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 Schedule/Results | Roster | Stats | News | Archives WEEKLY RELEASE: Vikings home for first meeting with Dixie State
Sept. 22, 2008
Complete Release in PDF Format
BELLINGHAM, Wash. - THIS WEEK'S GAME: Western Washington University Vikings (1-2, 1-1) vs. Dixie State College (1-3, 0-2) in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference contest Saturday, Sept. 27 (6 p.m.) at Civic Stadium (3,640 cap., FieldTurf) in Bellingham, Wash. The Vikings, who opened with two GNAC games, fell 52-31 at No.14-ranked NCAA I-Football Championship Subdivision Eastern Washington last week in a contest that was tied at 31-all with 13 minutes to go. Western won 30-14 at Humboldt State on Sept. 13 following a 36-27 loss in its home and season opener to Western Oregon on Sept. 6. Dixie State, a former junior college power, is in its third season as a NCAA Division II member. Three of its first four games were at home and two of its three losses were by seven points or less. DSC lost 34-27 to Western Oregon last Saturday. DSC began the campaign with a 44-38 overtime loss to then NCAA II No.11 Central Washington on Aug. 30, then thumped Western New Mexico, 35-3, on Sept. 6, before losing, 44-7, at NCAA I FCS Weber State on Sept. 13. SERIES HISTORY: First meeting. RADIO: KBAI (930 AM-Bellingham) is broadcasting all Western football games live this season with sports director Doug Lange handling the play-by-play duties for the 13th consecutive season. The pre-game show with host and color commentator Mark Scholten begins at 5:30 p.m. The KBAI broadcast can also be heard on the Internet at wwuvikings.com. AUDIO WEBCAST: Viking football is again on the Internet for 2008. To listen to the live broadcast via the web, go to www.wwuvikings.com and follow the links. The web provides streaming audio of the KBAI 930 AM radio broadcast. The audio stream is only available during event broadcast times. 2007 RESULTS: Western finished 2-8 and placed ninth in the North Central Conference at 1-7. Dixie State was 3-8 as an independent. NEW LEAGUE (KIND OF), NEW REGION: The Vikings spent the last two years as a football-only member of the North Central Conference, but when that league folded after an eight-decade history, WWU returned to the GNAC, which took a two-year hiatus from football. The top team in the conference not reaching the NCAA II playoffs earns a berth in the Rotary Bowl at St. George, Utah. The five GNAC schools will play each other home-and-home this season. The five current GNAC football teams competed in the Northwest Region last season, but have been moved to the Southwest Region this fall. That region, which earlier this season was officially renamed Super Regional Four, also includes the Lone Star Conference and the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association. WESTERN REPORT: Back home for the second of just three games in Bellingham this season, the Vikings are 1-2, but have a number of positives they can point to as they look to get back to .500 against Dixie State. In its two losses, Western had a third-quarter lead in the season opener against Western Oregon, and last week entered the fourth quarter tied against nationally ranked NCAA Division I-FCS Eastern Washington. The Viking offense has been a strong point, rolling up 516 yards against Eastern Washington and averaging 29.3 points and 411.3 yards a game. During one stretch in the game against the Eagles, Western put together consecutive touchdown drives of 79, 80 and 80 yards. Triggering the attack is senior quarterback Adam Perry, who threw for 349 yards and two touchdowns against EWU. For the season, Perry has completed 64-of-102 passes (62.7 percent) for 815 yards with seven touchdowns and three interceptions. Six players have at least five receptions, led by senior wide receiver Travis McKee, who has 16 grabs for 254 yards and had 10 catches last week. Senior wide receiver Pat McCann has 15 receptions for 183 yards and one touchdown. Junior tight end Zack Hekker has five catches, three for touchdowns. Junior running back Randall Eldridge leads the GNAC in rushing with 262 yards on 70 carries, and has added 10 receptions for 103 yards and a touchdown. He ran for 104 yards against Eastern. The offense is anchored by an experienced line that returned four starters, led by senior center Dan Trask, an honorable mention all-North Central Conference pick last season. Western has had some good moments on defense, despite allowing 34.0 points and 398.3 yards per game. Leading the unit is junior linebacker Caleb Jessup. Jessup, who ranked eighth nationally in tackles last week, has a league-leading 36 stops (12.0 avg.), including 3.5 behind the line of scrimmage. On the defensive line, sophomore tackle Don Thomas has a team-high two sacks, and redshirt freshman end Casey Hamlett has nine stops. In the secondary, sophomore safety Zach Schrader has 25 tackles, including 12 last week, and also has the team's lone interception. Sophomore cornerback Anthony Zackery has a team-high three passes defensed. On special teams, the Vikings have