The Washington University football team lost its season opener for the first time in 14 years as the team fell to Simpson College 32-29. The contest marked Coach Larry Kindbom’s 200th career game coached.

While new starting quarterback Senior Matt Alley fumbled on the opening drive, he quickly settled down to lead the Bears to a touchdown on their second drive of the game. Alley completed 14 of 21 passes for 236 yards, a career high, with no interceptions before leaving the game due to a broken collarbone. It is expected that Alley will miss 6-8 weeks with the injury.

Despite the transfer of last year’s starting quarterback, Nathan Szep, to Ohio State, the Bears’ offense did not appear to miss a beat, compiling 406 total yards. Of those yards, 292 came through the air. Sophomore wide receiver Brad Duesing led the team with 7 catches for 90 yards.

Turnovers would ultimately be the Bears’ undoing, as the team fumbled five times with four of the five fumbles resulting in a turnover. Simpson scored three times, with two touchdowns and a field goal, off the Bears’ fumbles. Each time, Simpson was able to take advantage of excellent field position starting at the Bears 23-, 29-, and 1-yard lines. In spite of the Bears’ turnovers, the game was closely contested throughout, with the score tied 15 all at halftime.

The game turned with the Bears down 25-22 when senior wide receiver Blake Westra fumbled a punt on the Bears’ one-yard line. Simpson capitalized on the Bears’ mistake with running back Eric Hentges plunging for the touchdown. Hentges carried the ball just 11 times for 38 yards, but proved to be a potent goal line weapon, scoring four times from inside the two-yard line. While Westra fumbled twice, he also hauled in 4 receptions for 86 yards.

With Alley knocked out of the game in the third quarter, Junior Adam Meranda took over. Meranda led the Bears on a 7-play, 64-yard touchdown drive to pull the Bears to within 32-29 with 4:13 remaining in the game. The drive was capped by a 4-yard touchdown reception by Scott Armul.

Head coach Larry Kindbom expressed confidence in the ability of Meranda, who will assume starter’s status with Alley’s injury.

“He’s been prepared and he’s ready to show he’s up to the challenge,” Kindbom said. “He led us down the field for a touchdown at the end of the game.”

Following the Bears’ touchdown drive, Simpson worked to kill the clock, consuming 3:53 seconds after the kickoff to leave the Bears with just 15 seconds remaining in the game. The Bears failed to advance the ball before running out of time.

Despite the loss, the Bears had some stellar individual efforts. Matt Plotke and A.C. Dike provided the rest of the Bears’ scoring. Plotke ran for 53 yards on 14 carries with one touchdown while Dike ran for 50 yards on 13 carries and contributed two touchdowns.

Duesing scored a two-point conversion on the team’s second touchdown of the day. The Bears also had big performances on defense with John Woock and Ryan Allerman tied for the team lead with 11 total tackles.

“We played really well in spots and there were times where things were clicking,” Woock said, “but at the same time we weren’t consistent enough to get it done and we need to be able to play consistently throughout the whole game and get our special teams up to par, ’cause they definitely weren’t where they needed to be.”

“As for looking forward to the rest of the season, yeah, it’s our first game, we just kind of have to throw this behind us and really not dwell on this at all and start preparing for MacMurray today, learn from the mistakes and go from there.”

The Bears will look to even their record when they meet MacMurray College in Jacksonville, IL on Saturday, September 14.

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