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Wolves prey on lacklustre Clan, SFU coach wants players to read the writing on their own wall

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BURNABY — They came in undefeated, having previously hit the road to knock off its conference’s two preseason favourites.

And last week, for the first time in program history, the Simon Fraser Clan had received votes in the NCAA national Div. 2 football rankings.

With the home opener scheduled for Saturday, Clan football was feeling good about itself.

But after coming out and firing a miserable load of blanks on offence as a part of a surprisingly listless 30-9 loss to the visiting Western Oregon Wolves (2-1), SFU head coach Dave Johnson admitted everyone concerned may have been feeling a little too good about itself.

“I learned today that I think I need to adjust one of the signs in our locker room,” Johnson said of its need to be better seen by his team. “It’s a big metal sign with red letters and it says ‘Celebrate Adversity.’ I have a feeling our guys read it as ‘Create Adversity’ because the penalties we took and the way we responded to some of our guys getting injured or having to miss plays, wasn’t the image of Clan football.”

Indeed, it’s not like the Clan (2-1) didn’t have a mountain to climb Saturday, despite entering play with the top-rated offence in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.

The GNAC’s best receiver, Lemar Durant, was hurt in last week’s win at Central Washington and didn’t play. Midway through the third quarter, with the Clan trailing only 16-6, starting quarterback Ryan Stanford took a clean hit in the open field, suffering a shoulder injury serious enough that he instantly cradled it, and did not return the rest of the way.

As well, feature tailback Chris Tolbert, who finished the game with 112 rushing yards, was helped off the field late in the fourth with what appeared to be a lower body injury.

“I would give us pity if we didn’t have such good players right behind them,” said Johnson. “Lemar, you can’t replace him, but someone else lined up for him all day. We’ve got a gaggle of tailbacks and (back-up quarterback) Ryan Blum, he’s been frustrated that he hasn’t had enough reps, well, now you’re the starter. This was a great opportunity for us as a team to bond together, even with all the negatives and excuses, and we missed an opportunity.”

For much of the game, however, it was hard to even see opportunity.

Dense fog blanketed the field and driving rains never relented, elements that didn’t help the Clan’s aerial attack establish itself before a small crowd that braved the weather at Terry Fox Field. SFU, which came into the contest averaging 378 yards passing per game, wound up with 313 yards of total offence. Keeping with that theme, Saturday’s contest was the first time since SFU’s first ever NCAA game, a 38-0 loss to Western Oregon on Sept. 4 of 2010, that the team did not score a touchdown.

And while Western Oregon took just three penalties all day Saturday, for 39 yards, the Clan were whistled 11 times for 117 yards, many of the variety that made Johnson question the focus of his team.

“It was interesting that when it really started pouring in the third quarter, with raindrops the size of quarters, that is when their offence started churning,” said Johnson of the Wolves. “That’s what we usually do. They were the ones celebrating adversity and they were running it down our throats.”

Workhorse back Joe Harris carried 25 times for 103 yards, in the process rushing for the game’s first two touchdowns. A two-yard run in the third quarter made it 16-6, and an eight-yard run in the fourth 23-9. Wolves quarterback Ryan Bergman hit Michael Reeve with the game’s only touchdown pass, an eight-yard connection with 4:20 remaining. Other than that, it was a game of field goals, with Western Oregon’s Jesse Correa and Simon Fraser’s Chad Heerspink each going three-for-three.

The coaching staff will have to see how ready Durant, Stanford and Tolbert are to play this week as its top three skill-position players played a big role in the team getting out to its 2-0 start. SFU travels to Utah to face Dixie State this Saturday, then are in California the following week to play Azusa Pacific.

Those two road tests, ahead of its next home game Oct. 19 against Central Washington, will be telling in terms of the Clan’s readiness fight for a GNAC title. From his perspective Saturday, Johnson admitted that perhaps everyone got ahead of the process.

“The SFU football program I have known is hungry and humble and we don’t get big heads,” summed Johnson, “but maybe we did believe a bit of what was being said. It starts with me and maybe I started believing the stuff my wife was telling me, the stuff my mom was telling me that we were awesome. Obviously, we’re a long ways from where we need to be.”



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