CMS Football Rolls to 30-7 Road Win over Northwestern (Minn.)

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps football team scored three touchdowns in the first quarter to build an early 20-0 lead and went on to capture a 30-7 road win over Northwestern (Minn.) on Saturday afternoon at Reynolds Field.

With the win, CMS levels its record at 1-1 on the year after starting out with a narrow loss at Puget Sound last weekend. Northwestern slips to 0-2 on the year with the loss. 

Sophomore quarterback Zach Fogel was 11-17 passing for 187 yards and a touchdowns, while senior running back Garrett Cheadle carried for 63 yards and two scores. The CMS defense, which nearly earned a shutout before Northwestern earned its only points with 2:16 left in the game to make the final score 30-7, was led by sophomore linebacker Dylan Porter with eight tackles, and sophomore cornerback Benjamin Cooney, who picked off a pass for the second straight week to start the year. 

Special teams got the Stags rolling in the first quarter, as sophomore Stiles Satterlee broke through the line to block a punt, and first-year Michael Colangelo picked it up and ran it back 35 yards for a touchdown to put CMS ahead 7-0 just 2:41 into the game. 

The Stag defense then held Northwestern to three-and-out, with sophomore linebacker Trent Lindsey making the third down tackle, and CMS used a methodical 13-play, 52-yard drive to make the score 13-0, converting on four third-down plays. Fogel scrambled for 10 yards on 3rd-and-9 for the initial first down of the drive, and then threw a 15-yard pass to first-year receiver Kaden Gallant on 3rd-and-8 to get the ball down to the 24-yard line.

Cheadle had a two-yard carry on 3rd-and-1 to get the ball to 13, and Fogel found senior running back Christian Curcio on 3rd-and-2 at the five to set up a first and goal. From there, Cheadle plunged in for his first rushing touchdown of the day to make it a 13-0 Stag lead. 

Another three-and-out, keyed by a tackle for a loss of four yards from Porter, gave CMS a short field to work with from the Northwestern 47, and this time, they scored in non-methodical fashion. Fogel found sophomore receiver Jack Grasberger for a seven-yard game, then struck for a 40-yard touchdown pass to junior Carter Henderson to make it a 20-0 CMS lead with 1:26 still remaining in the first quarter. 

Neither team put up any points in the second quarter, but CMS got back to its scoring ways on its first possession of the second half to essentially put the game away. A 47-yard pass from Fogel to junior tight end Nick Parise brought the ball down to the eight-yard line, and Cheadle plunged over on 3rd-and-goal at the one-yard line for his second touchdown of the day. 

Cooney picked off his second pass of the season and returned the ball 21 yards to the Northwestern 25, and CMS got down to the one-yard line with a chance for a fifth touchdown of the day, but settled for a 20-yard field goal from sophomore Alessandro Maiuolo with 7:10 left in the third quarter to make the score 30-0. 

The only scoring in the fourth quarter came as Northwestern went 79 yards on 11 plays to score on a two-yard run from Payton Bowdry with 2:16 left for its only points of the game. Northwestern finished with only 204 yards of total offense on the day, with 79 of them coming on its final drive. 

CMS finished with a 379-204 edge in yards gained, a 16-10 edge in first downs, and dominated time of possession with 36:48 compared to Northwestern's 23:12. 

CMS will be back in action on Saturday for its home opener against Pacific Lutheran, beginning at 1 p.m. at Zinda Field.