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 Schedule/Results | Roster | Stats | News | Archives WEEKLY RELEASE: Western makes long trek to Dixie State
Oct. 27, 2008
Complete Release in PDF Format
BELLINGHAM, Wash. - THIS WEEK'S GAME: Western Washington University Vikings (4-4, 4-2) vs. Dixie State College (3-6, 1-5) in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference contest Saturday, Nov. 1 (1 p.m.) at Hansen Stadium (5,500 cap., FieldTurf) in St. George, Utah. The Vikings are second in the league standings with a chance at a trip to the Rotary Bowl (Dec. 6 at St. George, Utah) after rolling over Humboldt State, 56-20, last Saturday. If Western is going to reach the Rotary Bowl, a win this week is a must. The Vikings also have to hope that GNAC champion Central Washington (7-0) gets an at-large bid to the NCAA Division II national playoffs. The bowl berth is awarded to the top team from the GNAC that doesn't reach the national playoffs. Western Oregon is third in the GNAC at 4-3. Prior to the win over Humboldt State, Western had lost the previous two weeks, playing before crowds exceeding 12,000 each time. The Vikings fell 42-32 at NCAA Division I-Football Championship Subdivision North Dakota on Oct. 18 after being beaten 50-28 by arch-rival Central in the sixth annual Battle in Seattle for the Cascade Cup at Qwest Field on Oct. 11. Western opened the season by splitting two league contests, losing its home opener to Western Oregon, 36-27, on Sept. 6, and winning 30-14 at Humboldt State on Sept. 13. The Vikings fell 52-31 at NCAA I-FCS No.14-ranked Eastern Washington on Sept. 20 in a game that was tied 31-all with 13 minutes remaining. They bounced back with a pair of GNAC victories, posting a dramatic home field 29-27 win over Dixie State on Sept. 27 that was decided on a 27-yard field goal with four seconds remaining, and a 24-13 triumph at Western Oregon on Oct. 4. Dixie State, a former junior college power, is in its third season as a NCAA II member. Last week, DSC won its first road game of the season, 30-23 at Azusa Pacific. That was the second win in three games for DSC, which prevailed 16-6 over Humboldt State on Oct. 11, before a 42-35 loss at Western Oregon on Oct. 18. Prior to that, DSC has lost four straight, 44-7 at NCAA-I FCS Weber State on Sept. 13, 34-27 to Western Oregon on Sept. 20, 29-27 at Western on Sept. 27 and 49-14 at Central on Oct. 4. DSC split its first two games, losing 44-38 in overtime to Central on Aug. 30, then thumping Western New Mexico, 35-3, on Sept. 6. SERIES HISTORY: Second meeting. Western won the first meeting, 29-27, on Sept. 27 at Bellingham on a 27-yard field goal with four seconds remaining. 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 10:30 a.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 NCC 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: Looking to get back over .500 and to grab the inside track on a spot in the Rotary Bowl, the Vikings make their first-ever visit to Dixie State. Western played one of its most complete games of the season last week in a 56-20 victory over Humboldt State, racking up the most points since the 2002 season. That sort of offensive explosion wasn't a total surprise from a team that has been led by its offense for much of the season. The Vikings lead the GNAC in total offense at 424.5 yards a game, and are averaging 32.1 points a contest, not being held below 24 the entire season. Triggering the attack is senior quarterback Adam Perry, who tied a school single-game record last week with five touchdown passes. For the season, Perry has completed 173-of-268 passes (64.6 percent) for 2,492 yards with 23 touchdowns and just five interceptions, leading the GNAC in passing yards at 311.5 per game. He has thrown for better than 300 yards in five of the last six games, and ranks seventh in school history in career passing yards with 4,456. Perry ranks ninth nationally in total offense (316.3 avg.) and 10th in passing efficiency (167.3). Perry's top two targets are a pair of physical senior wide receivers. Pat McCann, who is 6-foot-2, 205 pounds, has 43 receptions for 859 yards (107.4 avg. per game, tied for 6th nationally) and 10 touchdowns. His 20.0 yards per catch is school-record pace and tops the GNAC, and he had a 96-yard touchdown catch in the first meeting with Dixie State, the longest reception in GNAC history. Travis McKee, who is 6-5, 210, has 38 receptions for 587 yards and three touchdowns. They aren't the only targets, as nine Vikings have at least six receptions and eight have scored through the air. Tight ends Zack Hekker, a junior, and Logan Cullen, a senior, have combined for 26 receptions for 334 yards, with Hekker having four touchdowns and Cullen one. Keying the ground game is junior running back Randall Eldridge, who has 571 yards and four touchdowns on 153 carries