Wescolite (Dillon, Mont) 1949-2009, October 06, 2004, Image 4

October 6, 2004 Sports The Wescolite Student Newspaper UM-Western Football Ready to Rumble By Jon Currier A Western player attempts to dodge a tackle in last Saturday's victory over Mon­ tana Tech Photo By Perry Backus, Montana Standard After three years of starting under­ classmen, head coach Tommy Lee has 17 Seniors and 18 Juniors returning to lead this years Dawg football team. This team is solid defensively with the return of Jeremy Hess and Guy Silvemale as tackles, Nick Rewerts and Ruley Stingley at the ends. Playing linebackers for the Dawgs are Bryan Amston and Kawain Curran on the insides, and Eric Stoverud on the outside. The secondary has Nick Prinzing at strong safety, Ryan Keltz and Enoch McKreague returning at comerbacks, and Dereck Stanley steps into the free safety position. All five starting linemen are returning players. Abe Apilado at center, Darryl Bryce and Ben Snipes at guards, and Corey Monroe and Mike Schmidt at tack­ les. The Back field will be split between Josh Shrum and Caleb Drinkwalter. Dal­ las Mock, Corey Creighton, T Artis, and Kyle Hanna are part of the experienced receiving core. For the kicking game the Dawgs rely on Eric Zahler who has some big game experience. The newest edition to the offense will be at the quarter back posi­ tion. Travis Blome is the new starting quarterback for the Dawgs. He was the back up for 3 year starter Travis Kirby last year, so Blome is familiar with the offense. The first game of the year for the Bull­ dogs was at Central W ashington, an NCAA D-Il team. M istakes and fumbles attributed to the Dawgs’ 17- 34 loss. Blome played well com­ pleting 23 of 39 at­ tempts for 317 yards and two touch­ downs. The Dawgs could not get their ground game roll­ ing. With two fumbles and (-9) yards rushing on of­ fense, it allowed Central Washington to concentrate on defending the pass. The Dawgs never quit and played hard until the game was over. Stats for Central Washington game. Passing: Blome 23 of 39 for 317 yards, 1 TD Receiving: Dallas Mock 9 for 155 yards, Josh Illig 5 for 85 yards, T Artis 5 for 54 yards 1TD, Josh Shrum 2 for 13 yards, Thatcher Taylor 1 for 10 yards,' Cory Creighton 1 for 0 yards Rushing: Shrum 8 for 18 yards, Drinkwaltef 3 for 9 yards, Blome 5 for (- 27) yards The next game was against Rocky Mountain College in Billings. The Dawgs were the first to score with a 21 yard touchdown pass from Perbera to Shum in the second quarter. Zahler fin­ ished the 2nd quarter for the Dawgs with a 34 yard field goal. The Dawgs tacked on three more touchdowns in the 3rd and 4th quarters. Shrum had two, an 8 yard run in the 3rd quarter and a 1 yard run in the 4th, while the other touchdown was the result of 12 yard pass from Blome to Artis at the end of the 3rd quarter. The Dawgs definitely improved their running game this week ending up with 196 yards on 38 rushes. The game ended with the University of Montana-Western Bulldogs 31 Rocky Mountain College 16. Stats for the Rocky Game. Passing: Travis Blome 6 of 11 for 63 yards 1 TD, Kealii Pervera 6 of 10 for 97 yards 1 TD. Receiving: Drinkwalter 1 for 9 yards, Creighton 1 for 1 yard, Artis 3 for 56 yards 1 TD, Shrum 2 for 56 yards 1 TD, Mock 2 for 8 yards, Illig 1 for 0 yards, Kasey Thiessen 1 for 28 yards. Rushing: Shrum 21 for 114 yards 2 TD’s, Blome 2 for 15 yards, Drinkwalter 14 for 95 yards, Tyler Cress 2 for 6 yards For the Dawg's home opener Western hosted two-time defending National Champion Carroll College Saints. Carroll College came into the game riding a 21 game winning streak. Their last loss came at the hands of the Dawgs in Hel­ ena in 2002. Could the Dawgs do it again? Not this game. The Carroll of­ fense proved too much for the Dawg defense, as Carroll went on to win the game 28-3. The score really doesn’t do the game justice. The Dawgs were able to move the ball well with 148 total yards of offense and only going 3 and out once. The problem was just getting into the end-zone, with Zahler’s 24 yard field goal, in the 1st quarter, the only score for the Bulldogs. The loss to Carroll puts the Dawgs at 1 and 2 on the y e a r, and 1 and 1 in conference play. Stats for the Carroll game Passing: Blome 13 of 27 for 117 yards, Perbera 3 of 8 for 24 yards Receiving: Mock 4 for 24 yards, Artis 3 for 27 yards, Shrum 2 for 37 yards, Bisbee 2 for 19 yards Rushing: Shrum 14 for 48 yards, Drinkwalter 8 for 23 yards, Blome 4 for 21 yards, Mock 1 for 21 yards. The Dawgs opponents for their next game were the Lights from MSU-North- em. This game was hard fought and close through all four quarters. Western lit up the board first with quarterback Travis Blome scoring a touchdown from one yard out. The Dawgs scored three times in the second quarter. The first coming off of a 3 yard rush by Josh Shrum with 7:31 left on the clock. Eric Zahler added three more to Western’s score with a 37 yard field goal. Western’s last score of the first half came from Josh Illig, who caught a 21 yard pass from Blome. With both teams going scoreless in the 3rd quarter the score was 24-20 going into the 4th. The Lights scored early in the 4th quar­ ter with a field goal to bring the score within one point. This game wasn’t decided until the final seconds, when Josh Shrum scored the final touchdown, from 6 yards out, with one second left on the game clock. Both teams played hard. Stats for MSU-Northem game Passing: Blome 12 of 19 for 222 yards 1 TD, Mock 3 of 4 for 79 yards Receiving: Mock 4 for 93 yards, Shrum 2 for 42 yards, Illig 2 for 36 yards 1 TD, Creighton 2 for 39 yards, Taylor 2 for 38 yards. Rushing: Drinkwalter 10 for 52 yards, Shrum 13 for 51 yards 2 TD, Blome 5 for -19 yards 1 TD. i