BOX SCORE

MARSHALL, Minn. – No. 16 St. Cloud State held off a furious fourth quarter rally by Southwest Minnesota State to earn a 24-17 victory on Saturday night in Marshall.

The Huskies held a 24-3 into the fourth quarter, but SMSU rallied with two touchdowns and then had one final chance to tie or win the game, but SCSU's Marvin Matthews intercepted SMSU quarterback Tyler Peschong with 12 seconds left in the game at the SCSU 14-yard line to seal the victory.

SCSU, which forced four SMSU turnovers in the game, is now 6-1 overall, 5-1 NSIC, while SMSU drops to 2-5 overall, 2-4 NSIC.

Dante Steward rushed for 98 yards on 20 carries to pace SCSU, while Renard Robinson caught a team-high five receptions for 77 yards and one touchdown.  SCSU quarterback Brad Meade, making his second career start, completed 12 of 23 passes for 200 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.

Cody Condon led SMSU with seven receptions for a career-high 108 yards and one touchdown.  Peschong finished the game completing 28 of 45 pass attempts for 277 yards and two touchdowns, but was intercepted three times.  Peschong also rushed for a team-high 43 yards on eight carries. 

SMSU, which played the game without three starting offensive lineman, finished the game with 381 total yards and 21 first downs.  SCSU ended the game with 401 yards of offense and 20 first downs.

Trailing 24-3 to begin the fourth quarter, SMSU mounted its rally taking advantage of a short field.  Following a 38-yard punt by SCSU on the quarter's first play, SMSU took over at the SCSU 46-yard line.  Facing fourth-and-2 at the SCSU 38-yard line, Peschong connected on a short pass to Condon, who broke free and dove across the goal line to cut the SCSU lead to 24-10 with 13:13 left in the game.

The SMSU defense forced the Huskies to punt on their next possession and the Mustang offense took advantage score again.  Peschong moved the team down the field 87 yards in 11 plays, capped by an 11-yard touchdown pass to Britt Wickett with 4:28 on the clock to cut the deficit to 24-17.

St. Cloud State picked up one first down on its ensuing possession, but was forced to punt at its own 48-yard line.   SMSU regained possession at its own 20-yard line with 2:14 in attempt to tie or steal the victory.  SMSU picked up three first downs to move the ball to the SCSU 37-yard line, before Peschong completed a 16-yard pass to Anthony Dean on fourth-and-15 from the SCSU 42-yard line to keep the drive alive for the team's fourth first down of the possession.  Following an illegal formation penalty on SMSU pushed the ball back to the 31-yard line, Peschong was intercepted by Matthews at the 14-yard line to seal the SCSU victory.

SCSU opened the scoring with a 31-yard field goal with 6:59 left in the opening quarter and then took advantage of an SMSU fumble to add to the lead.  SMSU's Warren Matthews fumbled at the 18-yard line and SCSU's Stefan Geissler at the SMSU 12-yard line.  One play later, Meade fired a 12-yard touchdown pass to Seth Noreen to make the score 10-0 with 6:45 on the clock.

SMSU picked up its only points of the half with 11:31 remaining in the second quarter as Mike Wenk drilled a 34-yard field goal to trim the deficit to 10-3. 

SMSU partially blocked a punt on SCSU's next possession to give the Mustangs the ball at the SCSU 43-yard line.  SMSU moved the ball down to the SCSU 16-yard line, but Wenk's 33-yard field goal attempt missed wide right.

SCSU then added to the lead on the next drive, converting on a big fourth-down play.  Facing fourth-and-eight from the SMSU 32-yard line with under a minute left in the half, Meade lofted a pass in the end zone and Robinson came down with the ball with 45 seconds left to give the Huskies a 17-3 halftime lead.

Michael Walker scored on a 5-yard run with 2:21 remaining in the third quarter to push the margin to 24-3, before SMSU mounted its comeback attempt.

Phil Breidall tied a career-high with 12 tackles to pace the SMSU defense, while J.J. Bobrowicz added a career-high 11 tackles with one tackle for loss.

Southwest Minnesota State will continue at home next Saturday, Oct. 22, taking on Upper Iowa (3-4, 2-4 NSIC) with kickoff slated for 5 p.m.