Thursday, September 8, 2011
Brian Blumberg kicked a 27-yard field goal as time expired to give Humboldt State a 38-36 Great Northwest Athletic Conference win over Central Washington Thursday before 7,031 fans at the Redwood Bowl in Arcata, Calif., and a national television audience.
It was the second year in a row Blumberg had kicked a field goal to beat the Wildcats. Last year he kicked an 18-yarder with 1:12 left in a 25-24 win at the Redwood Bowl.
Prior to Blumberg's game-winner, Humboldt State, which improved to 2-0, had turned the ball over on three consecutive possessions to enable the Wildcats to overcame a nine-point fourth-quarter deficit.
Consecutive fumbles by running back Lyndon Rowells set up two CWU scores - a 33-yard field goal by Sean Davis and a 20-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Ryan Robertson to wide receiver Anthony Spain.
Spain's touchdown catch came with 5:26 left and Davis then added the extra point to put the Wildcats ahead 36-35.
On HSU's next possession linebacker Stan Langlow picked off a pass from quarterback Mike Proulx and returned it 22 yards to the HSU 48.
But, the Wildcats, who fell to 0-2 to start the season for the first time since 1999, weren't able to move the football and punted it back to Humboldt at the 25 with 2:14 remaining.
Proulx then engineered a 10-play, 65-yard game-closing drive, which featured completed passes of 23 and 12 yards to Dirk Dallas and four rushes for 18 yards by Rowells, who netted 111 yards on 26 carries, scoring on runs of four, three and 12 yards.
Proulx finished the contest with 306 of HSU's 416 yards of total offense. He completed 21 of 33 passes for 289 yards. Dallas had seven catches for 98 yards.
Spain had a spectacular evening for the Wildcats, hauling in 11 passes for 166 yards including a 21-yard TD reception in the first quarter. Robertson also had an outstanding night completing 27 of 39 passes for 315 yards as CWU finished with a total of 389 yards.
The Wildcats' special teams, however, struggled, missing one extra point kick, having a field goal blocked and then fumbling the ball away on another field goal try. The latter two miscues led to Humboldt touchdowns.
Sean McDonald blocked Davis' second-quarter field goal attempt and that play was followed immediately by a 50-yard pass from Proulx to Kevin Miles. One play later, Rowells scored from three yards.
Then late in the first half, Jordan McGowan-Smith picked up a fumble after an aborted CWU three-point attempt and rambled 58 yards into the end zone to enable Humboldt to take a 21-13 lead into the locker room at the break.
