Football | 9/29/2016 10:23:00 AM

ELLENSBURG, Wash.  (Sept. 29) – The Central Washington University will look to improve to 2-1 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference when they travel to Burnaby, British Columbia Canada this Saturday to take on Simon Fraser at 6 p.m. at Fox Field.    
 
Simon Fraser will enter Saturday with a 17 game losing streak dating back to the 2014 season.  The Clan are 0-4 in 2016, and 0-2 in the GNAC.
 
The Wildcats are coming off an impressive 40-18 victory over Dixie State, where CWU excelled in all facets of the game, including special teams as Tevin Gray scored the game's opening touchdown off a Kyle Connors blocked punt just minutes into the contest.
 
Central Washington holds a commanding 30-10 all-time record over Simon Fraser dating back to 1967.  The Wildcats have won the last five meetings and 15 of the last 17 with the last loss coming in 2011 on the road.
 
The Wildcat defense, that has played well the entire season, racked up seven sacks last game, three of which came from Tovar Sanchez.  Simon Fraser has allowed a conference high 22 sacks this season.  The 22 sacks allowed is also second worst in the nation coming into the week, an average of 5.5 per game.
 
If Sanchez can get 2 sacks on Saturday, he will become the school's all-time leader in career sacks.  He currently sits at 22.5 sacks in his career, just 1.5 behind Jacob Galloway who holds the school record of 24.
 
Coming into last week the Wildcats had just two sacks on the season.  After last week, CWU now has nine on the season and ranks 22^nd in the nation in tackles for loss.
 
"We had a lot of quarterback knockdowns before last week, but we didn't impact enough plays," CWU defensive coordinator Scott Power said.  "It was an emphasis last week to get to the quarterback, and our guys stepped up and did just that.  We have seen a lot of growth from our defense so far this season, and we will continue to get better each game."
 
Justin Lane, who had one of his most impressive performances of his career last week, passing for 215 yards on just nine completions, will look to have another good week against a defense that is allowing 481 yards per game.  Lane should have a lot of help from his talented young group of running backs as SFU allows over 200 yards rushing as well.  With Christian Cummings returning to action, along with Quincy Carter and Jordan Tufaga, who have been very productive, the Wildcats will have a number of weapons to filter into the backfield on Saturday.
 
"Having three backs that can come right in and pick up where the others left off is big for us," CWU Head Coach Ian Shoemaker said.  "We like to run at a quick tempo and if we have just one back it will wear the player out, which can slow us down.  With the backs we have, we can keep the same tempo and have fresh legs come the fourth quarter."
 
Live stats and video of this Saturday's game can be found at Wildcatsports.com.  88.1 The Burg will be broadcasting the game live, and it can also be streamed live here.