Recap: @UNCBearsFB Sends Seniors Off With 42-0 Win Over Cal Poly

Saturday, November 18

Greeley, Colo.

11:30 am

University of Northern Colorado

3-7 , 2-6

Cal Poly

1-10 , 1-7

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Cal Poly

Northern Colorado

Photo by: Rob Trubia

11/18/2017 4:57:00 PM | Football

Box Score

Northern Colorado football closed out its 2017 season with a 42-0 win over Cal Poly

By: By Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

GREELEY, Colo. – Northern Colorado closed out its 2017 season with a complete team win over Cal Poly on Senior Day, 42-0. The victory puts UNC at 3-7 to end the year and 2-6 in the Big Sky, also snapping a six-game losing streak.

The shutout victory was the first by Northern Colorado since 2010 when the Bears opened the season with a 54-0 win over Adams State.

(11/18/2017) Football vs Cal Poly

While the defense pitched the shutout, the Bears offense accounted for 35 of the 42 points, and special team's chipped in with a blocked punt returned for a touchdown.

Both offenses struggled until Conor Regan found senior wideout Frank Stephens for 42 yards to put UNC into scoring position. The drive started when Cal Poly went for it on 4th and short fumbling the pitch, and the Bears' Kiefer Morris, recovering the ball. The long pass connection between Regan and Stephens set up a 33-yard Collin Root field goal.

A second Root field goal, this time of 31 yards, made it 6-0 UNC early in the second. That's when Northern Colorado's offense really got it going.

The next possession for the offense started with back-to-back plays of over 20 yards as Brandon Cartagena stated to find his grove on the way to 153 yards rushing with a 22-yard rush to start the drive. Ellis Onic II then made an impressive catch deep over the middle as he was being hit for 33 yards to set up UNC at the Cal Poly 16-yard line and a targeting penalty moved it to the eight. Three plays later, Regan found Stephens again, this time for an 11-yard touchdown.

Northern Colorado looked destined for a three and out on its next offensive possession, but Cartagena scampered upfield on a screen pass on 3rd and 21 for 19 yards to set up fourth and short. The Bears decided to go for it and drew a pass interference penalty to keep the drive alive.

On the first play following the pass interference, Regan found Onic for a 30-yard touchdown in the back of the end zone to put the team up 19-0. UNC chose to go for a two-point conversion and roles were reversed as Frank Stephens rolled to his right and found Regan to make it a 21-0 game, just before the half.

Coming out of the break, both offenses struggled to move the ball again with four punts and a fumble to start the third quarter. The fumble was by Cal Poly as cornerback Isaiah Swopes both stripped Poly's Kyle Lewis, and recovered the ball for UNC.

The Bears were unable to score any points following the fumble, but the offense got into a groove again late in the third quarter.

Northern Colorado scored 21 points in the span of five minutes and four seconds once the offense started to get it going again. Cartagena started the team's third touchdown drive of the game when he ran for 42-yards on the first play of the drive. Two plays later, Frank Stephens went up for a great catch over the defender in the left corner of the end zone for his second score of the day. This pass from Regan was a 28-yarder.

UNC forced a three and out of Cal Poly on the ensuing drive, when Jacob Bobenmoyer came through the line on the punt, blocking it, while teammate Sherand Boyd Jr was off to the races after snatching the ball out of the air for a 20-yard return to the house.

The final Northern Colorado score of the game came just before the end of the third quarter, when Regan passed for his fourth touchdown of the game, this time to deep threat Alex Wesley down the left sideline for a 48-yard score.

What They Said

Head Coach Earnest Collins Jr.

Overall Thoughts on the Game
"I'm just proud of the guys. It started on Tuesday when we were going through stretch and the leadership council came to me and said 'If anything goes wrong this week just send it to us and we will take care of it.' It started right there showed we are not going to wait until next year to start building this team, but right now. Then Jon came up and told me that his o-line blocked the best he saw all year in that Tuesday practice. Our defense got 83 reps against a triple-option offense in that practice too and about 75 of them were against an offense without the ball, just playing sound football."

Wide Receiver Alex Wesley

What led to the big offensive day?
"We watched the film and saw some areas we could exploit today. They came out and ran pretty much what we thought they were going to and we were just able to capitalize."

Thoughts on 1,000 receiving yards for the year
"I have to give the accomplishment to my teammates. Without the quarterbacks, o-line, tight ends running backs and my group, receivers, it would not have been possible without them."

Safety Sherand Boyd Jr

How the defense was able to put together the shutout
"Coach Collins and Jones have been preaching on discipline all season long to us. We played with a lot of discipline today and it showed. Now we look to take that momentum and that understanding into the offseason and build upon it for next year."

Running Back Brandon Cartagena

About the keys to the big game for him and the whole offense
"On offense, we knew in the game planning that the outside zone was going to be big for us. We just came out together and played for each other today. As my last game, I just let them know I was going to leave it all on the field today."

On what this Senior Day meant
"It felt great knowing that this is my last game at Nottingham Field and to go out with my teammates with a shutout. This is something I will always remember for the rest of my life and everyone that was a part of it."

Game Notes
- The shutout win was the first for Northern Colorado since September 4, 2010, against Adams State. The final of that game was 56-0.
- Receiver Alex Wesley passed the 1.000 receiving yards mark for the season. It is just the 10th time in UNC history a player reached that mark. Wesley finished the day with three catches for 87 yards and a touchdown. He concludes the season with 1,010 yards. It is the second consecutive year a UNC receiver went over 1,000 yards, last season Stephen Miller did with 1,007.
- Brandon Cartagena finished his UNC career with a fantastic performance. The senior from Colorado Springs ended the day with 153 yards on 25 carries. He is the first UNC running back to go over the 150-yard mark since Trae Riek in 2015 when he did it twice. The performance helped push Cartagena over the 1,000 career rushing yards mark as well. He ends his college career with 1,046.
- The punt block returned for a touchdown was the first since Mikhail Dubose did so against Montana in last season's Senior Day game.
- Defensive end Keifer Morris closed out a great 2017 season with a sack, 1.5 tackles for loss, a pass break up and fumble recovery. Morris ended the season with a five-game streak of recording at least one sack. He finished the year with nine sacks.
- Luke Nelson had another strong day of work on defense with 14 tackles, including one for a loss and an interception.
- Northern Colorado scored all 42 of its points over the second and third quarter. Over those two quarters, the team accumulated 326 total offensive yards.

To stay up to date on all things UNC football, visit UNCBears.com and follow the team on Twitter at @UNCBearsFB.