WAYNE, Neb. – Wayne State forced four Southwest Minnesota State turnovers, while WSC quarterback Nick Bohn threw for a career-high 356 yards and three touchdowns, while also rushing for two scores, to pace the Wildcats to a 49-10 victory on Saturday night in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference football at Memorial Stadium.
 
Bohn threw touchdown passes of 53, 74 and 59 yards in the first half as WSC built a 21-10 halftime lead. The Wildcat defense forced two turnovers on the first two plays by the Mustang offense in the third quarter, while putting the game away with four consecutive touchdowns drives in the second half.
 
WSC, which advanced to the NCAA playoffs last season, has defeated SMSU seven consecutive times, and improves to 2-1 overall, 2-1 NSIC. SMSU drops to 1-2 overall, 1-2 NSIC.
 
WSC finished the night with 497 yards of offense on 56 plays, while SMSU ran 67 plays and closed with 290 yards.
 
Donald Austin rushed for a game-high 115 yards on 24 carries for the Mustangs, recording his fourth career 100-yard rushing game.
 
Marcus Martin completed 10 of 22 pass attempts for 124 yards and three interceptions for the Mustangs. Eric Lira caught a team-high four passes for 61 yards to pace the SMSU receivers.
 
Bohn completed 14 of 26 passes and also rushed for 30 yards and two touchdowns. Kendrick Watkins-Hogue caught a game-high six passes for 129 yards and one touchdown. Teammate Dawson Forgy had a rushing touchdown and finished with 60 yards and one touchdown.
 
The SMSU special teams came through with the game's first big play as Tate Gaul blocked a WSC punt and recovered the ball in the end zone for the first touchdown of the game. Carter Dicker's PAT gave SMSU a 7-0 lead midway through the opening quarter. It was SMSU's first blocked punt for a touchdown since the 2019 season.
 
After failing to pick up a first down and punting on its first two possessions, WSC finally broke through with its first big play of the game as Bohn connected on a 53-yard touchdown pass to Watkins-Hogue to tie the game at 7-7 with 1:53 left in the opening quarter.
 
Following a missed 44-yard field goal by Dicker, WSC would take its first lead of the game on its next drive as Bohn fired a 74-yard touchdown pass to Jadon Johnson with just over five minutes remaining in the second quarter.
 
The WSC defense would come through on the next SMSU possession as Dexter Larson intercepted Martin at the WSC 41-yard line for its second interception of the game. Just moments later, Bohn hit Ashten Schmaderer with a short pass across the middle, but he eluded several Mustang defenders and sprinted into the end zone for a 59-yard touchdown with 2:30 remaining.
 
Trailing 21-7, SMSU answered with an impressive drive inside the WSC 10-yard line, highlighted by a Martin 35-yard pass to Eric Lira. Unfortunately, a penalty pushed SMSU back five yards and was forced to settle with a 31-yard field goal by Dicker with one second left in the half.
 
SMSU held a 22:26 to 7:34 time of possession edge in the first half and ran 42 to 21 plays.
 
The script was flipped in the second half as WSC opened the third quarter with a long touchdown drive capped by an 11-yard run by Bohn at the 10:02 mark. The Wildcats converted three, third-down conversions on the drive, with two of the conversions of 10 yards or more.
 
SMSU would fumble on its first play of the half and WSC quickly added to the lead scoring on a 10-yard run by Bohn to extend the lead to 35-10 midway through the quarter.
 
The mistakes would continue for the Mustangs on the first play of the ensuing drive as a tipped pass was intercepted setting up the Wildcats inside the SMSU 10-yard line. Three plays later WSC added a 1-yard touchdown run to make the score 42-10.
 
Amarion Meshack, Hunter Bohannon, Diego Maldonado and Gaul each finished with five tackles.
 
SMSU returns home next Saturday, Sept. 23, facing Minnesota Duluth (3-0, 2-0 NSIC) at The Schwan Regional Event Center with kickoff set for 1 p.m.