ELLENSBURG, Wash. — Celebrating homecoming with a focused effort, Central Washington rolled up 298 yards of offense in the first half on the way to a 38-7 win over Humboldt State on Saturday.
The Wildcats, ranked No. 2 in this week's Division II national poll, kept their perfect season alive by improving to 9-0 overall and 4-0 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. Humboldt State dropped to 4-4 overall and 0-4 in the GNAC.
"(Central Washington) is as advertised, the No. 2 team in the country," HSU head coach
Rob Smith said. "They have a long way to go yet this season. Good, senior-laden teams like they are can do a lot of things well."
Quarterback Cole Morgan directed the CWU offense to 470 total yards, completing 14-of-27 passes for 182 yards and two touchdowns. His leading receiver was Johnny Spevak, who hauled in 7 catches for 95 yards and a touchdown
Randall Eldridge rushed for 66 yards on 19 carries and scored two touchdowns for CWU. His first came on a 6-yard rush that put Central Washington ahead, 7-0 just over five minutes into the game.
Bryson Kelly was the Wildcats' leader with 93 yards on six carries, 72 of the yards coming on a second-half touchdown run. Kelly also added two catches for 44 yards.
Mike Proulx finished 11-of-19 for 139 yards passing for the Jacks, all but 12 of it coming in the second half.
Chris Bolt shared the passing duties, finishing 9-of-20 for 58 yards with one interception. HSU's ground game was kept under control,
Corey Stollmeyer leading the way with nine carries for only 33 yards of the Jacks' 78 total.
Opponents had outscored Humboldt State by a combined 12 points in the Jacks' three previous losses, including a 34-27 loss to Central Washington on Oct. 10 in Arcata. This time, the Wildcats built a 31-0 lead by the half, holding HSU to only three first downs in the period and controlling the clock throughout.
Humboldt State's first real crack at the endzone came early in the third quarter, when the Jacks drove 78 yards on nine plays, all the way to the 2-yard line. Central Washington's defense held, however, taking the ball back on downs when the Jacks failed to convert on four tries from inside the 5-yard line.
HSU controlled the rest of the quarter, however, moving the ball 80 yards on 10 plays in its next drive. A 22-yard pass completion from Proulx to
Matt Devlin and a 25-yard hookup to
Dirk Dallas keyed the march, and Stollmeyer completed it with a 2-yard touchdown run that cut the lead to 31-7.
"This is a difficult atmosphere to play in, and we were on our heels in the first half," Smith said. "I was pleased the way we came out in the second half and played much, much better. The second half was about playing better, and playing with more emotion."
Humboldt State's defense also rallied in the second half, holding CWU to a single touchdown. Most of Central's second-half offense came on the 72-yard touchdown run by Kelly with 6:49 remaining to be played.
Leading tacklers for the Lumberjacks were
Bubba Reynolds with 14 tackles and
Guy Ricciardulli with eight. Ricciardulli, who also forced a fumble, left the game early in the third quarter with an injury.
The Lumberjacks are back on the road next week, heading to Monmouth, Ore. to face Western Oregon at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Humboldt State vs #2 Central Washington (Oct 24, 2009 at Ellensburg, WA)
Score by Quarters 1 2 3 4 Score
----------------- -- -- -- -- -----
Humboldt State...... 0 0 7 0 - 7 Record: (4-4,0-4)
Central Washington.. 10 21 0 7 - 38 Record: (9-0,4-0)
Scoring Summary:
1st 09:50 CWU - Eldridge,Randall 6 yd run (Rolsma,Garrett kick), 12-68 5:10, HSU 0 - CWU 7
04:31 CWU - Rolsma,Garrett 47 yd field goal, 8-55 3:22, HSU 0 - CWU 10
2nd 08:55 CWU - Spevak,Johnny 30 yd pass from Morgan,Cole (Rolsma,Garrett kick), 7-75 2:46, HSU 0 - CWU 17
06:07 CWU - Squires,Griffin 2 yd pass from Morgan,Cole (Rolsma,Garrett kick), 3-11 1:00, HSU 0 - CWU 24
00:42 CWU - Eldridge,Randall 5 yd run (Rolsma,Garrett kick), 7-53 2:50, HSU 0 - CWU 31
3rd 01:16 HSU - Stollmeyer,Corey 2 yd run (Schierholt,Kyle kick), 10-80 4:02, HSU 7 - CWU 31
4th 06:49 CWU - Kelly,Bryson 72 yd run (Rolsma,Garrett kick), 3-79 1:20, HSU 7 - CWU 38
HSU CWU
FIRST DOWNS................... 17 21
RUSHES-YARDS (NET)............ 26-78 46-288
PASSING YDS (NET)............. 197 182
Passes Att-Comp-Int........... 39-20-1 27-14-0
TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS..... 65-275 73-470
Fumble Returns-Yards.......... 1-18 0-0
Punt Returns-Yards............ 0-0 3-56
Kickoff Returns-Yards......... 6-91 1-10
Interception Returns-Yards.... 0-0 1-20
Punts (Number-Avg)............ 8-35.1 4-42.5
Fumbles-Lost.................. 2-0 3-1
Penalties-Yards............... 5-51 4-35
Possession Time............... 28:10 31:50
Third-Down Conversions........ 4 of 15 12 of 20
Fourth-Down Conversions....... 0 of 2 1 of 2
Red-Zone Scores-Chances....... 1-2 3-4
Sacks By: Number-Yards........ 0-0 1-5
RUSHING: Humboldt State-Stollmeyer,Corey 9-33; Wyatt,Daniel 4-24;
Allen,Sergio 1-21; Proulx,Mike 4-1; Bolt,Chris 7-0; TEAM 1-minus 1. Central
Washington-Kelly,Bryson 6-93; Eldridge,Randall 19-66; Morris,Jerome 11-56;
Morgan,Cole 4-31; Cardin,Tyler 3-30; Weems,Jamal 1-8; Davis,Dominick 1-3;
Smith,Chris 1-1.
PASSING: Humboldt State-Bolt,Chris 9-20-1-58; Proulx,Mike 11-19-0-139.
Central Washington-Morgan,Cole 14-27-0-182.
RECEIVING: Humboldt State-Dallas,Dirk 4-66; Devlin,Matt 4-40;
Allen,Sergio 4-36; Henry,Edwin 3-16; Smith,Matt 2-17; Stollmeyer,Corey 2-16;
Wyatt,Daniel 1-6. Central Washington-Spevak,Johnny 7-95; Kelly,Bryson 2-44;
Westmoreland,Reggie 2-35; Weems,Jamal 2-6; Squires,Griffin 1-2.
INTERCEPTIONS: Humboldt State-None. Central Washington-Madon,Loa 1-20.
FUMBLES: Humboldt State-TEAM 1-0; Bolt,Chris 1-0. Central
Washington-Spevak,Johnny 1-0; Williams,Jerome 1-0; Eldridge,Randall 1-1.
Stadium: Tomlinson Stadium Attendance: 5410
Kickoff time: 1:01 pm End of Game: 3:47 pm Total elapsed time: 2:46
Officials: Referee: Mark Koch; Umpire: Dan Meyer; Linesman: Carl Del Grande;
Line judge: Gavin Anderson; Back judge: Mike Williams; Field judge: Steve Currie;
Side judge: R. Petkevicius; Temperature: 57 deg F Wind: 10 NNW Weather: Sunny
