookston, Minnesota.

The game got off to a slow start with multiple punts from both teams, before a short punt by the Golden Eagles allowed Winona State to start with a short field on Crookston’s 17.

The Warriors took advantage of the field position with a scoring drive capped off by a three-yard touchdown run by senior running back Eric Birth, to score the first points of the game.

On the next drive Winona State would force a fumble on defense and first-year defensive back David Munson would come up with the recovery. However, on the very next play sophomore quarterback Owen Burke would lose a fumble giving the ball right back to the Golden Eagles.

The fumbles would not stop there, as two plays later another one would occur, this time being recovered by sophomore defensive lineman Cole LaLiberty.

The Warriors would capitalize going 51-yards in six plays with the drive ending with another three-yard touchdown run, with sophomore running back Sam Santiago-Lloyd, extending their first quarter lead to 14.

Defensively, Winona State continued to make plays, forcing a safety and extending the lead to 16.

At the beginning of the second quarter the Warriors offense was continuing to drive down the field, and managed to get another rushing touchdown with Santiago-Lloyd.

At halftime the lead was 23-0 Winona State.

The Warriors would start the second half on offense, and once again, Burke would lead the offense down the field. With the sloppy field conditions, the Warriors decided to go for it on fourth down, and despite a holding penalty forcing them to overcome an extra 10 yards, the Warriors would score anyway on a 22-yard touchdown pass caught by junior wide receiver Tanner Gran. 

Later on in the third quarter the Warriors defense came up with another turnover, forcing a fumble recovered by first-year linebacker Ben McCabe.

A few drives removed, the Warriors would score on 25-yard catch with first year receiver Darryl Williams making the catch, pushing the lead to 37-0 heading into the final quarter of play.

In the fourth, Winona State’s defense would score a touchdown for the second straight game with junior defensive lineman Alex Evans recovering a fumble for touchdown.

In the fourth quarter the Golden Eagles would finally get on the board scoring two touchdowns, with the Warriors would scoring twice as well, with the final score ending at 51-13.

Before the game, Owen Burke refused to overlook the challenge on the road.

“It’ll be a tough atmosphere this weekend, snowy and far away. We got to go in this game ready to go because we can’t overlook anybody,” Burke said.

Burke believes that the team will need to deal with the changing weather conditions as the season nears its close.

“It feels that the second half of the season gets hard and the weather starts to make more of an impact, just keep encouraging guys, goal is to win out and hopefully make the playoffs,” Burke said.

Next week, the Warriors will return home on a three-game win streak to face the No. 6 University of Minnesota-Duluth. Kickoff will be at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct 20.