Fourth Quarter Comeback Gives Northern Colorado Win in Home Opener

Saturday, September 13

Greeley, Colo.

1:30 p.m.

University of Northern Colorado

1-1

Houston Baptist

0-2

Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final F
Houston Baptist	3	7	10	0	20
UNCO	7	8	0	13	28

9/13/2014 6:49:00 PM | Football

Box Score

The Bears found pay dirt twice in the fourth quarter and earned the comeback win at Notthingham Field over HBU, 28-20.

GREELEY, COLO. - Four interceptions, 183 yards rushing, and a 28-20 victory over Houston Baptist was a great way to welcome back football fans to Nottingham Field on Saturday. The Bears gave fans a thriller, scoring two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to come from behind to win the home opener.

"I know in the past, if we would have had the kind of adversity we had today, our team would have folded," said head coach Earnest Collins Jr. "Today, we didn't do that. We stayed calm and stuck to the plan. We have great leadership on this team and our guys knew today was going to be a fight. They didn't get down on themselves. They believed that they could come back and win this football game."

Northern Colorado favored the run on Saturday, calling on the ground attack for 50 plays in the game. Running backs Robert Holland and Darius Graham didn't disappoint, combining for a 142 yards rushing and two touchdowns in the eight-point win.

Senior wide receiver, Dimitri Stimphil continued to be the go to guy in the passing game. Stimphil found pay dirt for the first time in 2014 on a 50-yard pass from sophomore quarterback, Sean Rubalcaba, ending his day with 61 yards receiving on three receptions.

Rubalcaba finished 11 for 17 for 178 yards and a touchdown. He also added 30 yards on the ground and a rushing touchdown to his résumé.

Northern Colorado didn't find many positives on their opening drive of the game. It was a quick three and out after two rushes from Holland were stuffed and then an incomplete pass thrown by Rubalcaba, to bring up fourth down. HBU's special teams blocked freshman punter, Bailey Landwehr's kick and took over on the Bears' 33 yard line. The Huskies took advantage of the excellent field position, driving the ball down to the UNC, 18 yard line, setting up a Travis Shinn field goal to give HBU an early, 3-0 lead.

UNC's offense clicked on its third series of the first quarter, powering the ball 96 yards, on seven plays, ending in seven points. Rubalcaba found senior wide receiver, Dimitri Stimphil wide open for a 50-yard touchdown pass to give UNC its first lead of the game, 7-3 with 5:24 remaining in the quarter.

"Dimitri was our first look on the play," said Rubalcaba. "He beat the safety over the top. All I had to do was throw it out there and let him go get it. He did the rest of the work."

Houston Baptist answered the Bears' drive on the very next series, traveling 78 yards, on 14 plays to regain the lead. Huskies' running back, Larry Day punched it in from 4 yards out to take the upper hand, 10-7, to start the second quarter.

The Bears' continued to stay hot offensively. Rubalcaba connected with Graham in the center of the field for a 34-yard reception to take UNC into HBU territory. The Huskies defense stacked the box on the next three plays and the Bears were forced to set up a 46 yard field goal attempt. Houston Baptist sustained dominance on special teams, blocking freshman kicker, Seth Czapenski's try, to hold on to the three-point edge.

Northern Colorado sought revenge for the blocked field goal on the next series. Sophomore defensive back, Thomas Singleton picked off Huskies' quarterback, Jonath Fleming on the Bears' 21-yard line, stopping what potentially would have been another scoring drive by HBU.

The ground game, along with two Huskies' penalties took UNC down into scoring position again, but the offense was unable to take advantage of the situation. The field goal unit came back on to the field, this time for a 42 yard try. Czapenski's kick went wide right.

The Huskies' offense would only be out on the field for one play on the next sequence. Senior defensive back, Kyle Griffin intercepted Fleming for the second INT of the game, setting up the Bears' offensive inside the red zone, on the 11 yard line.

UNC made good on Griffin's interception, giving the ball to Holland who did the rest. It took Holland three plays to get into the end zone, for his first touchdown of the year. Coach Collins decided to go for two and sent in Singleton, who set up in wildcat formation. Singleton dove into the end zone, giving the Bears, a 15-10 lead with 2:54 remaining in the second quarter.

"We have two special backs in Robert and Darius," said Collins "We have some really good things working for us in that part of our game. Anytime you can split carries and come up with 142 yards rushing, that's a special thing."

The Bears secondary wasn't done yet. Houston Baptist brough in quarterback, Tyl Stephenson to try to answer the touchdown. Stephenson led the Huskies 15 yards down to the UNC 36 yard line. Stephenson went deep, looking for D'Ange Wallace in the end zone. Instead, sophomore cornerback, Brandon Lenoir came up with the interception, saving another potential scoring drive.

Northern Colorado would head into the locker room with the five-point lead over the Huskies.

The third quarter was all Houston Baptist. With 8:06 to play, junior quarterback, Brock Berglund was sent out to replace Rubalcaba. Berglund was forced out of the pocket and tackled from behind by Garret Dolan who knocked the ball out of Berglund's hands. HBU's Eric Amoako scooped it up and took it 31 yards for the touchdown. The Huskies went back on top, 17-15.

"It was our intention to give Brock a series," said Collins. "Obviously that's not how we wanted it to go, but we wanted him to get into the game and get the experience with our offense."

The Huskies capped off the third quarter with a 24 yard field goal by Shinn, to pad their lead, 20-15 heading into the fourth and final quarter.

The Bears continued to pound the ball on the ground to open up the fourth quarter. A 12 yard rush from redshirt freshman running back, Brandon Cartagena and an 18 yard run from Holland put UNC deep inside Huskies' territory. Rubalcaba kept the ball on a QB sneak from two yards out, to cap off the scoring drive. Northern Colorado took back the lead, 21-20 with 9:57 to go in the game.

A quick three and out by HBU, set in motion Northern Colorado's opportunity to add on to the scoreboard, which they did, driving 50 yards in eight plays, setting up a seven yard Darius Graham touchdown, making it a, 28-20 contest with 4:39 remaining.

As they had done all day, the defense again came up big when they needed to. With the Huskies just outside the red zone, junior linebacker, JaQueal Walker intercepted Fleming for the third time of the afternoon to seal the, 28-20 victory.

"We keep the defense simple. We don't try to be too complex with our schemes," said Collins. "We just go out and play hard and have fun. We are proving that it's successful. Coach Kerr has been doing a great job. He keeps our defense fired up and aggressive."

The Bears' defense now has eight interceptions in two games. They only had nine total all of last season.

Northern Colorado looks to carry its momentum into next Saturday, Sept. 20 when they head to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to take on Northern Iowa. Game time is in the books for 4:00 p.m. (CT).