ELLENSBURG, Wash. – Living up to its No. 8 national ranking, Central Washington pulled away from Humboldt State with five unanswered second-half scores on the way to a 48-10 Great Northwest Athletic Conference win Saturday.

The victory kept Central Washington unbeaten at 4-0 overall and 3-0 in league games. Humboldt State dropped to 1-3 overall and 0-2 in conference.

With the second-best sacks-per-game average among all DIvision II defense's, the Wildcats supported their reputation for swarming opposing quarterback by adding five sacks Saturday.They kept the pressure on HSU starting quarterback Mike Proulx, who completed 14 of 28 passes for 159 yards and was intercepted twice.

But it was the CWU offense that really got rolling in the second half, putting up 27 points in the period. All-American quarterback Mike Reilly completed 23 of 40 for 311 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

Early on, the teams traded unsuccessful possessions, Humboldt State via the punt and Central Washington failing on its first drive when HSU's Justin Hornsby knocked the ball loose from Andrew Skorney and teammate Bubba Reynolds recovered the fumble on the HSU 27.

The Wildcats mounted their first scoring drive midway through the first quarter, Reilly picking apart the defense with short passes. The Jacks held briefly, forcing a fourth-and-one on the Jacks' 37-yard line, but Skorney rushed for two yards to continue the drive.

Reilly finished off the 13-play, 78-yard march with a 7-yard pass to Johnny Spevak for the touchdown, putting the Wildcats ahead, 7-0 with 1:25 remaining in the opening quarter.

Proulx found success of his own through the air, connecting with Matt Smith for 39 yards and Kevin MIles for 12 before the CWU defense struck back. Two sacks and a pair of penalties later, the Jacks were forced to punt the ball again.

Central's next drive was again stunted when Skorney broke loose for a 28-yard run, only to fumble again after being hit by Kevin Duley. HSU's Adam Reyes picked up the ball, returning it 32 yards to the Central Washington 28 to set up a short drive that culminated in Enrique Leyva's 23-yard field goal.

Central Washington put together another impresive drive as the half wound down, but again was forced to convert a fourth down along the way. After Reilly brought the ball to the HSU 15, the Jacks' defense rose again, forcing Central to settle for Garrett Rolsma's 32-yard field goal.

The Cats' defense gave the offense one more chance before the break, sacking Proulx twice to force another punt. Reilly needed only four plays to cover 37 yards, finishing the half with a 15-yard touchdown pass to Spevak to give CWU a 17-3 lead.

Twice in the second half the Wildcats finished drives with three scoring runs, including Skorney's 17-yard run and an eight-yard gallop by Justin Leonard. Tyrell Nelson added a defensive score, scooping up a fumble and rolling 51 yards to the touchdown.

HSU added its second score of the day midway through the fourth quarter when Kevin Miles gathered a 23-yard touchdown pass from Brian Hildebrand. With the 10 points, the Lumberjacks broke a string of two straight shutouts at the hands of the Wildcats.

Humboldt State returns home for its next GNAC game, taking on Western Oregon at 6 p.m. Saturday in Redwood Bowl.

NCAA DIVISION II/GREAT NORTHWEST ATHLETIC CONFERENCE
#8 Central Washington 48, Humboldt State 10

Score by Quarters     1  2  3  4   Score
-----------------    -- -- -- --   -----
Humboldt State......  0  3  0  7  - 10       Record: (1-3,0-2)
Central Washington..  7 10 17 14  - 48       Record: (4-0,3-0)

Scoring Summary:
1st 01:25 CWU - Spevak,Johnny 7 yd pass from Reilly,Mike (Rolsma,Garrett kick), 13-78 5:14, HSU 0 - CWU 7
2nd 10:55 HSU - Leyva,Enrique 23 yd field goal, 6-22 1:54, HSU 3 - CWU 7
   05:26 CWU - Rolsma,Garrett 32 yd field goal, 12-47 5:22, HSU 3 - CWU 10
   01:29 CWU - Spevak,Johnny 15 yd pass from Reilly,Mike (Rolsma,Garrett kick), 4-37 0:24, HSU 3 - CWU 17
3rd 08:27 CWU - Rolsma,Garrett 37 yd field goal, 4--1 0:52, HSU 3 - CWU 20
   04:36 CWU - Reilly,Mike 3 yd run (Rolsma,Garrett kick), 6-90 1:29, HSU 3 - CWU 27
   01:04 CWU - Nielsen,Tyrell 51 yd fumble recovery (Rolsma,Garrett kick), , HSU 3 - CWU 34
4th 11:01 CWU - Leonard,Justin 8 yd run (Rolsma,Garrett kick), 8-60 3:46, HSU 3 - CWU 41
   10:42 CWU - Skorney,Andrew 17 yd run (Rolsma,Garrett kick), 1-17 0:08, HSU 3 - CWU 48
   07:20 HSU - Miles,Kevin 23 yd pass from Hildebrand,Brian (Leyva,Enrique kick), 9-55 3:15, HSU 10 - CWU 48

