Monmouth, Ore. – The Central Washington University football team shutout Western Oregon University 42-0 to improve to 7-0 on the season and 5-0 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
 
The defense once again set the tone for the Wildcats, holding Western Oregon to just 261 yards of offense and took the ball away three times. 
 
The CWU offense started slow with a missed field goal and a punt in the first two drives, but the Wildcat defense stayed strong and kept the Wolves from gaining any momentum.
 
Reilly Hennessey gathered the troops and broke the scoreless tie with 1:27 to go in the first quarter, finding an open Christian Gasca who pin-balled off numerous WOU tacklers to rumble into the end zone for a 65-yard touchdown.
 
The late first quarter score ignited the CWU offense that went on to score on five-straight possesions, all of which came off a Hennessey pass.  Hennessey followed up his GNAC Player of the Week performance, with his most impressive outing to date.  The junior was 24 of 32 for 364 yards and threw five touchdowns for the third straight game.
 
Gasca caught five catches for a career-high 14 yards and two scores.  Tight end Kyle Self caught his seventh touchdown of the season, while true freshman Samuel Sanchez caught his first pass of his career, a four-yard touchdown in the second quarter.
 
Kevin Haynes led all players in tackles, taking down 12 ball carriers on the day, and added a sack.  The Wildcats totaled five sacks on the day, by five different players.  In addition to Haynes, Tevin Gray, Billy Greer, Jackson Huerta, and Sean Elledge each were credited with a sack.  Gray also set a new career-high with eight tackles.
 
The CWU defense limited Western Oregon to an average of just 5.7 plays per possession.  Of the 13 offensive drives for the Wolves, only four ended on CWU's end of the field, two of which started on the Wildcats side of the 50. 
 
Bo Banner scored the defense's second touchdown of the season, intercepting the Wolves shovel pass attempt, tacking it back 41 yards for a second quarter score.
 
Central Washington plays its final non-conference game of the season next week when they host North Alabama in Tomlinson Stadium at 1 p.m. on Sept. 21.