DULUTH, Minn. – The nationally ranked Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs remained undefeated with a 63-28 victory over Southwest Minnesota State in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference football on Saturday afternoon at Malosky Stadium.
 
UMD, ranked No. 9 in the D2football.com poll and No. 13 in the AFCA poll, moves to 6-0 overall, 5-0 NSIC, while SMSU drops to 1-4 overall, 1-4 NSIC.
 
UMD, which shutout SMSU the past two seasons, earned its fifth straight victory in the series since SMSU earned a win in Marshall in 2016. UMD improves to 18-2-1 all-time in the series in games played in Duluth.
 
SMSU closed the game scoring a season-high 28 points, the most allowed by UMD this season and finished with a season-high 383 yards of offense.
 
Macloud Crowton completed 19 of 37 pass attempts for 290 yards and two touchdowns for the Mustangs, but was also intercepted three times and sacked four times.  
 
Tryg Auten finished the game with a career-high five receptions for a career-high 76 yards, while Shaun Walrath added three receptions for 75 yards, including a 35-yard touchdown reception.
 
SMSU started the game in a big way with Jacob Honstetter taking a handoff on the second play of the game and sprinting 75 yards for a touchdown. The 70-yard plus run was the first by a Mustang player since the 2018 season.
 
UMD answered on its next two drives, scoring on 16-and 75-yard touchdown passes to build a 14-7 advantage with 9:36 left in the first quarter.
 
After both teams exchanged punts, UMD forced the game's first turnover, recovering a poor SMSU snap at the SMSU 17-yard line. Six plays later, the Bulldogs scored on a fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line to extend the lead to 21-7.
 
UMD pushed the lead to 28-7 midway through the second quarter with Walljasper tossing a 5-yard touchdown pass to Luke Dehnicke. It appeared SMSU would trail 28-7 into the halftime break, but on a UMD punt attempt late in the quarter, SMSU was called for a 15-yard roughing the kicker penalty. The Bulldogs took advantage and Walljasper found a wide-open Dehnicke for a 49-yard touchdown with 39 seconds remaining to build a 35-7 halftime lead.
 
UMD opened the second half with an impressive 13-play, 74-yard drive, that elapsed nearly eight minutes of clock with the drive capped by a 1-yard touchdown run.
 
On the first play of the ensuing drive, UMD's Joey Krouse intercepted Crowton and returned the interception for a touchdown to make the score 49-7.
 
SMSU answered with a 10-play, 72-yard drive with Crowton connecting on a 5-yard touchdown pass to Colin Maher. Following a UMD touchdown, SMSU countered with Crowton finding Walrath for a 35-yard touchdown pass with 11:34 remaining in the fourth quarter.
 
UMD would score its final touchdown on a 50-yard run before SMSU closed the scoring late in the game with Crowton sprinting in for a 5-yard touchdown run.
 
UMD finished the game with 24 first downs and 514 yards of offense.
 
SMSU, which was 0 for 16 on third-down conversions in last week's loss at Wayne State, converted 3 of 11 on third-down today and was 1 of 2 on fourth-down.
 
The SMSU defense was led by Gideon Ervastic, who amassed 10 tackles, including one for loss. Cam Enright, SaMaury Alexander and Josiah Hedensten each finished with seven tackles.
 
SMSU returns home next Saturday, Oct. 11, facing the University of Sioux Falls for the annual homecoming game with kickoff starting at 5 p.m.