When eight points are scored on an opening drive, it’s considered a great offensive start. However, those points usually go to a single team; this wasn’t the case last Saturday.
The Clan looked to be headed for a promising start — a rarity for SFU — on Senior’s Day against the Central Washington Wildcats. Quarterback Ryan Stanford threw a 40-yarder to Lemar Durant, right after tossing one for 15 yards to running back Stephen Spagnuolo, bringing his team to the goal line on their first drive.
Although the Clan have a tendency to miss opportunities in the end zone, this time they followed through, putting up a six-point lead, with Spagnuolo finishing the drive. Normally, six would become seven with the extra kick point, and the Clan would have actually started with positive momentum.
Instead, the Wildcats blocked the kick and ran it into the other endzone, a rare occurrence worth two points for Central Washington. SFU was still in the lead — by four points — but all that positive momentum for the Clan dissipated.
A great initial push turned into another flat first half, with the Clan unable to put another point on the board until the fourth quarter — and allowing 37 points before then.
Head coach Jacques Chapdelaine speculates that the Senior’s Day festivities — which honoured 19 seniors playing their last game in a Clan uniform — contributed to the weak start.
“It’s a long day, it’s a different day, the Senior’s Day, and especially [since] we’re honouring 19 guys, which is a really large graduating class. So it does bring down [the energy] a little bit,” he explained.
Spagnuolo, who was among the seniors playing their last game at SFU, said, “We came out flat and we didn’t play well in the first half.”
However, despite being down 30-6 at the beginning of the fourth quarter — which 15 seconds later became 37-6 — the Clan did not go quietly. They put up 21 points in the fourth, and allowed only 10 in the whole second half.
Spagnuolo, whose 136 all-purpose yard performance was a key contributor to SFU’s final stand, explained, “If you would have told me that I’d come out of here with a 40-27 loss [feeling happy], I’d probably think you’re crazy.”
Spagnuolo looked solid on the field, but he explains he was nervous entering his last game with the Clan: “I had a lot of mixed emotions going in, more nerves than I’ve ever had in my whole entire life. I couldn’t even eat breakfast this morning, because [I had] so many nerves. But once I got out here and I saw all my buddies, I was relieved and ready to play football.”
In a game that looked poised to become a blowout — much like the Clan’s first loss to the Wildcats with a score of 63-7 — the defence tightened up, not allowing a single score by the Wildcat offence in the third quarter.
In the second quarter, when starting quarterback Stanford went down with a clavicle injury, backup Tyler Nickel was pulled in favour of third-string quarterback Mitchell Rushton. However, Chapdelaine put Nickel back in for the second half, where he played a key role in SFU’s resurgence, throwing two touchdown passes and running one in himself.
“I thought [Nickel] was a lot better, to say the least, than in the first half,” explained the head coach. “If they’re not established starters, they don’t see themselves in that role, and you always have to prepare yourself like you’re going to be playing.”
With 13:08 left in the game, Nickel put SFU back on the score sheet with a 25-yard pass to senior wide receiver Bobby Pospischil.
Though the Wildcats would score one more field goal to round out their points to 40, the rest of the game was all Clan. Nickel ran the ball in for 20 yards on the third down for the team’s third touchdown.
The last of the game — and a great closer to a less-than-stellar season — came with only 30 seconds left. The drive, which included a last 28-yard pass to senior Pospischil, ended with Nickel throwing it one last time to Spagnuolo for the game’s closing touchdown, concluding the game at 40-27 for the Wildcats.
“Every time you go in and you meet with a little bit of adversity [. . .] we learn something from it. I think we displayed that in the second half, we learned and we responded,” said Chapdelaine.
Although SFU could not manage the full comeback, they sent off the seniors with a great fourth quarter performance, and ended the season on a high note.
Now, Chapdelaine has a heavy task ahead of him: filling the spots left by the 19 departing seniors. Listing both the offensive and defensive lines as focuses of recruiting, he explains that he has already begun the process.
Said Chapdelaine, “We’ve already made eight offers [. . .] We’re very aggressive in what we’re doing, and we’re looking forward to getting some great student athletes into our school.”
While the team looks to fill his spot, Spagnuolo looks ahead to his future after the Clan.
“I’ve got to plan out my life now,” explains the 5’9 Vancouver-born running back. “I’ll try and pursue the CFL draft, if that doesn’t go well I might try and play football in Europe, and if not I’ll be a teacher.”
