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Timberwolves Run
Past Eagles, 32-7 |
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Coleman markets the wood-burning stove. Northwood University displays the ‘Wood-churning drove. Droves of quarterbacks and running backs who can turn upfield running out of the Woodbone option offense, that’s what’s been the key for Northwood’s recent success on the football field. It was churning – and burning the Ashland University Eagles – Saturday night (Sept. 14) at Community Stadium, leading the way for a 32-7 win over the Eagles. Chad Coons rushed for 81 yards and three touchdowns to take center stage for the Timberwolves (1-1, 1-0), who led from start to finish against the winless Eagles (0-3, 0-2). Northwood was coming off a rocky opener against nationally-ranked Saginaw Valley State. Down 16-13 after three quarters, the ‘Wolves had a meltdown in the fourth quarter, falling, 47-13. They desperately needed a solid effort against Ashland to get their nerves to quit howling like a December wind. This game should do it. “It worked tonight,” said NU head coach Pat Riepma about his option offense. “We want to run the option and then make big plays when we pass. That’s our philosophy.” David Thoreau never had a better outlook. Saturday, Northwood rushed for 234 yards and led in total yardage, 393-235. Quarterback Jason Martin ran for 53 yards on 14 carries and completed seven of 12 passes for 159 yards. Three of his passes covered 25 yards or more and six different NU players caught passes. Coons had touchdown runs of 24, 28 and 18 yards. His first two scoring jaunts came in the first quarter when Northwood jumped in front, 12-0. The only negative for the Timberwolves was that they misfired on both extra points. After the first score, the ‘Wolves missed a kick. A run failed after the second Coons touchdown. “It’s a difficult offense to adapt to,” sighed AU head coach Gary Keller. “They did a lot of damage early. It’s tough to adapt to, hard for us to simulate in practice. We had to adapt on the field from a speed standpoint. A couple of times we just left our assignments and it cost us.” The Eagles tried to make a game of it early in the second quarter when they scored their lone touchdown, sophomore quarterback John Szabo reaching the end zone on a 3-yard TD run. That came with 12:41 left in the first half to cut the Timberwolves’ lead to 12-7. But Coons scored again with 9:04 left in the half to build the lead to 19-7. That last Coon TD capped a seven-play, 83-yard march. A 23-yard field goal with 27 seconds left in the first half extended the lead to 22-7 and 10 more points in the fourth quarter put the Eagles to bed. This game took on an all-too familiar script for the Eagles. AU fell behind early and had to try to fight from behind. The Eagles have been outscored, 35-13 in the first quarter and 60-27 in the first half. “I saw some good things, but there were still too many mistakes,” said Keller. “We have to clean up our mistakes. We’re still shooting ourselves in the foot with several things.” Ashland senior tailback J.R. McCoy led all players in the game with 137 yards rushing on 34 carries. Szabo finished the game 12-24 for 85 yards. He threw a pair of interceptions. Defensively, senior linebacker Geoff Henry had nine stops (six solo) to lead the Eagles. Henry had two tackles for loss. Notes From the Nest:
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