Box Score

ST. BONIFACIUS, Minn. – The University of Northwestern may have only recorded 243 yards on Saturday, but the Eagles returned from their cross-town trip against Crown College with a dominating 40-14 victory over the Storm. Five different UNW players found the end zone as Northwestern scored 40 or more points for the third time this season.

Northwestern was in for a big night from the get-go based on the way the game started as Chris Simon-Wallace (Minnetonka, Minn./Minnetonka) returned Crown's initial kickoff 93 yards for a score. After a Ben Lyons (North Olmstead, Ohio/Ohio Distance & Electronic Learning Academy) point-after kick, quarterback Jacob Fletcher (Moorhead, Minn./Park Christian) bumped the Eagles' lead to 13-0 on his six-yard touchdown scamper in UNW's first official drive of the game. Fletcher's score came at the end of an eight-play, 54-yard drive.

The Eagles fumbled inside Crown's 10-yard line on their next drive, but Jacob Fettig (Waconia, Minn./Waconia) and UNW made up for the blunder early in the second quarter. Cameron Cox (Becker, Minn./Becker) sacked Storm quarterback Brandon McCormick to cause a fumble at the Crown 3-yard line before Fettig crossed the goal line on the next play, increasing the score to 20-0.

Zac Cash (Highlands Ranch, Colo. /Mountain Vista ) was the fourth Northwestern scorer on a one-yard TD plunge before cornerback Austin Warner (Fridley, Minn./Fridley) read Crown's wide receiver screen play perfectly, picking off McCormick's short pass and taking it 41 yards the other way to send the Eagles into halftime with a comfortable 33-0 lead.

Playing conservatively on offense with its ground game, Northwestern added one touchdown in the third quarter before Crown got a pair of fourth quarter scores to account for the 40-14 final score.

The Eagles were out-gained in both rushing and passing, but averaged 4.5 yards per rush and 7.6 yards per completion through the air. UNW went 6-8 on third down while forcing the Storm to a 4-for-13 rate in the same category. From a statistics standpoint, Simon-Wallace had the best night of his 2014 season with the early kickoff return and 77 yards on 12 carries with another score. Fletcher completed 11 of his 13 passes with the two incompletes both going for interceptions. Defensively, both Nathan Van Zee (Moose Lake, Minn./Moose Lake) and Ben Greener (Foley, Minn./Home School) had a team-high eight tackles for Northwestern as UNW pitched a shutout for all but six minutes of the game.

In addition to improving its season record to 4-0, Northwestern wraps up its slate of three night games with a perfect 3-0 mark. While football coaches across the country will say that their team's next contest is the most important, the Eagles' 4:30 kickoff against the College of St. Scholastica next Saturday, Oct. 4 is especially crucial for UNW as it squares off against the reigning Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) champion, who is tied atop the league standings with Northwestern with an undefeated mark. The game will be played at Public Schools Stadium in Duluth, Minn.