In the second quarter Saturday afternoon, you could see things start to turn around for the SFU football team. After allowing Humboldt State to score on every drive in the first and put up 28 points, the defence began to find their feet.
On an offensive drive by Humboldt that lasted 6:47, SFU held them to just a field goal, and on a drive a few plays later by the Lumberjacks, SFU forced a turnover on downs at the goal line. (The offence was put into a tough position, and surrendered a safety, but they’d probably rather surrender the two points than a touchdown or even a field goal.)
A big sack by defensive lineman Kyle Wilson for eight yards with a minute left in the quarter was a highlight.
Though they’d surrendered a further 12 points by the end of the quarter, you could see the defence playing with some confidence.
In the second half, the two teams tied on the scoreboard, each putting up a single touchdown. It was probably the best two quarters of football that fans on Burnaby Mountain have seen played all season.
The strong play was mostly against a team of second-strings — Humboldt rested starting quarterback Robert Webber in the second half and star running back Ja’Quan Gardner stopped playing after the first quarter. But it was encouraging to see competitive play against the back-ups, something that wasn’t always the case in the previous five losses that saw SFU allow 60-plus points a game.
“It was our young guys getting better,” said head coach Kelly Bates, of a team that has only three seniors. “We always stress playing physical and executing at a high level, and those are the things we focus on. Like I told them after the game, our kids can compete with their second-level kids, and really we’re all the same age in that respect. That shows good for the future.”
SFU’s lone scoring drive commenced at the end of the third quarter. Quarterback Miles Richardson began the drive with two successful passes to Rysen John, for a combined 20 yards.
Richardson ran it himself for a 14-yard first down with about 30 seconds left in the quarter. The final play of the frame was perhaps the highlight of the game, with Nathanael Durkan catching a 33-yard long pass at the same time as the Humboldt State defensive back, to make the impressive first down.
Running back Dionte Simon, who started at the position as Jalen Jana did not play, shined on the drive. Simon, a transfer from the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision Utah State where he redshirted last year, made three receptions on the drive including the seven-yard catch for the touchdown.
Richardson was perfect on the drive, not missing a pass and finished the game with 238 passing yards. As well, he had two interceptions and five sacks. Durkan put up 86 receiving yards on seven receptions. Simon had 71 yards of total offence.
Freshman Brendan Lowry had nine tackles, while Deondre Townsend had seven. Wilson and Brad Lyons each produced one sack.
SFU will be in tough next weekend against the GNAC’s best team, Central Washington. The Wildcats are undefeated on the season, and play with the best defence in the conference and are also one of the best rushing offences.
“We’ve just got to play with heart,” said Richardson. “And I think in the second half, we started just really doing that, playing with heart and not allowing things to get in our way. Just rolling into that second half, we just had that mentality that there’s nothing to lose at that point. We just need to have that mentality at the beginning.”
The game will mark SFU’s final home game of the season, and will be the final game at Terry Fox Field for seniors Justin Buren, Trevor Kemp, and Jordan Leech.
Kickoff is at 1 p.m.
[…] As previously published on the-peak.ca. […]