and leads the GNAC in rushing (81.6 avg.). Eldridge has also added 30 catches for 374 yards and three scores 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. On defense, junior linebacker Caleb Jessup has 97 tackles, including 5.5 for loss, He ranks third nationally and leads the GNAC in tackles per game (12.1 avg.) with double-figure stops in all eight games. Sophomore linebacker Nick Cragin has 62 tackles, including six for loss. Sophomore end Nick Rocco leads the team in sacks with 4.5 and overall tackles for loss at 7.5. In the secondary, sophomore safety Zach Schrader has 61 tackles and a team-high two interceptions. Sophomore cornerback Anthony Zackery has a team-high five passes defensed and 26 tackles. On special teams, junior Josh Lider is 30-of-32 on extra points and 7-of-10 on field goals, including a game-winning 27-yarder with four seconds left in the first meeting against Dixie State. The Vikings have blocked four punts this season, with Kevin Sampson getting three of them and returning a block against Western Oregon for a touchdown. Senior Rick Copsey is averaging 22.2 yards on 26 kickoff returns, including returns of 61 and 42 yards last week, and 13.8 yards on five punt returns, including a 41-yarder last week. This week's team co-captains are Copsey, C.J. Green, Kevin Jones and Trask. VIKING NOTES: Perry's five 300-yard passing games this season is a school record ... Perry ranks seventh among school career passing leaders with 4,456 yards and needs 240 yards to move into sixth. His 423 yards passing in a 29-27 victory over Dixie State were the third-most in school history ... McCann's 96-yard touchdown grab against Dixie State was a GNAC record and the second-longest in school history. His yardage total of 232 was the second most in school history and his three touchdown catches tied a school record ... 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. 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 and has matched that total already this year with four of its losses being by seven or fewer points. Senior quarterback Dexter Hill, a transfer from Northern Iowa, has thrown for 1,881 yards, completing 161 of 280 attempts, 12 for touchdowns with 10 intercepted. Five receivers have caught double-figure passes and 18 have had at least one catch. Hill's top three targets are junior tight end Judd Thompson (41 catches for 519 yards and 1 touchdown), a transfer from Utah State who was a first-team D2football.com all-independent choice in 2007; junior tight end Skyler Ence (39 catches for 398 yards and 3 touchdowns), who was the DSC starting quarterback last season, and junior wide receiver Kyser Christensen (38 catches for 549 yards and 5 touchdowns). Sophomore Adam Wells is the leading rusher with 535 yards (5.0 average per carry) and three touchdowns. Anchoring the line is 6-3, 300-pound senior center Andrew Stephens, who did not play last year after starting in 2006. Another huge addition was 6-3, 315-pound senior guard Carlos Hernandez from New Mexico Highlands. Senior Zack Manning has booted 23-of-26 PATs and 5-of-7 field goals with a long of 46 yards. Junior linebacker Teddy Owens leads the defense with 77 tackles, 5.5 of them for loss. A third-team D2football.com all-independent choice, he has forced one fumble and recovered two. Junior end Chad Frank has 46 stops, including 11.0 for losses of 76 yards and 6.5 quarterback sacks to minus-66 yards. WWU INJURY REPORT: WWU lost two top reserves during the first three weeks, strong safety Jordan Carey and cornerback Reggie Christor both suffering season-ending shoulder injuries. 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 (11-18) 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 (7-24) 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: Josh Lider kicked three field goals, including a game-winning 27-yarder with four seconds left, lifting Western to a 29-27 victory over Dixie State in a GNAC contest at Civic Stadium. It was the first meeting between the two schools. Wide receiver Pat McCann had eight receptions for 232 yards, the second-most receiving yards in school history, and tied a Western single-game record with three touchdown receptions. Trailing 23-14 to start the second half, Dixie State narrowed the margin to 23-21 on a 24-yard pass from Dexter Hill to Kyler Christensen with 2:19 left in the third quarter, then took the lead with 11:47 left as Hill connected with Judd Thompson on an 8-yard scoring toss. The extra-point was missed, leaving Dixie State with a 27-23 lead. The Vikings appeared to regain the lead on a 9-yard run by running back Kevin Sampson with seven minutes left, but a penalty negated the score and pushed the ball back to the 23, leading to a 34-yard field goal by Lider with 5:15 to play, narrowing the margin to 27-26. Dixie State picked up two first downs on the following