UMAC teams-- be on alert.
St. Scholastica began its defense of the UMAC title and cemented
themselves as the team to beat with a resounding 35-10 victory over Eureka. The
outcome was never in question as Saints QB Tyler Harper completed 10 of 20
passes for 202 yards and three TD's in the first half for a 28-7 lead going
into halftime. A week after setting the NCAA record for yards in a single game,
Durley managed only 228 yards on 49 attempts. The two big question marks for
the Red Devils coming into the game were at their offensive line and in the
secondary. This game did nothing to resolve them. The Saints, who had 5 sacks
on the game, kept constant pressure on Durley the entire game and never let the
QB get into any kind of rhythm. It did not help that when Durley did have
protection, his WR's dropped a lot of passes two of which could have been
scores. Saints' QB Harper took advantage
of poor secondary play that left WR's Thiry, Specht, and Gebhard open all over
the field. Surprisingly, Harper was also the leading rusher going into the
half. He finished the game rushing for 80 yards. The first half was a little bit different
from what we saw from the Saints last year. Because Eureka did a nice job of
stopping the running game, the Saints chose to air it out and challenge the Red
Devils to stop the passing attack.
In the second half, the
Saints returned to their own version of the ground and pound only throwing it
four times in the second half. RB Travis Nehowig rushed for over 100 yards on 19 attempts and
RB Jake Jensen adding another 50 yards on eleven attempts. The defense
completely shut down any offense the Red Devils only allowing 3 points which
was the result of a turnover. Alec
French, Jordan Rasmussen, Chas Lemon, and Zack Dubanoski all had outstanding
games limiting Eureka to less than 300 yards offense.
Eureka will walk away from this game bitterly disappointed.
After an offensive explosion last week, this team looked out of sync from the beginning
and never got anything going. The offensive line will have to figure out a way
to keep Durley upright or there will be many more frustrating Saturday
afternoons for the Red Devil's QB. Eureka will also have to address a secondary
that allowed way too many big plays and for most of the first half left WR'S
roaming free throughout the field. For a
team that did not turn the ball over once, it has to be disconcerting that they
could not move the ball very well. The defense played admirably in the second
half, but at that point the Saints were just running out the clock. Eureka will have to go back to the drawing board if they want to be able to beat a team that can rush the passer and throw the ball against them.
In contrast, St. Scholastica has to feel pretty good about
the game as a whole. They did not particularly run the football like they would
want to in the first half, but Tyler Harper made up for it with outstanding
play. If there was any doubt whether or not he could be a replacement for Alex
Thiry, this game eliminated it. Harper brings another dimension with his
mobility and defenses will have to respect his running ability in the future.
You have to like the array of weapons that the Saints have on offense from Harper to Thiry to Jensen and Nehowig this team is loaded. The defense might not be as big as past years, but are very quick and swarm to the football. The only blemish as far as the
Saints are concerned is the quality of the color commentators on the Saint's
live broadcast. One broadcaster called a bubble screen, "a hitch behind
the line of scrimmage." The Saints might not be as dominant as last
year's team, but are definitely the team to beat going forward into the rest of
the UMAC season and will only improve as the year goes on.
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