Marauders Paddle Dragons Behind Big Games by Bagnell, Lomax

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• published: 01 Nov 2010
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The Paddle Trophy remains in the only home it has ever known as the University of Mary defeated Minnesota State University Moorhead 43-17, the fifth straight win for the Marauders over the Dragons. Craig Bagnell led U-Mary with four touchdown passes and Jamal Lomax ran for 169 yards and two scores in the Northern Sun win. A redshirt freshman, Bagnell threw three scoring strikes in the first half to lead the Marauders to a 28-0 lead at intermission. For the day, he was 19-of-25 for 201 yards and didn't throw an interception for the third straight game. Lomax cracked the century barrier for the 13th time in his career and is now just six yards from tying Bobby Wagner for the career rushing record. Wagner ran for 2,864 yards and Lomax is sitting at 2,858 with two games remaining in his collegiate career. The Marauders started fast, scoring on the opening drive of the game when Bagnell found Bryan Sandy alone in the back of the end zone for a ten yard scoring strike just 4:17 into the game. After scoring 19 points in the second quarter last week at Bemidji State, the Marauders did even better against the Dragons as U-Mary put up 21 points in the second frame. Keyed by a 31-yard pass from Bagnell to Tyler Steffan, Lomax bulled into the end zone from one yard out with 13:59 remaining before intermission. Two drives later, Terry Newsome caught a pass on the right sidelines, avoided tacklers and sprinted 19 yards into the end zone to build a 21-0 lead with 9:14 left in the second quarter. Lomax led off the four-play 54-yard drive by busting loose for a 29 yard run. An Evan Gross 27 yard punt return to the MSUM 21 yard line set the stage for the final Marauders score of the first half. After a short gain by Lomax on first down, Bagnell found Micah Costello in the end zone from 17 yards away with 67 seconds left. The Dragons would reach the end zone at 10:10 of the third quarter when Kevin Koch threw seven yards to Shawn Marlowe for a score, but the Marauders scored the next 10 points. Stefan caught a 10 yard touchdown pass from Bagnell to close the third and Zach Reisenauer connected on a 21 yard field goal to open the fourth quarter for a 38-7 lead. Lomax and the offensive line did all the work on U-Mary's final scoring drive of the game as the senior from Las Vegas carried the ball four times for 70 yards and the touchdown. He hit for runs of 21, 20 and 28 before running one yard for the score. It was the 27th touchdown of his career, pushing him into sole possession of fourth on the U-Mary scoring chart. Behind the running of Lomax and the accuracy of Bagnell, the Marauders held the ball for 34:26, even though MSUM ran 86 plays to 69 for U-Mary. The Marauders held a 395-317 edge in total yards, including a 194-40 advantage on the ground. John Oyloe had two quarterback sacks for the Marauders, both coming on the same drive. Trevor Davis had 1.5 tackles for loss and both he and Buddy Wallace added sacks. Marcus Broome and Demetrius Allen both had seven tackles for U-Mary. Allen also had a tackle for loss and broke up one pass. Arthur Pittman knocked down two passes. U-Mary, which has beaten MSU Moorhead in all five meetings and claiming ownership of the Paddle Trophy all five times, improves to 2-7 overall, 2-6 NSIC and 2-3 in the NSIC North. MSUM is also 2-7, 2-6 and 2-3.