already blocked three kicks, two of them coming against Humboldt State. Freshman Kevin Sampson has two blocks, including one he returned for a touchdown against Western Oregon, and freshman Dave Johnson has the other. Junior placekicker Josh Lider is 10-of-11 on extra points and 2-of-3 on field goals. The week's team co-captains are Rick Copsey, C.J. Green, McKee and Trask. VIKING NOTES: In 2007, Perry threw for 1,587 yards with seven touchdowns and four interceptions ... Eldridge redshirted last year after being the Golden Gate Conference Offensive Player of the Year at Chabot JC in 2006, rushing for 1,277 yards and 12 touchdowns in 10 games ... Senior wide receiver Travis McKee had 43 catches and was an honorable mention all-NCC pick a year ago. He has been the Vikings' leading receiver in each of the last two seasons ... Jessup earned all-NCC honorable mention in 2007 ... Western's offensive line has 60 starts between them. SCOUTING DIXIE STATE: After winning just one game in its inaugural season as a four-year school in 2006, Dixie State tripled that win total last season. With 15 of 22 starters back, head coach Ron Haun hopes to continue that progress this year. Quarterback Dexter Hill, a transfer from Northern Iowa, has thrown for 961 yards, completing 58.8 percent (77-of-131, 5 TDs, 3 Int.) of his passes to 13 different receivers. Hill's top three targets are junior tight end Judd Thompson (22 catches for 242 yards), a transfer from Utah State who was a first-team D2football.com all-independent choice in 2007; junior tight end Skyler Ence (16 catches for 203 yards and 1 touchdown), who was the DSC starting quarterback last season, and junior wide receiver Kyser Christensen (16 catches for 201 yards and 1 touchdown). Anchoring the line is 6-3, 300-pound senior center Andrew Stephens, who did not play last year after starting in 2006. Another key addition is 6-3, 315-pound senior guard Carlos Hernandez from New Mexico Highlands. Linebacker Teddy Owens leads a defense that returns three of its top four tacklers from a year ago. Owens was a third-team D2football.com all-independent choice and had 116 tackles in 2007. He paces the team this fall with 34 stops. Junior end Chad Frank has 19 tackles, including 3.0 quarterback sacks for minus-35 yards, and senior linebacker Stephen Cook had 17 tackles and two fumble recoveries. WWU INJURY REPORT: Two top reserves, strong safety Jordan Carey and cornerback Reggie Christor, are out for the season with shoulder injuries. BATTLE IN SEATTLE: The sixth annual Wells Fargo Battle in Seattle for the Cascade Cup between arch-rivals Western and Central Washington takes place Oct. 11 (6 p.m.) at Qwest Field. The attendance at the contest has surpassed 11,000 all five years with the 2003 meeting being played before 16,392, a record for a non-NCAA I collegiate football game in the state of Washington. GNAC PRESEASON POLL: WWU was picked to finish third among five teams in the 2008 Great Northwest Athletic Conference preseason coaches poll. Arch-rival Central Washington was the first-place pick with Western Oregon second. Dixie State was fourth and Humboldt State fifth. HEAD COACHES: Robin Ross (Washington State, 1977) is in his third year (8-16) as head coach at WWU and has three decades of coaching experience. He was the defensive coordinator for two of the finest Viking teams in school history in the mid-1990s. Ross spent most of his career as an assistant at the NCAA Division I-A level. He also coached in the National Football League, being the linebackers coach with Oakland for two seasons, helping the Raiders have the ninth-ranked defense in the NFL in 2000, when they were 12-4 and reached the AFC Championship Game. In 2005, Ross was linebackers coach at Oregon State, where the Beavers led the PAC-10 in run defense, allowing 108.0 yards per game. He spent the previous four seasons as special teams coordinator and tight ends coach at Oregon. The Ducks won the 2001 PAC-10 championship, finishing second in the ESPN Coaches Poll after defeating Colorado in the 2002 Fiesta Bowl. He was also at Oregon as an assistant during the 1997 and 1998 seasons. Ross initially came to Western in 1994 and in his first season the Vikings led the NAIA Division II in scoring defense, allowing just 11.5 points a game and five times holding opponents without a touchdown. Western, which posted its first national playoff victory that season with a 21-2 triumph at No.1-ranked Linfield, ranked third nationally in rushing defense at 76.0 yards a contest and fifth in total defense (260.3) with 42 takeaways. In 1995, Western finished 9-1, going 9-0 for the school's first undefeated regular-season in 57 years and being ranked No.1 nationally in NAIA II for five weeks. The defense allowed 13.7 points a game, ranking seventh nationally in that category. Ross, 53, is a graduate of Washington State, where he was a second-team all-PAC-8 pick as an offensive lineman. He was a 10th round draft pick of the San Francisco 49ers in 1976, and spent one preseason with the Seattle Seahawks. Ron Haun (Weber State, 1966) is in his third season (5-21) as