drive, giving Western the ball on its own 32 with 1:47 left and no time outs. Quarterback Adam Perry then led the Vikings 69 yards in seven plays, the last 15 yards coming on a roughing-the-passer penalty with 15 seconds left that put the ball on the Dixie State 10. Following two incompletions, Lider kicked the game winner. McCann had touchdown receptions of 11, 40, and 96 yards, all in the first half, and also had two catches in the final drive. Perry completed 24-of-38 passes for 423 yards with three touchdowns and an interception. His 423 yards are the third-most in a game in Western history. Hill completed 22-of-35 passes for 238 yards with four touchdowns for Dixie State. Christensen had seven grabs for 78 yards and two scores. McCann had two touchdown catches in first 10 minutes to stake Western to a 14-0 lead. Perry was 7-of-10 for 122 yards in the first two drives. Dixie State then used 26-yard kickoff return by Dominque Moe and a late hit penalty to take the ball at the Western 37 and scored seven plays later as Hill connected with Christensen for a 7-yard touchdown. Dixie State got the ball back quickly as Western fumbled on its first play from scrimmage, and moved to the Viking 4, but on fourth-and-1, Western defensive end Casey Hamlett stopped Sione Tapuosi. On the next play, Perry hit McCann on an out-and-up for a 96-yard touchdown, giving Western a 20-7 lead. The Vikings had a 541-375 advantage in total offense, surpassing the 500-yard mark for the second straight game. McCann and Lider were named the respective GNAC offensive and special teams Player of the Week. LAST WEEK: Quarterback Adam Perry tied a school record with five touchdown passes, four of them in the first half, as Western defeated Humboldt State, 56-20, in a GNAC contest at Civic Stadium. The Vikings, who tied another school record with 42 first-half points, improved to 4-4 overall and 3-3 in the GNAC. Humboldt State fell to 2-7 overall and 0-6 in the GNAC with its third straight loss. Perry completed 22-of-29 passes for 319 yards before leaving the game late in the third quarter, his fifth 300-yard effort in the last six contests. He threw two scoring passes each to wide receivers Pat McCann and Travis McKee, and another to running back Randall Eldridge. Eldridge also rushed for a pair of first-half touchdowns, and finished the game with 67 yards rushing on 19 carries and five receptions for 42 yards. Perry staked Western to a 14-3 lead just over 10 minutes into the game, going 8-for-8 for 115 yards passing in the first two possessions. Perry connected with McCann from 36 yards for the opening score, Eldridge then ran in from five yards to cap an 8-play, 80-yard drive. Humboldt State was still within eight, 21-13, after its only touchdown of the first half, a 2-yard run by Corey Stollmeyer with 11:14 left in the first half, but a 61-yard kickoff return by Rick Copsey put Western on the 28, and on the next play, Perry connected with McCann on an out-and-up pattern for a touchdown. McCann finished the game with seven receptions for 144 yards. Western then put the game completely out of reach with two touchdowns late in the second quarter as Eldridge scored on a 2-yard run, and Perry threw a 12-yard pass to McKee with 23 seconds left in the half to give the Vikings a 42-13 lead at halftime. In addition to Perry tying the record for touchdown passes in a game, Western also tied its team record of six in a game as Tony Gardiner threw a 37-yarder to Augustine Agyei in the final minute of the third quarter. The Vikings had a 492-406 advantage in total offense. Lumberjacks quarterback Garrett Hubrich completed 16-of-27 passes for 211 yards. Stollmeyer had 10 carries for 79 yards and added four receptions for 37 yards. The 56 points were the most for Western since a 62-20 victory over Western New Mexico in 2002. The 42 first-half points tied a record set in a 77-0 victory over Montana Western in 2001. Middle linebacker Caleb Jessup, who entered the game leading the GNAC and fourth nationally in NCAA Division II in tackles at 12.5 a game, had 11 stops for Western, his eighth straight game this season with double-figure tackles. Perry moved into seventh place in school history in career passing with 4,456 yards. His 2,492 yards this season are the fourth-best single-season mark. Copsey was named GNAC co-Special Teams Player of the Week for his performance.
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 124-90-7 (.577) record at that facility which was built in 1961. This year, Western finished 2-1 at home. NEXT GAME: Western concludes its regular season, traveling to arch-rival Central Washington for the 100th series meeting between the two schools on Saturday, Nov. 8 (12 noon) at Ellensburg (Tomlinson Stadium). 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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