Burnaby, BC – In their home openerĀ on SaturdayĀ afternoon at Terry Fox Field, the Simon Fraser University football team suffered their first loss of the 2013 season, dropping the game 30-9 to the Western Oregon Wolves.
All the Clan’s points game via the field goal, making Saturday’s game the first game since the program’s first NCAA game in 2010, ironically also against the Wolves at Terry Fox Field, that SFU did not score a touchdown.
“The penalties we took and the response to some guys having to miss plays wasn’t the image of Clan Football,” said Head Coach Dave Johnson. “Western Oregon is a good enough team that if we make mistakes we’re going to get a result like we did today.”
Simon Fraser took 11 penalties for 117 yards in the game.
Clan quarterback Ryan Stanford (Phoenix, AZ) went 11-17 in the game for 148 yards before leaving with an injury early in the third quarter.
Ryan Blum (Santa Rosa, CA) came on to replace Stanford and went 4-13 for 57 yards.
Clan runningback Chris Tolbert (Silver Springs, MD) had 24 carries for the Clan in the game, racking up 112 yards.
The receiving core was led by Bobby Pospischil (Coquitlam, BC) who had six catches for 86 yards and Casey Chin (Port Moody, BC) led the team in tackles once again with 12.
The two sides traded field goals to start the game, with Chad Heerspink (Lynden, WA) getting the Clan on the board in the first quarter with a 22-yard field goal.
Heerspink’s field goal came at the end of a Clan drive that saw SFU march 70-yards down the field on six plays, inside the Western Oregon 10-yard line.
Jesse Corea matched Heerspink with a 26-yard field goal to tie things up at three all as the first half would become a battle of the kickers.
Heerspink put the Clan back out in front as he capped a seven play, 55-yard drive for the Clan with a 25-yard field goal but the Wolves would close out the half with two field goals from Correa, a 36-yard effort and a 19-yard, to send the home side to their locker room trailing at halftime, 9-6.
Playing in wet and windy conditions, the Clan offence had a tough time putting points on the board in the second half.
On Western Oregon’s second drive of the second half, they scored the games first touchdown on a four play, 54-yard drive that was finished by a two-yard run at the Clan goalline for the score, pulling ahead by 10.
Heerspink added one more field goal for the Clan to pull within a touchdown but two fourth quarter touchdowns for Western Oregon proved too much for the Clan to overcome.
With the loss the Clan’s record now sits at 2-1 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play.
SFU will be back in action on the road next week when they travel to St. George, UT to face the Dixie State College Red Storm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBe6PRjjxNM
Photo credit: Ā Ron Hole
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