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Huskies win home opener
By Ben Birnell
Published:
Monday, September 22, 2003
Despite battling through a day when they lacked consistency on offense and were outgained by a previously undefeated foe, the SCSU football team managed to fend off the visiting Northern State University Wolves and came away with a 27-13 victory.
"It was a game in which it was very difficult for us to get anything going," SCSU head coach Randy Hedberg said. "We had some penalties that hurt us a little bit and set us back a little bit, and that seemed to be our biggest problem offensively."
The game featured a couple great performances, one turned in by the Huskies defense and one by the Huskies ground attack.
The Huskies, ranked No. 16 in the latest American Football Coaches Association NCAA Division II poll, saw sophomore running back Matt Birkel rush for a 75-yard touchdown with 1:26 left in the first quarter, but played just one more series the rest of the game.
It was 10-15 degrees warmer than it had been all week and Birkel felt a bit light-headed after the longest touchdown scamper of his Husky career. Birkel also had been slowed by a bruised heel. He played the first series of the second half, but with the beginning of the NCC schedule next week, he was given the rest of the day off.
"He's had heel problems since the first game and then his heart rate was accelerated," Hedberg said of Birkel, who had his third game of more than 100 yards rushing this season.
SCSU put Birkel back in for the first series of the second half, but decided to use senior Josh Williams for the rest of the game.
"We decided to just use Josh and he's very capable," Hedberg said. "I think (Birkel) was physically able to go in the second half, but we just held him out."
Birkel finished the day with 113 yards on 10 carries and one touchdown. Williams, in replacement, rushed 17 times for 87 yards after coming into the game with 19 carries for 127 yards.
The 5-foot-9, 190-lb. Williams had the second-best rushing game of his career.
"Josh is one of those guys you always want on your team," said Husky senior quarterback Keith Heckendorf. "He knows his role on this team, accepts it and whatever we ask him to do, he does it."
The Husky run defense looked solid in the first half holding NSU's 6-foot-1, 235-pound senior workhorse Ronnie Cruz to just 50 yards on 10 carries.
Senior middle linebacker Ryan Rutten also had a nice game, leading the Huskies with a career-best 11 tackles, including six solo tackles.
Rutten and backup redshirt first-year defensive end Ryan Walker were credited with what most likely was the tackle of the game. On fourth-and-1 at the Huskies' three yard line, the teammates combined to tackle Cruz at the line of scrimmage and SCSU took over on downs.
"It was ridiculous," Cruz said. "You should never get stopped on fourth-and-goal. We stopped ourselves with dropped balls and not getting first down on third-and-short and fourth-and-short."
Cruz looked better in the second half, gaining 104 yards on 20 carries for a total of 154 yards on 30 attempts.
"Our defense really performed well," Hedberg said. "They did a nice job stepping up."
Husky sophomore defensive end Charlie Cosgrove had a busy day with six tackles, forced two fumbles, two sacks, 1.5 tackles for loss and a fumble recovery.
He was in the process of sacking Wolves quarterback Toby Korrodi, forced a fumble and recovered it at the Northern State 11. The play set up the Huskies' lone touchdown of the second half, a 2-yard run by Heckendorf.
NSU outgained the Huskies 401-396, but got the ball inside the Husky 20 three times without scoring.
"They had us deep in our own territory, but unlike last week, we stepped it up and made plays when we had to," said Huskies senior outside linebacker Shane Rohman, whose team was coming off a 46-14 loss at Pittsburg State. "Some of those old (bad) feelings were starting to come back, but everyone just threw those things out the window and had a little bit more confidence in themselves."
Sophomore wide receiver Ed DeShazer led all Husky receivers with five catches for 96 yards and one TD, which came on SCSU's first drive for an 18-yard strike pass from Heckendorf who had an unflattering performance.
The consensus Preseason All-American was 12 of 27 for 196 yards passing with one touchdown pass and one interception. He was also sacked four times but did rush for one touchdown.
"I didn't have a real good game today," Heckendorf said. "I didn't throw the ball particularly well, but sometimes you have a game like that and you're still able to get a win. That's all that matters."
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