GREELEY, COLO. (September 25, 2021) – Holding the Northern Colorado Bears to just 55 yards on the ground, an average of 1.8 yards per carry, the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks found themselves in a battle Saturday afternoon in Greeley, Colo.
However, last drive in regulation stalled near midfield and the Lumberjacks (1-3, 0-1 Big Sky) fourth-and-1 run in overtime was stuffed leading to a 17-10 victory for the Bears (2-2, 1-0 Big Sky).
Leading 7-3 going into halftime, the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks opened the second half appearing to trade three-and-outs with the Northern Colorado Bears. A pair of runs stuffed by
Harrison Beemiller and an incompletion from Northern Colorado's Dylan McCaffrey forced the Bears to punt from their own 25.
However, a roughing the punter call extended the drive, setting the Bears up for a fresh set of downs at their own 40. From there, Northern Colorado converted on fourth down and a pair of third downs as it put together
its longest drive of the day.
Finishing with an 8-yard touchdown pass from McCaffrey to Dylan Thomas, the Bears drove 75 yards across 16 plays and 8:29 minutes to take a 10-7 lead midway through the third quarter. Finishing at 254 yards against Northern Arizona, the drive accounted for nearly 30 percent of Northern Colorado's offense on the day.
The Lumberjacks evened the score with a 10-play, 65-yard drive that began in the third quarter and carried over into the fourth. The biggest play of the drive came on a second-and-10, with
RJ Martinez directing
Hendrix Johnson as he scrambled out of the pocket.
Dropping in a pass to Johnson, who broke free from his defender as the play extended, Martinez set the Lumberjacks up at the 3-yard line on the 56-yard completion. However, the drive stalled and Northern Arizona settled for a 10-10 tie with a 21-yard field goal by
Luis Aguilar.
In his first career start for the Lumberjacks, Martinez finished 21-of-37 for 208 yards through the air and another 29 on the ground.
Draycen Hall led the Lumberjacks with 76 yards rushing while
George Robinson added 49. The long reception boosted Johnson's final line, as he finished with three catches for 71 yards followed by Hall's 40 on five catches.
Martinez and the Lumberjacks put together their first scoring drive, to take their first lead of the game, with the pressure on at the end of the first half. Backed up at their own 7-yard line with just 2:56 left before halftime, the Lumberjacks opened up some space thanks to Hall's 16-yard gain on the opening play.
Moving near midfield thanks to runs by Hall and Martinez, a 9-yard reception for
Matthew Kempton and a 22-yard catch by
Coleman Owen set Northern Arizona up just outside the red zone. A pair of 9-yard runs by Robinson set the Lumberjacks up at the Northern Colorado 7.
While a block in the back moved Northern Arizona back to the 17, Robinson slashed right through the middle of the defense to cap off a 12-play, 93-yard drive with a touchdown just 35 seconds before the break.
Northern Arizona's defense carried over its stout run defense, allowing just 22 yards on the ground to Northern Colorado in the first half.
Morgan Vest led the Lumberjacks with 10 tackles, 1.5 for loss, with
Cosmas Kwete and
Eloi Kwete each adding 1.5 tackles for loss.
Tallying just 100 yards in the first half, the Bears' lone points came seven plays after a Lumberjack fumble.
Set up at its own 42, Northern Colorado opened the drive with three gains for 30 total yards before
Eloi Kwete and
Carson Taylor registered a tackle for a loss of 3 on Tru Wilson's second-down run and
Jacob Mpungi brought down Darren DeLaCroix for another 3-yard loss.
With the sides playing one another closely all game, the final result unsurprisingly came down to the final moments of regulation leading into overtime.
A missed field goal by the Bears midway through the third quarter left the door open for the Lumberjacks to only need one of their own. Unfortunately, a miss with 1:57 remaining in the game kept the scored tied at 10-10 though Northern Colorado failed to capitalize on its resulting drive.
Four completions by Martinez and an offside penalty set Northern Arizona up at the the Northern Colorado 48, but a sack with just seconds remaining helped prevent the Lumberjacks from attempting one last kick in regulation.
Taking the field on defense to start overtime, the Lumberjacks fell behind 17-10 as Jaren Mitchell came away with a 15-yard touchdown pass from McCaffrey before the Bears halted Northern Arizona's fourth-and-1 attempt.
Northern Arizona returns home to face the Idaho State Bengals on Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Walkup Skydome for Family Weekend.
