Wolves Spoil Linfield's Debut, Top Wildcats, 28-14

Wou vs Linfield Photo courtesy: WOU

McMINNVILLE - Eliot Vinzant rushed for 195 yards and two touchdowns, helping the Western Oregon Wolves defeat Linfield, 28-14, in front of 3,500 at Maxwell Field on Saturday night.

The WOU win and Linfield loss met the criteria for a number of milestones. It was WOU's first win over the Wildcats since 1997. It was Linfield's first loss in 41 regular-season games, dating back to 2001. And it put a damper on the opening of the Joe Smith era, Linfield's new head coach.

It also put WOU at 2-0 on the season, heading into a date with NCAA Division II national power Texas A&M-Kingsville, next Saturday at McArthur Field (1:00 PM).

Western Oregon posted 435 yards of total offense, balanced with 238 on the ground and 197 through the air. Vinzant ran for over 100 yards for the ninth consecutive game, breaking his own school record. Quarterback Mark Thorson was an efficient 20 of 32 for 197 yards and two touchdowns, and for the second consecutive game, had no interceptions.

"We played a pretty complete game, except for a blip here or there," said head coach Arne Ferguson, whose team now has a five-game winning streak harking back to the end of 2005. "We did a lot of things right tonight, be we still have a ways to go in a lot of areas."

Vinzant opened the scoring with a 70-yard scamper in the first quarter to give the Wolves a 7-0 lead with 5:35 left in the stanza. But the Wildcats answered on the ensuing kick-off, when Travis Masters went 96 yards for a score to tie the game back at 7-7.

But the Wolves scored again before the quarter was over, this time on a 17-yard strike from Thorson to Chris Helbling. That six points was set-up on a brilliant diving catch by Sean Fullerton on a 39-yard pass from Thorson.

The Wolves scored again on their next possession, with Vinzant running through the middle untouched on a 12-yard draw play to make it 21-7. No one scored the rest of the half, although WOU's Bruce Voges missed just wide right on a 48-yard field goal.

Things evened out a bit in the third quarter, with no scores on the board until Thorson found Kevin Boss on a nine-yard pass with 1:05 to go in the period, to give WOU a large 28-7 lead.

But the Wildcats climbed back, using a 40-yard pitch and carry by running back Drew Ragan, setting up a 1-yard scoring toss from Tim Benzel to Tyler Kaluza to make it 28-14 with 10:40 to go. But that would be the extent of the Wildcat scoring, as future drives were stalled by a series of WOU quarterback sacks and big plays by the defense.

The Wolves defense has given up just seven total points in its first two games. Anthony Marin had four sacks of Benzel for a total of 22 yards in losses, and the Wolves also had sacks from Matt Cox and Matt Starley.

Boss had six catches for 38 yards for the Wolves and Tyler Knudsen had six grabs for 29. For Linfield, Benzel began the post-Brett Elliott era with a 13 for 30 performance for 173 yards. Josh Vierra had three catches for 50 yards, but Linfield had only 226 yards of total offense.

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