ELLENSBURG, Wash. – The Central Washington University Football Team (7-3, 6-2 LSC) will wrap up the regular season hosting Pacific Northwest rival, the Western Oregon Wolves (6-4, 6-2 LSC) on Saturday, Nov. 16 at 1:00 p.m. from Steve Hertling Field at Tomlinson Stadium.
Saturday's game will honor 23 Wildcat seniors prior to kickoff:
Jeremy Banks,
Isaac Clark,
Jaylen Clay Josiah Cochran,
Marcus Cook,
Cam Daniels,
Dajshon Deams,
Darrell Duckett,
Bridger Feldmann,
Tyler Flanagan,
Darrien Gaines,
Axel Isackson,
Chase Loidhamer,
Jackson McCann,
Daniel Mendoza,
Darius Morrison,
Josiah Nikolao,
LaMarq Patterson,
Titan Phillips,
Dan Stewart,
Noah Thompson,
Tanner Volk, and
Dominic Wieburg.
GAME INFORMATION
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LAST WEEK
The Wildcats defeated LSC-newcomers Sul Ross State 66-0 last Saturday evening for Military Appreciation Day.
It didn't take long for the Wildcats to get momentum. The second play of the game turned into a
Tanner Volk interception as the Wildcat offense took the field for the first time with 14:46 left in the first quarter. The Wildcats didn't let Volk's interception go to waste as one play was all CWU needed as
Kennedy McGill found
Marcus Cook for the 83-yard touchdown and with the
Cooper Britton point after the touchdown, the Wildcats had the 7-0 lead with 14:34 left in the first quarter. McGill capped off the next Wildcat drive with a 24-yard touchdown dime to
Andrew Molloy. Britton drilled the PAT and the 'Cats led 14-0 with 11:16 left in the first.
Still with 6:33 left in the first quarter, Flanagan punched in a six-yard rushing touchdown, and on the next drive
Beau Phillips earned his first collegiate touchdown with a 23-yard rushing touchdown and with a pair of Britton PATs made it 28-0 CWU with 1:04 left in the first. CWU wasn't done in the first as a fumble recovered by
Daniel Mendoza helped McGill run in a 30-yard touchdown to make it 35-0 CWU at the end of the first.
Cam Daniels made it 42-0 CWU in the second quarter with a five-yard touchdown and a Britton PAT and it was followed by a botched punt by SRSU that set McGill up to connect with
Stephen Woodward for a half-yard touchdown pass to make it 49-0 after the Britton PAT. Flanagan added a 21-yard rushing touchdown that was followed by another
Tanner Volk interception that set Britton up for the 38-yard field goal to give CWU the 59-0 halftime lead.
A fake punt by the Lobos that was intercepted by
Daniel Mendoza helped
Ki'Marree Washington march his way down the field to log a touchdown and make it 66-0 CWU.
McGill finished the game 8/10 for 140 yards, throwing three touchdowns and adding 50 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown. Flangan led the rushing corps with 89 yards and two touchdowns with Daniels not far behind with 88 yards and one touchdown. Washington added 82 yards and another touchdown while Phillips finished with 37 rushing yards and another touchdown.
Marcus Cook led the receivers with three receptions for 85 yards and a touchdown while Molloy added his 24-yard touchdown reception and Woodward added his one-yard touchdown reception.
Edward was the leader of the Wildcats defense with four tackles, adding a sack. 26 different Wildcats recorded at least one tackle. Van Diepen had two tackles for loss,
Jairus Phillips had one tackle for loss, and
Chase Coalson, Emmsley, Clark, and
Josiah Cochran all had a half tackle for loss. Volk forced one fumble and had two interceptions. Mendoza had one forced fumble, one fumble recovery, one interception, and one pass breakup. Emmsley also recorded a fumble recovery. Matulich had a blocked kick and a pass breakup while Jones recorded an interception and a pass breakup and
LaMarq Patterson had two pass breakups.
