Dixie State rushed for a school record 404 yards and six rushing touchdowns as the Storm ran past Central Washington, 49-20, in a non-conference matchup Thursday night in Hansen Stadium. With the win DSU evened its record at 1-1, while the Wildcats dropped to 0-2.

Dixie State got on the board five minutes into the game as the Storm marched 62 yards in six plays, culminated by a 16-yard touchdown run by senior DeJon Coleman (Los Angeles, Calif./Arleta HS), to take an early 7-0 lead. The DSU defense, which forced a CWU punt on the Wildcats' opening possession, held Central to a field goal attempt on the CWU's next drive, but kicker Sean McDonald missed a 34-yarder wide left which kept the Wildcats off the board.

However Central would not stay off the scoreboard long as the Wildcat defense took advantage of a Dixie mishandled punt attempt and recovered the ball in the end zone for a touchdown. However CWU went for the two-point conversion and missed it, which kept Dixie on top at 7-6.

From there it was all Dixie State as the Storm answered on their next possession with a seven-play, 63-yard scoring drive, to extend the advantage to 14-6. Freshman quarterback Blake Barney (St. George, Utah/Dixie HS), who was making his first start of the season, found Nate Johnson (Oceanside, Calif./Vista HS) on a big 17-yard pass play on third down, then rambled off a 21-yard run to set the Storm up with first and goal on the Central 9-yard line. Barney then ended the drive on the next play as he scampered into the end zone to extend the Dixie lead to 14-6.

After another missed Central field goal attempt in the second quarter, Coleman struck again for his second rushing touchdown of the game, this one from 39 yards out, which wrapped up a six play, 76 yard drive, and staked the Storm to a 21-6 advantage. Dixie's defense kept the momentum on the Storm side as the unit forced a three-and-out on Central's next possession. However DSU could not take advantage and punted the ball back to the Wildcats.

Central Washington then put together its best drive of the game just before halftime as the Wildcats drove 80 yards in 12 plays, which ended with quarterback Jake Nelson finding Justin Peterson in the back of the end zone to pull CWU to within one score at 21-13 at intermission.

Dixie State received the second half kick-off and picked up right where it left off in the first half as the Storm opened the stanza with a long 12-play, 60-yard drive that took six minutes off the clock, ending with Coleman's third touchdown of the game from nine yards out to extend the lead to 28-13.

The Storm defense then came up with arguably the play of the night as freshman defensive lineman Brandon Sloss (Mission Viejo, Calif./Mission Viejo HS) sacked Nelson, who fumbled the ball on the play. Junior Keanu Foki (Honolulu, Hawai'i/Farrington HS) scooped up the loose ball and rambled 68 yards for the touchdown to give Dixie a 35-13 advantage.

Dixie State tacked on a pair of fourth-quarter scores, the first coming with 12:28 to play when senior Myles Burton (Berkeley, Calif./Angelo Rodriguez HS) scored from 25 yards out on his first carry of the game, followed by a 37-yard keeper by freshman reserve quarterback Tyson Blackner (Draper, Utah/Alta HS), which made the score 49-13 with 4:50 left.

"I am proud of our guys, especially with what happened last week," Head Coach Scott Brumfield said. "We still made some mistakes we need to clean up, but I couldn't be more proud of our guys. I thought the coaches prepared them as well on a short week that we could have asked for. I'm proud of everybody in this program."

Dixie State rushed the ball 56 times in the game, the second-most attempts in school history (58 at Colorado Mesa, 2014), while the 404 yards on the ground eclipsed the previous school record by 71 yards (333 vs. Simon Fraser, 2013). Meanwhile the six rushing touchdowns scored bested the previous mark of four set at Humboldt State in 2013.

Coleman finished with 125 yards on 14 carries, while his three touchdowns scored tied the DSU single-game record, which was done four other times (last by Griff Robles at Humboldt State, 2013). Barney added 95 yards on the ground on 15 carries, and freshman Orlando Wallace (Cathedral City, Calif./Cathedral City HS) had 14 carries for 69 yards.

Dixie's defense also came to play tonight as the Storm held Central Washington to 301 yards of total offense, including allowing just 80 yards on the ground, this after the unit surrendered 363 rushing yards in last week's loss to Colorado Mesa. DSU's defense also recorded three sacks and nine total tackles for loss.

"It was a different atmosphere here tonight," Brumfield noted. "When Central Washington got in the red zone we weren't looking for someone else to make a play. They were going to make that play themselves. We were just a step behind last week with a lot of young guys playing their first college game and not being sure of the speed. It was just a confidence thing. They figured it out tonight."

Dixie State will open the road portion of its 2015 schedule with a non-conference game at Humboldt State next Saturday, Sept. 19, at 6 p.m. (PT), in Arcata, Calif.