Box Score

Nebraska Wesleyan held Dordt to just 100 total yards and no points as the Prairie Wolves shutout the Defenders, 28-0, in GPAC football action Saturday (Oct. 19) at Abel Stadium in Lincoln.
 
It is the first shutout of the season for Nebraska Wesleyan and the fourth time they have shutout Dordt in the six meetings between the two teams.
 
Dordt came into the game 10^th in the NAIA in rushing, but the dominating NWU defense held them to just 52 yards on 38 attempts (1.4 ypg), and allowed 48 yards through air.
 
NWU led just 7-0 at halftime as the offense couldn't put the ball in the endzone.  The lone score was a 2-yard pass to Nolan Clausen from Tyler Francis with 3:39 left in the first quarter.
 
Francis hit his second touchdown pass of the game in the third quarter as he found his new favorite target Connor Zumpfe for a 39-yard TD reception.  Francis hit Zumpfe on a short route and he did the rest breaking a tackle and outrunning the Defenders the rest of the way.
 
In the fourth quarter, the Prairie Wolves tacked on a pair of touchdowns as backup Austin Ruskamp scored two touchdowns.  He had a 3-yard run with 11:13 to play and a 1-yard run with 8:16 to play.  The first TD was setup by an Eric Richards interception that he returned to the 3-yard line.  Ruskamp's second TD came after Francis hit Zumpfe for a 23-yard reception.
 
The story of the game was the NWU defense that had their most dominating performance of the season.  Through three quarters, the Defenders had just 58 yards of total offense before adding 42 in the final quarter.
 
Senior defensive lineman Taylor TeKolste led the way with 11 total tackles.  He had 4.0 tackles-for-loss for 20 yards and had 2.0 quarterback sacks for 18 yards.  As a team, the Prairie Wolves had 7.0 tackles-for-loss and 3.0 quarterback sacks. 
 
Tyler Francis had another solid performance to lead the NWU offense.  He finished 22-31 for 236 yards with two touchdowns.  Zumpfe led the team with six receptions for 89 yards and a TD, while Dustin Bryant caught five passes for 38 yards. On the ground, Joel Wiedel led the way with 54 yards on nine carries, Bryant had 34 yards and Ruskamp had the two touchdowns.
 
NWU will have next Saturday off for a bye week, then return to action on Nov. 2 at Dakota Wesleyan.