Dan Stewart had two punts for 108 yards with both landing in the SRSU 20-yard line. Cook had one punt return for 10 yards while Phillips had one kick return for 22 yards. Britton was a perfect 9/9 on PAT attempts and drilled his only field goal attempt of 38-yards.
Wyatt Redding had 11 kickoffs for 666 yards with two landing as touchbacks.
ABOUT THE WOLVES
Western Oregon is 6-4 on the year and 6-2 in LSC play. They opened their season with back-to-back losses at NCAA Division I schools Idaho State (50-10) and Cal Poly (31-14). They earned their first victory at Sul Ross State by a 39-17 score, backing it up with a 24-16 home-opening victory over West Texas A&M. They then swept the New Mexico schools, at Western 34-10 and vs. Eastern 49-20. WOU traveled down to UTPB where they earned the 30-27 overtime victory before suffering their first LSC loss of the season against Texas A&M-Kingsville by a 21-14 score. They bounced back for a 21-16 victory at Midwestern State but fell last weekend against Angelo State 38-16.
WOU is currently outscoring their opponents by a slim margin, scoring 25.1 points per game compared to the 24.6 they're giving. They're currently outrushing their opponents 190 yards per game to the 101.3 yards per game their opponents are averaging. The Wolves have some ground to make up in the passing game as they're only averaging 147.5 yards per game compared to the 237.8 yards per game their opponents are averaging. Combined, the Wolves are getting slightly outgained 337.5 yards per game to the 339.1 yards, they're giving up on average each game.
WOU has utilized a two-quarterback system this year with Kainoa Jones and Jordan McCarty each logging significant reps as quarterback. Jones has completed 59/98 attempts throwing for 758 yards, five touchdowns, and one interception while McCarty has completed 56/102 attempts throwing for 663 yards and four touchdowns and no interceptions. Dominique Loggins has been a force for the WOU ground game recording 675 yards and five touchdowns on 136 attempts. McCarty is the next top rusher for WOU with 316 yards and five touchdowns on 82 attempts. Damon Hickok has been the favorite target with 40 receptions, 630 yards, and four touchdowns while Keyvaun Eady is next in line with 14 reception, 204 yards, and three touchdowns.
"We'll have to control the line of scrimmage," CWU Head Football Coach
Chris Fisk said. "Those guys are very good up front, they have a massive offensive line that helps them run the ball well."
Malcolm Liufau has been the leader of the Wolves defense with 60 tackles, nine tackles for loss, three sacks, one pass breakup, four quarterback hurries, and three forced fumbles. Jospeh Northcutt and JJ Tofaeono are tied for the most sacks for the Wolves with 4.5 each while Andrew Simpson has recorded six interceptions and 11 pass breakups on the season. Northcutt and Tofaeono each have 10 quarterback hurries as well while Cody Hall has two blocked kicks on the season.
"They have a very very active and physical defensive line that controls the line of scrimmage hence why they're second in the conference in rushing yards allowed at 101 yards per game. When I look at it, it's a lot like playing Angelo. I think it's their strengths versus our strengths and vise versa."
Kyle Babcock has 51 punts for the Wolves this year, punting for 1,918 yards with 12 landing inside the opponents 20-yard line. Keaton Emmett has been 11/16 on field goal attempts with his longest coming in at 48-yards. Emmett has added 50 kickoffs for 2,967 yards with 12 landing as a touchback. Andrew Simpson has 20 punt returns that he returned for 165 yards. Tony McAdoo has 22 kickoff returns for 532 yards.
"It's one of those games, like UTPB, Angelo," Fisk said. "It's the upper-tier teams of the Lone Star Conference and Western Oregon is certainly one of those. When you look at their resume, two of those four losses came to FCS schools in Idaho State and Cal Poly, and they played really really well against Cal Poly, and I felt like they even had control of that game. We have a tremendous amount of respect for Coach Ferguson and his program and the players in that program, and we'll make sure to be ready to go once they get here and do the things we need to do to win the football game."
UP NEXT
The Wildcats will await to see if they make the field for the NCAA Division II Championship as one of the seven teams in Super Region 4. The first round of the tournament will happen on Saturday, Nov. 23.
