WATERTOWN, Wis. — The Lawrence University football team bolted to a 24-6 lead at the half and rolled to 51-6 nonconference win over Maranatha Baptist University on Saturday.
Three Vikings (1-1) scored their first career touchdowns, and rookie Lawrence head coach Rob McCarthy picked up his first career victory.
Cam Boerm caught a pair of touchdown passes and Jacob Berman ran for a pair of scores for Lawrence. Senior running back Corey Fisher also got his first career touchdown for the Vikings.
Lawrence freshman quarterback Ryan Butterfield tossed his first two career touchdown passes and finished 6-for-11 passing for 92 yards. He also ran three times for 22 yards. Boerm finished with five catches for 61 yards, and Berman ran eight times for 88 yards and two scores.
Lawrence’s other freshman quarterback, Kemani Pittman, also was 8-for-13 and finished with 54 yards passing.
The Vikings, who finished with 420 yards of offense, limited Maranatha (0-2) to just 236 yards, including just 28 on the ground.
Junior linebacker Jacob Lueck had a team-high 10 tackles for Lawrence and that included 2.0 tackles for loss. Lueck also forced two fumbles and recovered a fumbles. Maranatha fumbled five times on the afternoon and lost all five to the Vikings. Lawrence also intercepted three passes as Hunter Adams, Wes Hetcher and Nick Ulloa all recorded picks.
Lawrence’s defense was in the backfield all afternoon as the Vikings picked up seven sacks, including 2.5 by Colt Duncan and 2.0 by Jake Gostisha.
The Vikings took advantage of a short field on its first two scoring drives to jump out to a 13-0 lead. Fisher scored on a two-yard run, and Trevor Spina scored from a yard out.
After a Maranatha touchdown cut the lead to 13-6, Lawrence scored twice in the final 2:41 of the first half. Boerm caught a 25-yard touchdown pass, and Pat O’Mahoney kicked a 27-yard field goal to give Lawrence a 24-6 lead at the half.
Dalton Sendelbach had a six-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, and Berman then scored on runs of 39 and 10 yards early in the fourth quarter. The Vikings added a late touchdown by Boerm to finish the scoring.