MARSHALL, Minn. – Wayne State used a big second half to pull away from a seven-point halftime advantage to earn a 41-7 victory over Southwest Minnesota State in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference football on Saturday night at The Schwan Regional Event Center.
 
WSC, which improves to 5-1 overall, 4-1 NSIC, led 14-7 at halftime before limiting SMSU to 44 yards of offense and one first down in the second half to earn its eighth straight victory in the series.
 
SMSU falls to 0-6 overall, 0-5 NSIC. The Mustangs finished the night with 158 yards of offense and 10 first downs. WSC closed the game with 408 yards of offense and 19 first downs.
 
Nick Bohn threw for four touchdowns and ran for a score to pace the Wildcats. He completed 15 of 23 passes for 218 yards and ran for 45 yards on seven carries. Jadon Johnson caught a game-high seven passes for 65 yards and two touchdowns, while Kendrick Watkins-Hogue had five receptions for 93 yards and one touchdown.
 
SMSU quarterback Kendon Krogman completed 12 of 17 passes for 96 yards and one touchdown. Zander Wolf, Tryg Auten, Omar Abdi, Jake Anderson and Colin Maher each had two receptions.
 
WSC finished the game converting 8 of 13 on third-down, while SMSU was limited to 1 of 11 on third-down conversions.
 
The WSC defense forced the only turnover in the game and racked up seven sacks.
 
Josiah Hedensten recorded a team-high nine tackles with one sack to pace the Mustang defense. Marquise Ogletree had seven tackles and one pass break-up, while Keshaun Reynolds added six tackles with one for loss.
 
WSC scored on its opening drive of the game with Bohn connecting on a 17-yard touchdown pass to Akeem Knox to complete an eight-play, 69-yard drive to take a 7-0 lead with 9:42 left in the first quarter.
 
The SMSU defense would force WSC to punt twice and along with turning over the ball on downs on the next three possessions before WSC added to the lead with Bohn scoring on a 7-yard run with 3:19 left in the first half.
 
Trailing 14-0, SMSU put together its most impressive drive of the game to cut the deficit in half heading into halftime. SMSU picked up six first downs in moving 79 yards on 10 plays with Krogman completing the drive with a 2-yard touchdown pass to Maher with nine seconds remaining in the half.
 
WSC opened the second half converting a key third-down play to help move the ball 82 yards on eight plays with Bohn finding Johnson for a 4-yard touchdown pass to extend the lead to 21-7 at the 10:22 mark of the third quarter.
 
SMSU would turn over the ball via a fumble at its own 33-yard line later in the third quarter and WSC took advantage with Bohn finding Watkins-Hogue for a 33-yard touchdown pass with 2:40 left making the score 28-7.
 
WSC put the game away with two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter.
 
SMSU will now play two straight games on the road starting next Saturday, Oct. 19, in Aberdeen, S.D., versus Northern State with kickoff slated for 6 p.m.