Jeff Kahntroff/Student LifeThe Washington University Bears football team won its second UAA game in a row on Saturday, out shooting the Case Western Reserve Spartans 49-42. The Spartans, who came into the contest with the nation’s number-two ranked offense, were beaten at their own game by a Bears team that made just enough plays to hold off a second half Spartan comeback.
The Bears maintained a balanced offensive attack by throwing for 320 yards and running for 190 en route to their most impressive offensive performance of the season. Despite quarterback Eli Grant’s UAA records for passing attempts, completions, yards and touchdowns, the Spartans were unable to overcome a 19-point halftime deficit. Grant completed 36 passes on 52 attempts for four touchdowns and 492 yards while at the helm of a potent no-huddle offense.
“We were prepared for the base no huddle, and I though we did a great job with that one part of it,” said head coach Larry Kindbom. “Obviously, we don’t want teams to get a lot of yards on us. The more snaps they have, the more opportunities they are going to have to make plays. We did what we wanted to do, which was shut down the running game.”
The Bears offense got hot early as freshman quarterback Nathan Szep found freshman wideout Brad Duesing for an 11-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter. After Case Western answered, a field goal and a blocked punt by freshman Joe Rizzo lead the Bears to the a 16-7 first quarter lead.
It was indeed a day for the freshman class to shine.
“[The freshmen] are contributing, but one thing with freshman is that they contribute both ways – good news and bad news. It’s a strong class, and all the freshmen are not even accounted for yet,” Kindbom said.
“The greatest difference in an athlete’s life is between freshman and sophomore years. What you’re seeing this year is kind of a smidgeon of what some of those guys are capable of doing. When they come back as sophomores, you can tell the ones that have elevated themselves, the ones that know what playing college football is all about,” Kindbom said.
The second quarter was much of the same, as the Bears offense controlled the ball for the majority of the first half. Following a Ben Lambert field goal and another Szep touchdown pass to junior wideout Zak Clark, the Bears were able to march down the field in the final minute to punch in another touchdown and take a commanding 33-14 lead at halftime.
In the second half, the Spartan offense began to find its rhythm. On their opening drive, Case Western’s running back Brandon McDowell began to find some holes in the Bears defense and eventually put one into the end zone. However, freshman running back A.C. Dike, filling in for the injured Matt Plotke, answered for the Bears as he made some nifty cuts through the Spartan defense on an 11-yard touchdown run.
The Spartans mounted an impressive comeback as Eli Grant threw two touchdowns to close the gap to 41-35 with just under five minutes to play.
The Bears had several sustained drives into the redzone that came up empty due to missed field goals, and the miscues almost cost them the game.
“I attribute everything back to me in that situation,” said Kindbom. “Our practice situation and my practice organization have not put our team in that situation enough times in practice, and that’s where you get good. What you see on Saturday afternoon is a reflection of what you’ve done during the course of the week. It would be unfair to say our players were unable to convert on those field goals or point after attempts because we have not spent the time in practice in heated, pressurized situations trying to put the ball into the endzone.”
However, on the most important drive of the game, Szep took the Bears down to the Spartan 11-yard line and then scrambled into the end zone on a broken play to put the game away.
The two teams combined for over 1,000 yards and 91 points, the most points ever scored in a WU game. Despite giving up 492 passing yards and 42 points, the Bears defense made some critical plays, which included four forced turnovers. Joe Rizzo led the charge with four tackles, a blocked punt, a sack, an interception, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.
Although the team still has much room for improvement, it boasts a 2-0 UAA record and, due to having only four conference games on the schedule, it is on pace for yet another UAA title. The Bears will play at University of Rochester this Saturday before coming home to play Carnegie Mellon in the season finale on November 9th.