Sept. 4, 2004
Winona State Pulls Away In The Second-Half For A 56-28 Win Over The Bulldogs
The Bulldogs dug an early hole that they overcame, but they couldn't handle the second-half offensive attack by Winona State and fell 56-28 in Winona, Minn.
Turnovers played a big role in the outcome. The Bulldogs turned it over on four occassions, and each time Winona State cashed it in for a touchdown. Two of the Bulldogs' interceptions were taken back for touchdown returns of 99 and 64 yards. The Warriors, meanwhile, turned it over just once and Truman did not get any points out of it.
The Bulldogs gained 377 yards of total offense, just 25 yards less than Winona State. Truman, which allowed over 300 yards rushing in week one of the season, held the Warriors to just 118 yards on the ground and a 4.5 average. Truman's running game improved slightly but it was held 100 yards for the second straight game.
Truman's day started off bad as it fumbled the opening kickoff that resulted in a nine-yard Winona scoring run from its first play from scrimmage. Then after a 12-play drive down to the Warrior 1 yard line, Winona's Luke Lokanc intercepted Jack Czeschin's pass and ran it back 99 yards for the early 14-0 lead.
Truman responded with a pair of scores to pull even at 14-14. First the Bulldogs scored on a 15-yard touchdown pass from Czeschin to Cole Voigt. Truman then tied the game off a blocked punt in the endzone which was recovered by Jesse Cooper.
Winona answered on the next drive going 80 yards in seven plays, topped off by a 47-yard touchdown pass from Brian Wrobel to Chris Samp. After a Czeschin interception, Wrobel found Scott Peters in the back of the endzone on a 15-yard pass to secure a two touchdown lead.
Truman pulled within seven before half with a nice drive of 14 plays and 76 yards with Czeschin hooking up with Richard Mayson on a 14 yard strike for the score with 24 seconds left.
Like the South Dakota game though, Truman couldn't keep up with the nationally-ranked Warriors in the final 30 minutes.
The Warriors turned up the defense in the second-half, holding Truman to just 16 yards in the 3rd quarter and scoring on a pair of field goals. In the fourth, the Warriors scored to make the tally 42-21, but Czeschin completed a four yard score to Jeff Amundson to pull to 42-28.
Winona scored two more times including another interception return, this time by John Tackmann for 64 yards and a touchdown for the final of 56-28. The Warriors put points on the board on all five of its second-half possessions.
Truman's Jerard Leverson had 17 carries for 57 yards, while Czeschin was 32-of-48 passing for 293 yards. Three different Bulldogs caught six passes, led by James Walton who collected 79 receiving yards. Austin Hills led the defense with nine tackles. Marcus Yokeley forced a fumble and Josh Kilcrease recovered it for Truman's lone forced turnover.
Winona State set a team record with 163 total yards in interception returns. Samp ended the game with 108 yards receiving and Wrobel was 20-of-30 for 284 yards.
Truman is now 0-2 on the season and will open up conference play next
week at Pittsburg State (Kan.). Winona is 2-0 and now has won 21 straight
games on its home turf.