ASHLAND, Ore. — Character overcame youth on Saturday, helping Humboldt State claim its first win under head coach Rob Smith, a dramatic 15-14 victory over Southern Oregon University.

Freshman quarterback Mike Proulx came off the bench in the second half to help the Jacks come back from an 11-3 deficit and even their record at 1-1. Southern Oregon nearly pulled off a comeback of their own, but HSU defensive back Justin Price intercepted a pass at the Humboldt State 18-yard line with just over a minute to play to end the threat.

"Are they all going to going to go this way?" Smith said, after being congratulated on his first HSU victory. "I guess if they all end like this, I'll take them."

Humboldt State's defense kept the Jacks within striking distance after surrendering an early score on Brian Lee-Lauduski's 42-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Stout. That score, with a failed PAT, came less than two
minutes into the game, and a 28-yard field goal by Corey O'Neill gave the Raiders a 9-0 lead.

Humboldt State's only score of the first half came on Enrique Leyva's 44-yard field goal. The Jacks handed the Raiders two points in the second quarter when a punt snapped sailed through the endzone for a safety.

Lee-Lauduski put together a solid effort throughout, utilizing the short pass to complete 28-of-47 for 343 yards. His downfall was the interception, however, HSU's Guy Ricciardulli picking off two passes, Casey Neligh one, and Price coming up with the game-clincher.

The Lumberjacks also put up an impressive goal-line-stand that forced the Raiders to settle for O'Neill's 19-yard field goal and a 14-9 lead with 7:05 remaining. Bubba Reynolds finished as the Jacks' leading tackler with 11 and Justin Calcote added 10.

"That was an outstanding effort by the defense" Smith said. "They deserve all the credit in the world for persevering."

Proulx, who redshirted in 2007, registered the first touchdown pass of his collegiate career when he found Matt Smith, who made a diving catch in the endzone to cut the SOU lead to 11-9. Proulx finished the evening 5-of-10 passing for 58 yards and the single touchdown.

"(Proulx's) not the flashiest quarterback, but he manages the offense as well as anyone," Smith said. "He's very sound in his understanding of the situation. He's a very good student, and he carries that onto the field."

Humboldt's decisive drive began with seven minutes remaining, but lasted only 58 seconds as Proulx directed the offense 85 yards for the score. The key play came when wide receiver Kevin Miles took a lateral pass from
Proulx, then turned and completed a 46-yard pass to Mike Streck-Woodard that moved the ball to the 8-yard-line.

Proulx called his own number on the next play, outracing the defense around the right end for the winning touchdown.

Humboldt State makes its home debut Saturday when Western Washington comes to Redwood Bowl for a 6 p.m. kickoff. Smith's previous tenure as a head coach was as WWU's head coach, where he served for 17 years.



Score by Quarters     1  2  3  4   Score
-----------------    -- -- -- --   -----
Humboldt State......  3  0  6  6  - 15       Record: (1-1)
Southern Oregon.....  9  2  0  3  - 14       Record: (1-1)



Scoring Summary:
1st 13:43 SOU - Brandon Stout 42 yd pass from B. Lee-Lauduski (Corey
O'Neill kick failed), 4-71 1:17, HSU 0 - SOU 6
    05:16 SOU - Corey O'Neill 28 yd field goal, 4-0 1:44, HSU 0 - SOU 9
    01:52 HSU - Leyva 44 yd field goal, 10-64 3:19, HSU 3 - SOU 9
2nd 08:09 SOU - Team safety, , HSU 3 - SOU 11
3rd 05:55 HSU - Smith,M. 27 yd pass from Proulx (Proulx pass failed), 6-73
3:45, HSU 9 - SOU 11
4th 07:05 SOU - Corey O'Neill 19 yd field goal, 12-63 4:31, HSU 9 - SOU 14
    06:02 HSU - Proulx 8 yd run (Proulx pass failed), 4-85 0:58, HSU 15 -
SOU 14



                                    HSU      SOU
FIRST DOWNS...................       15       19
RUSHES-YARDS (NET)............   37-164    26-50
PASSING YDS (NET).............      139      343
Passes Att-Comp-Int...........  26-14-0  47-28-4
TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS.....   63-303   73-393
Fumble Returns-Yards..........      0-0      0-0
Punt Returns-Yards............     4-29    2--40
Kickoff Returns-Yards.........     4-37     4-93
Interception Returns-Yards....      4-5      0-0
Punts (Number-Avg)............   5-34.2   6-40.8
Fumbles-Lost..................      3-2      0-0
Penalties-Yards...............     5-44    8-101
Possession Time...............    26:58    33:02
Third-Down Conversions........  4 of 14  6 of 16
Fourth-Down Conversions.......   0 of 1   1 of 1
Red-Zone Scores-Chances.......      1-1      2-3
Sacks By: Number-Yards........     2-14      2-8


RUSHING: Humboldt State-Thomas 5-54; Stuart 6-44; Cueva 8-43; Proulx
9-28; Hildebrand 8-5; Schierholt 1-minus 10. Southern Oregon-Marlon Rosales
14-34; Marquis Malcom 8-29; B. Lee-Lauduski 4-minus 13.

PASSING: Humboldt State-Hildebrand 8-15-0-35; Proulx 5-10-0-58; Miles
1-1-0-46. Southern Oregon-B. Lee-Lauduski 28-47-4-343.

RECEIVING: Humboldt State-Miles 4-17; Streck-Woodard 2-53; Smith,M. 2-33;
Stuart 2-8; Thomas 1-14; Stearns 1-8; Cueva 1-3; Simmons 1-3. Southern
Oregon-Darryl Price 9-129; D. Patenaude 8-50; Vance Beach 4-55; Brian Harding
3-42; Brandon Stout 2-48; Steve Jorgensen 1-11; Marlon Rosales 1-8.

INTERCEPTIONS: Humboldt State-Ricciardulli 2-0; Neligh 1-5; Price 1-0.
Southern Oregon-None.

FUMBLES: Humboldt State-Miles 2-1; Hildebrand 1-1. Southern Oregon-None.

Stadium: Raider Stadium        Attendance: 1037
Kickoff time: 6 p.m.    End of Game: 8:55 p.m  Total elapsed time: 2:55
Officials: Referee: Erick Watson; Umpire: Rob Buccieri; Linesman: Jim Rinne;
Line judge: Steve Hoslett; Back judge: Mike Baker; Field judge: Brian Burns;
Side judge: John Santi; Scorer: Bobby Heiken;
Temperature: 85        Wind: N10       Weather: WARM

Dan Pambianco
Assistant Athletic Director/Media Relations
Humboldt State University
dmp1@humboldt.edu
hsujacks.com