It was a start that no statistician predicted, but one that Dave Johnson believes has been four years in the making. The head coach of the Clan football squad has led his team to a dominant 2-0 start to their season, besting conference powerhouses Humboldt State and Central Washington University on the road to begin 2013.
“We have seniors now who played here in 2010 and had a difficult first season getting beat by those teams by huge margins,” explained Johnson. “It became a personal challenge and they have dedicated themselves to training and competing even harder than ever.”
The Week 3 game against CWU started strong for the Clan as they opened the scoring on the first drive with an 18-yard field goal by kicker Chad Heerspink but the home team struck back at the end of the first quarter with a 65-yard touchdown following an SFU pass-interference penalty.
The score remained at a stalemate for the majority of the second quarter before a CWU drive late in the period got the home side within striking distance of the Clan endzone, but a strong defensive line led by linebackers Casey Chin and Mitchell Barnett was able to turn the momentum around and back down the field.
The turn of direction fuelled the Clan offence to another drive similar to their first of the game, resulting in Heerspink recording his second field-goal of the game, this time from 26-yards.
The score was 7–6 for the Wildcats heading into the third quarter and, after trading punts with the home team, the Clan fell further behind following another long touchdown strike—this one of 46-yards—late in the period. But the game was far from over as the best plays of the game were still to come for the Clan.
In the fourth quarter, runningback Chris Tolbert, in his first season with the Clan, was able to convert the Clan’s first touchdown of the game, and would move the score to within two points, prompting Johnson to go for a two-point conversion play. SFU was able to capitalize as Bobby Pospischil caught the pass from quarterback Ryan Stanford, another player in his first season at SFU, to tie the game at 14 apiece.
With the clock counting down safety Chandler Gayton forced a Wildcat fumble on the three-yard line giving the visitors the chance they needed to end the game. Moving down the field, SFU put themselves into position for a trick-play, and the Clan executed flawlessly as a screen pass to back-up quarter-back Ryan Blum went uncontested resulting in pass to Tolbert for a 27-yard touchdown and the extra point to follow. At 21-14 the Clan recorded their first victory in the Ellensburg stadium over the Wildcats since 1980.
The strong start to the season has sparked increasing interest into the Clan’s program, and the team received their first ever vote in the American Football Coaches Association poll. The Clan also rank seventh nationally in passing average with 378 yards per game following their second victory of the season.
SFU also has two national category leaders on their roster as Chin is leading in interceptions, with two in his two games this season, and Barnett has two fumble recoveries in two games leading that category as well.
Chris Tolbert also received recognition following his team’s 2-0 start, winning the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Co-Offensive Athlete of the Week award. The junior transfer was key to the Clan’s second victory, catching four passes and rushing for 106-yards on the day, including two total touchdowns.
Moving forward the Clan will look to continue their 2013 success at home as they play at Terry Fox Field for the first time this year. The Clan host conference rivals Western Oregon, who they have yet to beat at home or on the road, at their 2013 home opener.
“They are easily the biggest team we will play this year, but we just need to take care of what we can take care of,” said Johnson of Western Oregon. When a team is unbeaten, scoring wins against the two top-ranked teams in its conference and still has much to improve on heading into its home opener, the only place to go is up. “It’s been nice to have such a great start,” said Johnson, “but . . . we need to execute on offence and fill gaps on defence and if we do what our system requires it will be successful.”
