Box Score Mankato, Minn. --- The No. 1 ranked Minnesota State football stayed unblemished Saturday afternoon at home as it took care of Winona State with a 44-10 victory, in front of 3,211 fans at Blakeslee Stadium.
 
With the victory, the Mavericks improve to 8-0 and 4-0 in the south division on the season with an NSIC winning streak of 19 dating back to the first week of 2012.  Winona State 's winning streak of five games was snapped as it fell to 5-3 on the season and 3-1 in the south division.
 
The Mavericks tied the record for most team sacks in a game with nine.  The original record was set back in 1979 against Minnesota Morris.  The sacks leader was Josh Gordon with three today to increase his season tally to 5.5.  The Mavericks went from 14 season sacks to 23.
 
"We set the tone early on sacks and finished with a record," Gordon said.  "We came out fast at the start."
 
The defense in first half alone notched five sacks.  MSU held the Warrior offense to 185 total yards and -31 rushing.  They also held them to 12 first downs.  Interim Head Coach Aaron Keen said when asked about his defense, "I had a really big smile on my face because we controlled everything we could control.  We can build on it for next week."
 
The Maverick offense did its job as well with 520 total yards of offense. John Wolf accounted for 328 total yards.  He stiff-armed his way to 90 yards on the ground.
 
MSU got things started early in the first with two touchdowns with Wolf being apart of both.  Wolf connected with Austin Rieder with a 52-yard touchdown throw. Wolf also ran in a 19-yard touchdown.    
 
After a three and out for the Warriors to start the second quarter, the Mavericks were offside on the first punt attempt. The Warriors decided to re-kick and Dennis Carter returned the punt for a 68-yard touchdown.
 
"He made the best of getting another chance to return the kick," Keen said.  "With great speed, Dennis is a threat every time he gets the ball."
 
The Warriors got on the board late in the first half.  WSU covered 83-yards in six plays under a minute with the score coming on a touchdown pass from Jack Nelson to Alan May.  MSU quickly got down the field to set up a Sam Brockshus 27-yard field goal for a half time score of 23-7 in the Mavericks favor.
 
MSU started the third with the ball and took 2:37 to score another touchdown.  Wolf connected on a one-yard floater to Carter.  The highlight of the drive came when Connor Thomas had a 52-yard rush on a draw play.
 
The Warriors also scored on their first possessions of the third quarter.  A 28-yard field goal by Brett Cochran-Bray brought the score to 30-10.  MSU's defense came up big on 2nd and goal when Nathan Hancock sniffed out a bootleg and got an 8-yard sack.
 
To start the forth, Andy Pfeiffer rushed in for a two-yard touchdown.  Later in the forth, Wolf connected with Carter for his third touchdown of the day, second in the air, for a 55 yard pass off of play action to conclude scoring at 44-10.
 
The Mavericks finished up their last regular season game at home this season against Wayne State Saturday, November 2.  The kickoff is at 1 pm.                                                                  

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