Game Notes

ELLENSBURG (Sept. 16) — Central Washington University and Western Oregon University have been meeting on the football field since 1936. It's the longest rivalry involving Central and any of its Great Northwest Athletic Conference foes. The series resumes Saturday in Monmouth, Ore.
 
McArthur Field will be the site of for the 52nd clash between the Wildcats and Wolves. Both teams are coming off wins in their last outings. CWU scored 41 unanswered points in a 48-14 win over visiting Dixie State University. Meanwhile, Western Oregon traveled to Burnaby, B.C. and the Wolves also were impressive on offense, scoring 17 straight points over a seven-minute span, in a 38-14 victory at Simon Fraser University.
 
After reviewing video from Western Oregon's first two games, which included a hard-fought 45-28 loss to NCAA Division I FCS opponent Portland State, CWU's first-year head coach Ian Shoemaker called the Wolves "impressive."
 
"It's going to be a challenge," he added. "They do good things on the offensive side. They have a quarterback out of Issaquah [Wash., Ryan Bergman] and they're returning the [GNAC] defensive lineman of the year [Kraig Akins]. There are some heavy asks [of the Wildcats] going into Saturday."
 
Last year, CWU turned the ball over three times in a 32-26 loss in Monmouth as Bergman threw for 405 yards and four touchdowns. The loss eliminated CWU from GNAC title contention.
 
CWU won Saturday over Dixie State despite turning the ball over four times, twice on fumbles and twice on interceptions. That's something Shoemaker says can't happen this weekend.
 
"What I told the guys after the [Dixie] game—it's what I told everybody—is our turnover margin has to be on the plus side for us to win against high-end opponents like Western Oregon," Shoemaker pointed out. "That's going to be a rallying cry—a team rallying cry—on both sides, defense getting the ball out and offense taking care of it and making sure we're not giving them extra possessions.
 
On top of that, it's considered a rivalry game by both sides.
 
"Western Oregon has taken over as one of the bigger rivals that we have," Shoemaker acknowledged. "Those kids [CWU and WOU players] are more familiar with each other here in the Northwest than they are with any other team that they'll play on the schedule."
 
Saturday's contest, a non-conference game, is the first of two football meetings scheduled between the Wildcats and Wolves this season. The second, Saturday, Oct. 18, at Tomlinson Stadium in Ellensburg, will be a GNAC counter.
 
CWU is after its eighth GNAC title in 12 years in 2014. The Wildcats were picked second in the GNAC in the pre-season coaches poll with 28 points. Western Oregon, only a point behind in the poll, was picked third and the Wolves received one first-place vote.
 
Kickoff Saturday is scheduled for 1 p.m.