ARCATA — Western Washington grabbed the momentum in the second half, shutting down Humboldt State's offense on the way to claiming a 30-14 win Saturday in Redwood Bowl.

With the victory, Western Washington improved its record to 1-1 both overall and in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. Humboldt State dropped to 1-2 overall and 0-1 in GNAC play.

Trailing 14-7 as halftime approached, the Vikings' Kevin Sampson blocked an HSU punt and recovered the ball on the HSU 11-yard line.  Quarterback Adam Perry hooked up with Pat McCann in the endzone on the next play, tying the game heading into the lockerroom.

"That (blocked punt) was the biggest momentum shift," HSU head coach Rob Smith said. "Going into the half with a lead would have gotten the crowd into the game, but that play sucked the air out. There's no excuse for that because good teams don't let that happen."

Perry completed 17 of 27 passes for 188 yards, throwing for two touchdowns and one interception. He directed three successful drives in the second half while the Vikings' defense held the Lumberjacks to 53 yards of total offense in the period.

Randall Eldrige paced the Vikings' running game, rushing 23 times for 78 yards. For HSU, Bobby Thomas rushed 18 times for 74 yards and redshirt freshman quarterback Mike Proulx was 9-21 passing, finishing with 93 yards and two touchdowns.

"We needed to make critical plays at critical times. and we also need to get on track offensively," Smith said. "That would take some pressure off the defense."

Western Washington opened the scoring with a 13-play, 75-yard drive that finished with Domenique Hill's four-yard burst into the endzone. Humboldt State countered on its next drive, Kevin Miles hauling in an eight-yard touchdown pass from Proulx to tie the game at 7-7 at the end of the first quarter.

The Lumberjacks took their only lead of the night late in the second quarter, finishing off an 11-play, 56-yard drive with Proulx's 15-yard scoring pass to Matt Smith. But in quick sequence following the kickoff the Jacks' took the ball back on Guy Ricciardulli's interception before giving it right back on the botched punt.

The Vikings piled up 200 yards of their 333 total offense in the second half, including an 11-play, 76-yard drive that put them ahead for good in the third quarter. The Lumberjacks held them out of the endzone, stopping the march at the 7-yard line, but Josh Lider connected on a 23-yard field goal to give WWU a 17-14 lead.

On their next possession, the VIkings drove 62 yards on 11 plays to increase their lead to 23-14 when Matt Clark bulled across from one yard out. Western added a late touchdown on Perry's 25-yard pass to Logan Cullen with 55 seconds remaining in the game.

Linebacker Caleb Jessup was all over the ball all night for the Vikings' defense, finishing with a team-high 15 tackles. Humboldt State linebacker Bubba Reynolds led the Jacks with nine tackles and Justin Calcote had eight.

"I'm proud of the kids, and how they battled hard throughout, even when the score got away from them at the end," Smith said. "We've progressed, but there's still a lot of work to be done."

HSU is back in action Saturday, traveling to face Central Washington University in another GNAC contest.

Score by Quarters     1  2  3  4   Score
-----------------    -- -- -- --   -----
Western Washington..  7  7  3 13  - 30       Record: (1-1,1-1)
Humboldt State......  7  7  0  0  - 14       Record: (1-2,0-1)



Scoring Summary:
1st 08:29 WWU - Hill 4 yd run (Lider kick), 13-75 6:24, WWU 7 - HSU 0
    04:52 HSU - Miles 8 yd pass from Proulx (Leyva kick), 7-45 3:27, WWU 7 - HSU 7
2nd 01:47 HSU - Smith,M. 15 yd pass from Proulx (Leyva kick), 11-56 6:17, WWU 7 - HSU 14
    00:51 WWU - McCann 11 yd pass from Perry (Lider kick), 1-11 0:06, WWU 14 - HSU 14
3rd 01:22 WWU - Lider 23 yd field goal, 11-76 4:49, WWU 17 - HSU 14
4th 09:38 WWU - Clark 1 yd run (Lider kick blockd), 11-62 5:12, WWU 23 - HSU 14
    00:55 WWU - Cullen 25 yd pass from Perry (Lider kick), 8-45 2:44, WWU 30 - HSU 14



                                    WWU      HSU
FIRST DOWNS...................       20       14
RUSHES-YARDS (NET)............   36-139   37-134
PASSING YDS (NET).............      194       93
Passes Att-Comp-Int...........  28-18-1   21-9-0
TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS.....   64-333   58-227
Fumble Returns-Yards..........      0-0      0-0
Punt Returns-Yards............     4-28      0-0
Kickoff Returns-Yards.........     3-72     6-89
Interception Returns-Yards....      0-0      1-0
Punts (Number-Avg)............   4-41.0   6-29.0
Fumbles-Lost..................      0-0      1-0
Penalties-Yards...............     7-70     5-52
Possession Time...............    31:12    43:48
Third-Down Conversions........  6 of 14  3 of 13
Fourth-Down Conversions.......   3 of 3   2 of 2
Red-Zone Scores-Chances.......      4-4      2-2
Sacks By: Number-Yards........     3-17      0-0


RUSHING: Western Washington-Eldridge 23-78; Perry 3-24; Hill 2-16;
Sampson 4-13; Bolt 2-6; Clark 2-2. Humboldt State-Thomas 18-74; Cueva 3-24;
Proulx 13-19; Hildebrand 2-19; Stuart 1-minus 2.

PASSING: Western Washington-Perry 17-27-1-188; Eldridge 1-1-0-6. Humboldt
State-Proulx 9-21-0-93.

RECEIVING: Western Washington-McCann 8-88; Copsey 3-27; Cullen 2-34;
Eldridge 2-11; Hekker 1-22; McKee 1-6; Perry 1-6. Humboldt State-Miles 5-39;
Smith,M. 3-40; Simmons 1-14.

INTERCEPTIONS: Western Washington-None. Humboldt State-Ricciarduli 1-0.

FUMBLES: Western Washington-None. Humboldt State-Stollmeyer 1-0.

Stadium: Redwood Bowl          Attendance: 4208
Kickoff time: 6 p.m.    End of Game: 8:42      Total elapsed time: 2:42
Officials: Referee: Aaron Santi; Umpire: Craig Lemster; Linesman: Carl DelGrande;
Line judge: Doug Moore; Back judge: Greg Toler; Field judge: Stephen Irving;
Side judge: Ken Sarna; Scorer: Ed Matthews;
Temperature: 55        Wind: NW 7mph   Weather: overcast

SACKS (UA-A): Western Washington-Jessup 1-1; Jackson 0-1; Hamlett 1-0.
Humboldt State-None.

TACKLES (UA-A): Western Washington-Jessup 5-10; Cragin 2-6; Hamlett 6-0;
Schrader 3-2; Thomas 1-4; Jones 2-2; Thorstad 0-4; Cumming 2-1; Green 2-1; Diaz
1-1; Sampson 1-0; Winter 1-0; Rosso 0-1; Cheadle 0-1; Hawkins 0-1; McKee 0-1;
Zackery 0-1; Copsey 0-1; Jackson 0-1. Humboldt State-Reynolds 6-3; Calcote 5-3;
Ricciarduli 5-2; Lynch 2-5; Williams 3-3; Maxwell 1-5; Green,C. 4-1; Hunkins
0-5; Rose 0-4; Garrett 2-0; Robinson 2-0; Duley 2-0; Price 1-1; Green,B. 1-0;
Cueva 1-0; Gondkoff 1-0; Swangler 0-1; Accetta 0-1; Terrell 0-1; Hornsby 0-1.