SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. - Senior wide out Elijah Marks set career highs in receptions (14) and receiving yards (206) and sophomore Case Cookus threw for 406 yards and four touchdowns as the Northern Arizona football team knocked off Cal Poly, 28-10, Saturday evening in a Big Sky conference game at Alex G. Spanos Stadium.
"We really wanted to come out fast and set the tempo for the game," head coach Jerome Souers said. "Cal Poly is a good team, they're really disruptive and they make things difficult with their option attack and their defense schematics but I thought our guys battled through some things. Our defense was disruptive, created some turnovers and some short field scenarios, and our offense capitalized. At the end of the day, we did what we needed to do to get a really tough win against a quality opponent in Cal Poly."
Northern Arizona (1-2, 1-0 Big Sky) controlled play for most of the evening, jumping out to a quick 7-0 lead in the first quarter, after Cookus found Marks for their first touchdown of the night. Cal Poly (0-4, 0-1) answered later in the quarter with a field goal, but NAU went on to score 21 unanswered points to pull away with a 28-3 in the third quarter, after touchdowns from Jonathan Baldwin, Matthew Kempton and Marks. The Mustangs got a late third quarter score, but in the end it was all Lumberjacks, as they collected the 28-10 conference victory.
Cookus' big day came on 35-of-46 passing as 10 different receivers hauled in receptions on the evening. After officially losing his top receiver in Emmanuel Butler for the season earlier in the day, Marks stepped up in a big way as the team's top playmaker.
"For any team, having a big player out is unfortunate," Marks said. "He's a big loss for us but our coaches always teach us the next man up mentality. We would love to have him but he's down so it's next man up. I know I'm a senior, so my job is to make big plays and there's a couple freshman out there making plays, and I have to lead them."
"I thought Elijah came out really inspired today," Souers added. "He picked up the slack and he came to play. He made some big time plays and showed the kind of receiver he's capable of being. I'm really proud with his effort tonight."
Another notable on the offense was the performance of Baldwin, who returned to his hometown and ended his night with three catches for 41 yards and a score.
"It was insane," Baldwin said, "I had almost 70 people out. I haven't played in front of these people since I was in high school so it was an awesome experience to come back to my home county and play in front of them."
"I think half of our crowd was Baldwin's family," Souers said with a laugh. "I'm excited for Jon, to come back home like this and to show as well as he did and for his teammates to get the win, it was big for us, all of us."
While the offense was putting up yards and points, the defense was doing its part, holding the Cal Poly attack to just 148 yards through the air and a yards per carry of 3.2 while forcing four turnovers.
"The kids played really hard, with great fundamentals," defensive coordinator Andy Thompson said. "Tackling was good, getting off blocks was good and our coverage was excellent. I'm really proud of the effort."
"I'm happy for the kids," Thompson added. "I'm happy for Coach Souers, I'm happy for the staff. It feels great to win and we just have to keep improving each week."