                                   HSU      CWU
FIRST DOWNS...................       16       22
RUSHES-YARDS (NET)............    28-58   31-110
PASSING YDS (NET).............      231      311
Passes Att-Comp-Int...........  41-19-2  40-23-0
TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS.....   69-289   71-421
Fumble Returns-Yards..........     1-12     1-51
Punt Returns-Yards............      0-0     3-30
Kickoff Returns-Yards.........     3-44     2-33
Interception Returns-Yards....      0-0     2-56
Punts (Number-Avg)............   6-35.8   2-31.5
Fumbles-Lost..................      3-1      3-3
Penalties-Yards...............     5-50     3-43
Possession Time...............    30:07    29:53
Third-Down Conversions........  4 of 16  9 of 15
Fourth-Down Conversions.......   2 of 4   1 of 1
Red-Zone Scores-Chances.......      1-2      7-7
Sacks By: Number-Yards........      0-0     5-40

RUSHING: Humboldt State-Stollmeyer,Corey 4-36; Thomas,Bobby 6-19; Leyva,Enrique 1-16; Stuart,Brian 6-15; Cueva,Joevany 1-6; Hildebrand,Brian 2-3; Proulx,Mike 8-minus 37. Central Washington-Skorney,Andrew 17-67; Leonard,Justin 9-32; Reilly,Mike 5-11.

PASSING: Humboldt State-Proulx,Mike 14-28-2-159; Hildebrand,Brian 5-13-0-72. Central Washington-Reilly,Mike 23-40-0-311.

RECEIVING: Humboldt State-Smith,Matt 7-83; Devlin,Matt 3-63; Miles,Kevin 3-41; Stearns,Devin 3-31; Streck-Woodard,Mike 1-7; Cueva,Joevany 1-5; Stuart,Brian 1-1. Central Washington-Spevak,Johnny 9-134; Waller,Mike 5-50; Weems,Jamal 4-50; Leonard,Justin 2-37; Landers,Tamarria 1-24; Skorney,Andrew 1-9; Bronson,Jared 1-7.

INTERCEPTIONS: Humboldt State-None. Central Washington-Williams,Jerome 1-42; Hessler,Chase 1-14.

FUMBLES: Humboldt State-Stollmeyer,Corey 1-0; Proulx,Mike 1-0; Stuart,Brian 1-1. Central Washington-Skorney,Andrew 2-2; Leonard,Justin 1-1.

SACKS (UA-A): Humboldt State-None. Central Washington-Dyer,Ryan 4-0; James,Chris 0-1; Wood,Buddy 0-1.

TACKLES (UA-A): Humboldt State-Williams,Jeff 8-2; Davis,Barry 4-4; Reynolds,Bubba 1-7; Ricciardulli,Guy 3-2; Duley,Kevin 4-0; Robinson,Calvin 0-4; Hornsby,Justin 2-1; Swangler,Luke 2-1; Hunkins,Brad 2-1; Calcote,Justin 1-2; Lynch,Michael 1-2; Cossar,Ian 0-3; Garrett,Derrick 1-1; Smith,Matt 1-0; Devlin,Matt 1-0; Gondkoff,Pat 1-0; Proulx,Mike 1-0; Maxwell,Desmond 0-1; Accetta,Jacob 0-1; Green,Corey 0-1; Reyes,Adam 0-1. Central Washington-Dyer,Ryan 6-1; Breitzman,Taylor 3-3; James,Chris 2-4; Wood,Buddy 1-5; Smith,Courtney 4-1; Koopman,John 2-2; Reffett,Mitch 2-2; Bighill,Adam 2-2; Nielsen,Tyrell 1-2; Jamerson,J.R. 1-2; Williams,Jerome 0-3; Coffman,Matt 1-0; Hessler,Chase 1-0; Rogers,Nick 1-0; Finer,Nick 1-0; Spevak,Johnny 1-0; Terukina,Kalani 1-0; Reilly,Mike 1-0; Burton,Austin 0-1; Rolsma,Garrett 0-1; Gran,Jason 0-1.