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Jack Nelson passed for 398 yards and five touchdowns and Josh Mikes caught 13 passes for 224 yards and four scores as Winona State gave Northern State a season-opening defeat Thursday night at Swisher Field, 47-13. The Warriors accumulated 603 yards of total offense while limiting the Wolves to 266 yards of offense on the evening.

WSU got off to a fast start scoring on three of their first four possessions of the game. The Warriors jumped on top 7-0 on a 50-yard touchdown pass from Nelson to Mikes. Mikes also had two touchdown grabs of 13 yards and one from 30 yards out.

Northern got a pair of field goals from Nathan Shaw (37 yards and 22 yards) in the first half and trailed at the break 33-6.

NSU's lone touchdown drive came on its first drive of the second half. The Wolves went 38 yards in nine plays and was capped-off with a six-yard touchdown run from Jared Jacobson. The short field was setup by a Zachery Barber 62-yard kickoff return. The Wolves had a great night returning kicks as they averaged over 29 yards per attempt in the contest, including a 78-yard return by Channing Barber.

Jacobson led the Wolves with 56 yards rushing on 11 attempts. Nicholas Truen also had 11 carries for 22 yards in the loss. Jacobson went 25-of-49 for 165 yards through the air on the night. Conner Doherty was his top target as he caught five passes for 55 yards. Wil Carlson had four grabs for 24 yards and Chris Malsam caught three passes. In all, 10 Wolves caught a pass on the night.

Defensively, NSU was led by Blaine Schmidt's nine tackles. Joe Parsley added seven stops and Chad Stoterau had six and a team-high two tackles for loss. Paul Woodward led the Wolves with five pass breakups.

Next week, the Wolves hit the road for the first time in 2014 as they will face Concordia-St. Paul in a 6 p.m. game.