head coach at Dixie State. He directed the program at Ricks JC (now BYU-Idaho) for 20 years, posting a 178-40-2 (.816) record. His teams at Ricks won or tied for 10 conference titles and two of his squads (1992, 1994) posted perfect 11-0-0 records. Haun played his first two seasons of collegiate football at Dixie JC (now Dixie State) and then transferred to Weber State where he was the Wildcats' quarterback in 1964, then gave up playing and became an assistant coach at WSU in 1965. LAST MEETING: None LAST WEEK'S GAME: A valiant performance came up just short for Western as the Vikings entered the fourth quarter tied but fell to NCAA I-Football Championship Subdivision Eastern Washington, 52-31, at Woodward Field. Quarterback Adam Perry completed 24-of-37 passes for 349 with two touchdowns and two interceptions and also ran for two touchdowns for the NCAA Division II Vikings, who fell to 1-2. Western trailed by 17 midway through the second quarter but tied the game on the opening drive of the third period and were tied 31-31 with 13 minutes left in the contest. Eastern, ranked No.14 in the latest national poll and a member of the Big Sky Conference, improved to 1-2. Matt Nichols completed 18-of-24 passes for 281 yards and three touchdowns for the Eagles, who were playing their home opener. The Vikings trailed 24-7 midway through the second quarter, but closed the margin to 14 on a 31-yard field goal by Josh Lider, then pulled to within 24-17 at halftime as Perry executed a 10-play, 79-yard drive in the last two minutes, capping the march himself with a 6-yard run. Then on the opening drive of the third quarter, Western went 80 yards in 12 plays, 10 of them on the ground, including a 1-yard plunge by Perry that tied the game at 24-24 six minutes into the second half. Eastern regained the lead quickly, Nichols connecting with Tony Davis just four plays later on a 27-yard touchdown, but Western responded with another 80-yard drive, this time in eight plays. Perry connected with tight end Zack Hekker on a 6-yard touchdown to tie the game at 31-31. Western then stopped the Eagles on a fourth-and-1 play at the end of the third quarter and seemed to take momentum into the final period. Instead, Eastern took over. The Eagle defense forced a punt, and Nichols quickly took Eastern on a five-play, 70-yard drive, grabbing a 38-31 lead with 12:40 left on a 10-yard touchdown pass to Aaron Boyce. The Eagles then put the game away by scoring on their next two possessions as freshman running back Tyler Hart had touchdowns of three yards and 30 yards, giving Eastern a 52-31 lead with 5:29 to play. Hart rushed for 69 yards on just five carries for the game. Western had a 515-506 advantage in total offense and an edge of more than 14 minutes in time of possession, but Eastern rolled up 214 yards in the decisive fourth quarter to just 46 for the Vikings. Wide receiver Travis McKee had 10 receptions for 152 yards for Western, and running back Randall Eldridge rushed for 104 yards on 23 carries. Eastern opened the scoring just 41 seconds into the game. Nichols connected with Davis for a 63-yard gain to the Western three on the first play from scrimmage, and Dale Morris, who had 88 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries, rushed in from there on the next play. The Vikings responded with an eight-play, 68-yard drive, tieing the score on a 30-yard pass from Perry to wide receiver Dirk Dallas, who made his first collegiate catch and fought his way into the end zone. It was the first meeting of the two schools since 1998 and only the second in the last 30 years. Former Western basketball coach Chuck Randall, who graduated from Eastern in 1951, was honored at halftime with the EWU Athletics Hall of Fame Service and Contribution Award. Perry's performance earned him GNAC Offensive Player of the Week honors. WWU PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: TICKET INFORMATION: Tickets for Viking football cost $12 for reserved seating, $10 for general admission adults, $6 for students and seniors and $3 for Western students. For ticket information, contact the WWU Athletic Department at 360-650-2583 (BLUE). Season tickets are available for $33. CIVIC STADIUM: Western is in its 47th year of playing home games at Bellingham's Civic Stadium. The Vikings have a 122-90-7 (.573) record at that facility which was built in 1961. Last year, Western finished 1-3 at home, the second time in three years after not having a losing record at Civic Stadium since 1990. NEXT GAME: Western is on the road for a GNAC contest with Western Oregon on Saturday, Oct. 4 (2 p.m.) at Monmouth, Ore. The Wolves, who won 36-27 at Bellingham on Sept. 6, are at Humboldt State this week. They are 2-2 overall and 1-1 conference, the wins being over the Vikings and Dixie State (34-27) and the losses to NCAA I FCS Portland State (31-14) and NCAA II No.8-ranked Central Washington (31-24). WEBSITE: For the latest results, statistics and updates, including reports on all WWU athletic events, visit the Vikings website at wwuvikings.com.
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