BSC Week 9 Review
Lance Berndt & Kris Kallem, BSC Contributors | November 03, 2015
Kris Says-
Eastern Washington 14, Weber State 13
Sustained 30 mph winds and rain turned this game into a low possession, battle of field position. In fact, Eastern had just two drives the entire game where they were going with the wind. The Wildcats more than doubled up Eastern in first downs (27-10) and total yardage (412-189), and held the ball for 23 more minutes. Weber lost the game missing two late field goals with the wind. Eastern may have won the game on the leg of 3rd string quarterback Gage Gubrud who’s rugby style punts away from Weber’s returners were able to flip the field against the wind. Eastern’s defense kept an opposing offense out of the endzone for the first time this season.
Northern Arizona 63, Northern Colorado 21
The Lumberjacks jump all over Northern Colorado going up 42-7 at half. Case Cookus threw 4 touchdowns to Emmanuel Butler alone and Casey Jahn chipped in 171 yards and 2 rushing touchdowns. Since their loss at Montana, NAU is now averaging 47 points per game. The Northern Arizona defense did its part holding an opponent to it’s lowest point total of the year.
Lance says-
North Dakota 44, Montana State 38
UND puts up its highest scoring total in their Big Sky conference play history running all over the Bobcats en route to this big home win. The Bobcats were able to tie the game 5 separate times, but they never took the lead. It was a very sloppy fourth quarter with three straight drives ending in lost fumbles, but North Dakota finally scored what would be the game-winning touchdown with just over a minute remaining on a John Santiago TD run. North Dakota rushed for an astounding 426 yards. John Santiago and Brady Oliveira found holes in the MSU defense all day combining for 397 yards and 4 TDs on 42 carries. Probably the strangest statistic to take away from the game is that even though there were 82 combined points scored, there were 7 turnovers in the game.
Southern Utah 54, Cal Poly 37
Sure, Cal Poly is just 2-6, but this is a statement win for Southern Utah because of the margin of victory. Cal Poly very nearly beat the other top teams in the conference, but made too many errors in this one and lost by 17 points. It’s a continuing trend for the Thunderbirds. Yes, they have played an arguably weak schedule, but they have beaten their opponents much more impressively than others have done. The big stat for Southern Utah in this one comes from the defense who tallied 3 fumble recoveries returned for a touchdown. Mike Needham had two of those and James Cowser had the other. After Southern Utah took an early 17-3 lead on Needham’s first TD, Cal Poly never again got within 9 points of the T-birds lead. Turnovers were once again the struggle for Cal Poly. They were able to gain 155 more yards, but Southern Utah forced them into 6 turnovers. For the game, Mike Needham posted 12 solo tackles, 20 total tackles, a tackle for loss, a forced fumble, and the two aforementioned fumble recoveries that were both returned for TDs. James Cowser almost posted a solid line with 8 tackles, 2 sacks, a forced fumble, and 2 fumble recoveries returning one for a touchdown and took the other one a noteworthy 45 yards which was quickly followed by an offensive TD. Look out, because Southern Utah is solidifying itself as a conference title contender.
Portland State 35, Montana 16
Yet another big win for the Vikings as their defense frustrated Montana quarterback Makena Simis all night. It is Portland State’s biggest win and just their third win over Montana since 1988. The Viking offense once again had a good rushing performance with 368 yards on the ground. RB David Jones and QB Alex Kuresa combined for 284 of those yards and 3 TDs on 40 carries. The PSU defense was lead by Patrick Onwuasor who had 3 interceptions and 8 total tackles. All 3 of those interceptions came in the first quarter. The defense also recorded 5 sacks with Michael Doman tallying 2.5 of those. With games against both Southern Utah and Eastern Washington going forward, Portland State is still in control of its conference championship destiny.
The Big Sky/Root Sports Players of the week are:
Offense
For the offense it is Northern Arizona’s QB Case Cookus. The freshman passed from 7 touchdowns and completed 25 of 31 passes for 363 yards in just three quarters of play.
Defense
On defense, the honor goes to Patrick Onwuasor from Portland State. He tied a Portland State record with 3 interceptions, all coming in the first quarter of PSU’s win over Montana.
Special Teams
For the Special Teams it must have been a pretty boring week in the Big Sky. The honor goes to NAU kicker Ryan Hawkins who was a perfect 10 for 10 on kickoffs resulting in touchbacks.