ARCATA — Inopportune turnovers and missed chances proved costly to Humboldt State in a 27-3 loss to Western Oregon in NCAA Division II football action Saturday.
With the loss, the Lumberjacks fell to 2-4 on the season while Western Oregon improved to 4-1. The game was statistically balanced for most of the game, but a swarming Wolves' defense sacked two HSU quarterback six times while also forcing three HSU turnovers.
Pivotal to the Jacks' demise was a third quarter drive in which they marched the ball 73 yards to the Western Oregon 1-yard line. Leading only 14-3, Western Oregon rose to the challenge, stopping HSU on three successive plays and forcing a field goal attempt.
The Wolves ' Casey O'Donnell broke through to block Nick Nelson's 20-yard field goal, and the Wolves recovered to keep the Jacks from gaining any optimism.
"It may have been a different game, but we weren't able to pound it in from the one," HSU head coach Doug Adkins said. "And when they blocked the field goal, that was probably the biggest change of momentum all night."
Three other drives ended by virtue of turnovers. In the first quarter, the Jacks drove to the WOU 19-yard line, but a hard hit jarred the ball loose from wide receiver
Edwin Henry, and the Wolves' Zach Christopherson recovered.
The Wolves gained a 14-3 lead with two second quarter touchdowns, the first resulting from a 4-yard run by Ben Kuenzi and the second on a 63-yard pass completion from quarterback Brady Lovell to Brad Ching. In between, the Lumberjacks managed a 37-yard field goal by Nelson.
"You have to be able to score more than three points to be competitive," Adkins said. "It's hard to see many positives coming out of this game."
Western Oregon put together the evening's most impressive drive in the third quarter, moving the ball 97 yards on nine plays before finishing the march with a 11-yard scoring run by Lovell. The redshirt freshman quarterback finished his impressive night with a 45-yard touchdown completion to Chris Malcom with 3:41 left in the game.
For the night, Lovell finished 9-of-17 for 188 yards and two touchdowns. HSU's
Brian Hildebrand was 17-21 with one interception, throwing for 195 yards and suffering five sacks.
The Wolves finished with 358 yards of total offense to 264 gained by Humboldt State. Hurting HSU's rushing totals was the 48 yards lost via the sack, doled out by seven different Wolves' players.
Box Score (Final)
Western Oregon vs Humboldt State (Oct 06, 2007 at Arcata, Calif.)
Score by Quarters 1 2 3 4 Score
----------------- -- -- -- -- -----
Western Oregon...... 0 14 6 7 - 27 Record: (4-1)
Humboldt State...... 0 3 0 0 - 3 Record: (2-4)
Scoring Summary:
2nd 09:31 WOU - Kuenzi 4 yd run (Voges kick), 5-33 2:09, WOU 7 - HSU 0
06:53 HSU - Nelson, Nichola 37 yd field goal, 10-49 2:32, WOU 7 - HSU 3
02:16 WOU - Ching 63 yd pass from Lovell (Voges kick), 5-75 2:13, WOU 14 - HSU 3
3rd 01:33 WOU - Lovell 11 yd run (Voges kick failed), 9-97 5:12, WOU 20 - HSU 3
4th 03:41 WOU - Malcom 45 yd pass from Lovell (Voges kick), 11-87 6:17, WOU 27 - HSU 3
WOU HSU
FIRST DOWNS................... 17 16
RUSHES-YARDS (NET)............ 37-170 37-62
PASSING YDS (NET)............. 188 202
Passes Att-Comp-Int........... 17-9-0 28-18-1
TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS..... 54-358 65-264
Fumble Returns-Yards.......... 0-0 1-5
Punt Returns-Yards............ 2--2 0-0
Kickoff Returns-Yards......... 2-40 5-58
Interception Returns-Yards.... 1-32 0-0
Punts (Number-Avg)............ 4-36.5 6-35.5
Fumbles-Lost.................. 3-2 4-2
Penalties-Yards............... 8-80 10-60
Possession Time............... 27:23 32:37
Third-Down Conversions........ 9 of 13 7 of 16
Fourth-Down Conversions....... 0 of 0 0 of 0
Red-Zone Scores-Chances....... 2-2 1-3
Sacks By: Number-Yards........ 6-48 1-6
RUSHING: Western Oregon-Kuenzi 14-83; Lovell 10-33; Wilson 7-32; Jackson,DJ
4-13; Ching 2-9. Humboldt State-Cox, Marcus 16-49; Perkins, Richar 4-27; Thomas,
Bobby 3-22; Cueva, Joevanny 3-3; Hellinger, J.D. 1-minus 10; Hildebrand, Bri
10-minus 29.
PASSING: Western Oregon-Lovell 9-17-0-188. Humboldt State-Hildebrand, Bri
17-27-1-195; Hellinger, J.D. 1-1-0-7.
RECEIVING: Western Oregon-Ching 2-74; Fullerton 2-20; Malcom 1-45; Kauleinamoku
1-22; Dickson 1-10; Zeutenhorst 1-9; Alves 1-8. Humboldt State-Perkins, Richar
5-55; Henry, Edwin 5-36; Anderson, Corey 3-52; Cox, Marcus 3-47; Ross, Darren
2-12.
INTERCEPTIONS: Western Oregon-Huber 1-32. Humboldt State-None.
FUMBLES: Western Oregon-Lovell 1-0; Kauleinamoku 1-1; Kuenzi 1-1. Humboldt
State-Perkins, Richar 1-0; Henry, Edwin 1-1; Thomas, Bobby 1-1; Cox, Marcus 1-0.
Stadium: Redwood Bowl Attendance: 2213
Kickoff time: 6 pm End of Game: 8:31 pm Total elapsed time: 2:31
Officials: Referee: Randy Mora; Umpire: C. Butterfield; Linesman: Jim Rinne;
Line judge: Jim Lenau; Back judge: Mike Baker; Field judge: John Santi;
Side judge: Brian Burns; Scorer: Ed Matthews;
Temperature: 57 Wind: nw 10mph Weather: Sunny at kickoff
SACKS (UA-A): Western Oregon-O'Donnell 1-1; Marin 1-0; Filipe 0-1; Douglas 1-0;
Cox 0-1; Gilmore 0-1; Jackson,A. 1-0. Humboldt State-Brunner, Allen 1-0.
TACKLES (UA-A): Western Oregon-Gilmore 3-11; Cox 3-5; Douglas 3-4; Buche,M. 2-5;
Smith,N. 2-5; Christopherson 0-6; O'Donnell 3-2; Romanick 1-4; Huber 2-2;
Singleton 1-3; Vedder 1-2; Marin 2-0; Jackson,A. 2-0; Werder 1-1; Vincent 0-2;
Filipe 0-2; Robert 1-0; Gonzalez 1-0; Dowd 1-0; Cuellar 1-0; Linn 0-1; Blank
0-1; Coffman 0-1; Wilson 0-1. Humboldt State-Brunner, Allen 6-7; Iriye, Brian
3-6; Gaither, Keon 1-6; Maxwell, Desmon 1-5; Washington, Mom 3-2; Diaz, Adam
2-3; Arenas, Lorenzo 1-4; DeMarco, David 0-5; Calcote, Justin 1-2; Andrews,
Derric 1-1; Cueva, Joevanny 1-1; Davis, Barry 0-2; Terrell, Johnny 0-2;
Williams, Jeff 1-0; Robinson, Calvi 1-0; Hasan, Shadeed 0-1; Hubrich, Garret
0-1.
