Pair of Big Plays Sends Football Bears to 14-9 Loss at Sacramento State
Oct. 28, 2006
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The University of Northern Colorado football team had a lead in the third quarter but was unable to hold on despite dominating much of the game and the statistics as the Bears fell to Big Sky foe Sacramento State 14-9 on Saturday at Hornet Stadium.
Northern Colorado (1-7, 0-5 Big Sky) held a 39:11 to 20:49 time of possession advantage and had 34 more total yards of offense than the host Hornets (3-5, 3-3 Big Sky). The Bears ran 86 total plays of offense to Sacramento State's 50, but two big plays by Sac State made the difference in the game.
Northern Colorado pulled out to an early lead on a 42-yard field goal by senior David Dyches, which followed a 14-play drive. The field goal was the first for Dyches since the Texas State victory on Sept. 16; he entered the game only 1-for-4 on the season.
But the Hornets pulled ahead 7-3 with 3:23 left in the second quarter when Marcel Marquez hit Jason Barnes for a 41-yard score.
Dyches added a 23-yard field goal on the final play of the first half to pull the Bears to within 7-6 at the break.
Dyches added his third field goal of the game at the 6:42 mark of the third quarter to put Northern Colorado ahead 9-7. That field goal came after the Bears had taken six and a half minutes off the clock on a long drive.
But Sacramento State hit on its second big strike of the night four minutes later, as Andre Taylor scored from 27 yards to put the Hornets on top for good.
Senior running back Andre Wilson carried the ball 37 times for 141 yards for Northern Colorado. Those 141 yards pushed his career total to 3,256 yards, moving his past Gaynor Blackmon (3,159 yards from 1991-95) and into third place on Northern Colorado's career list. With three games remaining in his career, he is now just 263 yards behind Bears all-time rusher Billy Holmes.
Starting quaterback Dominic Breazeale completed 20-of-35 passes for 150 yards for the Bears with sophomore Patrick Ealy pulled in eight catches for 50 yards.
Northern Colorado will play at Montana State (6-3, 5-1 Big Sky) next Saturday at 12:05 p.m. MT. MSU topped Weber State 24-18 on Saturday.
