DILLON — No. 5 Montana Western bounced back from a season-opening loss with a shutout victory.
The Bulldogs' offense piled up over 500 yards and quarterback Michael Palandri accounted for six touchdowns as Western stormed past MSU-Northern 52-0 on Saturday afternoon.
Palandri had a hand in four first half touchdowns, throwing a 25-yard scoring pass to Jon Kirkley, a 40-yard TD strike to Seth Shook and then an 8-yard score to Eli Nourse to lift the Bulldogs to a 21-0 lead with less than five minutes remaining in the first half.
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Palandri then scored on a goal-line plunge and Maclain Burckley connected on a 37-yard field goal to push Western's lead to 31-0 at halftime.
In the second half, Landon Charlton scored on a 6-yard touchdown pass from Palandri who then racked up another goal-line score to make it 45-0 Western late in the third quarter. Kaden LaPlaunt scored on a 2-yard run late in the fourth quarter for the final score.
Palandri finished with four passing touchdowns and 379 yards and completed 28 of 34 passes. Kirkley and Nourse both piled up over 100 receiving yards with 111 and 103 respectively.
Western held Northern to 1 of 12 on third down conversions while the Bulldogs converted 11-of-17. Western's defense piled up eight sacks and forced three fumbles, recovering one in the second quarter.
MSU-Northern (0-2) will host Dickinson State on Sept. 13 while Western (1-1) will travel to Rocky Mountain College on Sept. 20.
