THIS WEEK'S GAME NOTES FOR NORTHERN ARIZONA AND NORTHERN COLORADO.
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (September 23, 2021) – While the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks enjoyed their victory over the Arizona Wildcats, the third FBS win for the program since 2012, their attention quickly turned to the beginning of Big Sky Conference play.
Traveling for the third straight week, the Lumberjacks (1-2, 0-0 Big Sky) head to Greeley, Colo. to begin their eight-game run through the Big Sky this Saturday. Opening up with Northern Colorado (1-2, 0-0 Big Sky), the Lumberjacks will look to snap a run of seven straight victories for the home team in the all-time series against the Bears.
Winning the most recent meeting 41-23 in 2019, the Lumberjacks have beaten the Bears nine consecutive times in Flagstaff with the only loss coming by forfeit in 1964. Northern Arizona last won in Greeley in 2012, Saturday being head coach
Chris Ball's first trip north to meet Northern Colorado.
"We want to be 1-0 in the Big Sky," Ball said. "Now we have got a target on our chest. I told them we have to prepare better than we prepared last week and we have got to be more focused. It's up to us to hold them accountable to that."
Saturday's game kicks off at 12 p.m. MST and 1 p.m. MDT and will be available on
ESPN+ and
Hulu with a subscription to the Disney Bundle. The game will also be available on the Lumberjack Radio Network and at NAUAthletics.com/listen.
The Bears opened up their season with a 35-7 loss on the road at Colorado before first-year head coach Ed McCaffrey recorded his first career win on the road at Houston Baptist 45-13. Freshman running back Gene Sledge Jr. put the Bears in front with first-quarter touchdown runs of 11 and 4 yards and a 33-yard pick-six for Aaron Harris pushed Northern Colorado's lead to 21-6 entering the break.
While the Bears rolled to the win two weeks ago, starting quarterback Dylan McCaffrey, Ed's son, did leave the Houston Baptist game with an injury. Through roughly six quarters this season McCaffrey has thrown for 299 yards on 33-of-58 yards passing, with one touchdown and interception.
Conner Martin entered in the second half against Houston Baptist, throwing for 139 yards and a pair of touchdowns while completing 10-of-15 passes. In last week's home opener against Lamar, Martin finished 19-of-31 with 152 yards, a touchdown and an interception as he started in place of McCaffrey and Northern Colorado fell 17-10.
Regardless of who starts at quarterback for Northern Colorado, Ball has his attention turned inward once again. Looking back through Saturday's win against Arizona, Ball said the team had plenty to improve on.
"Fundamentally we are still not playing like we need to play," Ball said early on in the week. "We have got to work on footwork, tackling, blocking and we have got to take care of the ball. Our No. 1 thing is to own the ball on both sides and we are not doing that. That's one of our key things, fundamentals, that we hang our hats on and we did not do that very well Saturday night. There's a lot of stuff to improve even though we won."
Northern Arizona's defense did finish Saturday night with 10 tackles for loss against Arizona and will look to continue the pressure against a Northern Colorado team that allowed eight tackles for loss against Lamar.
Senior
Harrison Beemiller provided 4.5 tackles for loss himself, ranking second in program history for a single game, and earned the ROOT SPORTS Big Sky Conference Defensive Player of the Week as a result.
Eloi Kwete and
Carson Taylor each added 1.5 tackles for loss against the Wildcats and provided the two sacks for the Lumberjacks' defense.
"We started out our first two games thinking we could handle a lot more offensively, defensively and special teams wise," Ball said. "We really narrowed the game plan down and made it simpler so our kids could play faster and with more confidence."
Punter
DJ Arnson, the ROOT SPORTS Big Sky Conference Special Teams Player of the Week, contributed to the defense's efforts with an average of 51.6 yards per punt last week. Booting the ball nine times, Arnson dropped three inside Arizona's 20 while six went for at least 50 yards. A game-high of 62 came late in the fourth quarter to extend the distance of the Wildcats' final drive.
In Arnson's most recent game in Greeley, the senior averaged 55.5 yards on four punts. Three kicks went for more than 50 yards, with his longest a 63-yard punt that was downed at the 2.
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