BURNABY, B.C. – Scoring 29 of their 35 points in the fourth quarter, the Simon Fraser University Clan football team defeated the Central Washington University Wildcats by a score of 35-24 in a wild finish on Saturday afternoon at Terry Fox Field in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action. SFU improves to 3-7 (2-6 GNAC) on the season while CWU falls to 3-6 with a 3-4 mark in conference play.
The game proved to be defensive battle early on as the two teams combined for just three points in the entire first half. Wildcats kicker Sean Davis put his team on the board first, just under two minutes into the second quarter, kicking a 37-yard field goal. Central Washington went into halftime with a 3-0 lead.
CWU struck early in the third quarter as Levi Taylor took a short run of just four yards into the end zone to give the visitors a 10-0 lead. SFU responded with just 27 seconds remaining on the clock in the third quarter as quarterback Trey Wheeler (Seattle, WA) connected with receiver Tore Corrado (Vancouver, BC) with a 15 yard pass into the end zone. However, Clan kicker Ian Sternau's (Pasadena, CA) convert attempt was blocked leaving the score at 10-6 in favour of CWU.
The Wildcats restored their double-digit lead as Taylor ended a six play, 56 yard drive with a 12 yard run into the end zone with 12:51 to go in the fourth quarter. Just three and a half minutes later, SFU answered back as running back Bo Palmer capped off a 64 yard drive with a patented run into the end zone making it 17-12 for CWU. After failing to convert on their first touchdown, SFU opted to go for a two-point conversion and successfully converted as Andrew Torkelson caught a pass in the end zone to bring the Clan within three points of the Wildcats.
After Wheeler aired out a pass complete to Corrado for 37 years and a first down for SFU, Wheeler aired out another one, this time to receiver Bobby Pospischil (Coquitlam, BC) in the end zone. With the Sternau convert, SFU led by a score of 21-17 with just over five minutes to go.
On the first drive of CWU's next drive, SFU's Adam Berger picked off a pass from Wildcats quarterback Jose Mohler and returned it for 43 yards for the touchdown, giving SFU a 28-17 lead. Greg Bowcott replaced Wheeler for one play for a quarterback draw into the end zone for another touchdown, extending SFU's lead.
Central Washington responded with a touchdown of their own with under two minutes to go in the fourth quarter to make it 35-24 but it was not enough.
Wheeler went 20-for-28 with 266 passing yards and two touchdowns. Mohler was 15-for-39 or 198 passing yards, one touchdown and one interception. Corrado and Pospischil each had one touchdown and combined for 168 yards. Sternau kicked all the converts for SFU, missing on one. Davis kicked all of the converts for CWU.
