UMHB turned the ball over five times and its offense was shut out in the second half as Southern Oregon rolled to a 40-28 victory Saturday on a brilliant Pacific Northwest afternoon at Raider Stadium.
The Crusaders (6-1) - ranked No. 3 in NCAA Division III - were out of sync most of the day, and the NAIA Raiders (3-5) seized on the opportunity to post their biggest upset in recent years.
“It’s a huge win for us, especially against a good team like Mary Hardin-Baylor,” third-year Southern Oregon coach Steve Helminiak said. “We were really nervous coming into this game because their defense is so good and they have some weapons on offense. It’s a really big win for us.”
The only upside for UMHB was the fact that this loss, because it came to a non-NCAA opponent, will not affect postseason berths. That was little solace to the Crusaders, however.
“We had better learn a bunch from this,” UMHB coach Pete Fredenburg said sternly. “We had better learn a lot about ourselves.”
A Raiders team that came in averaging only 15 points per game hung 40 on the Crusaders. Thirteen of those points came from the SOU defense on back-breaking plays for UMHB.
With the Crusaders trailing 14-7 and backed up against their goal line with 4:21 left in the first half, Josh Saenz dropped back to pass. He was crushed in the end zone by defensive end Courtney Robinson, and the ball popped loose and Ben Baker pounced on it for a 21-7 lead.
The other back-breaking play came with 42 seconds left in the third quarter after the Crusaders had clawed their way back to trail 34-28. On second-and-9 from the UMHB 5-yard line, Saenz and new reserve tailback Tariekus Ellis couldn’t convert an option pitch. The ball bounced into the end zone, where Byron Sconiers fell on it for the capping score.
“We had nine-man protection and the guy just slipped through. That was bad,” Fredenburg said of the sack that resulted in a Raiders TD. “Then the other one on the option was bad, too. We have to be a little more creative when we’re backed up.
“The thing that bothers me is the reasons we were backed up. And that’s coaching. Those are mistakes that we make to allow guys to get us in those situations.”
The aforementioned mistakes were caused by UMHB’s inability to find any offensive consistency and its struggles to get SOU’s offense off the field quickly.
The Raiders had the ball for 38 minutes to 22 for the Crusaders, who lost two fumbles and threw three interceptions. After knotting the halftime score at 21, UMHB was held to only 88 yards in the second half.
“I thought (at halftime) we were going to come out and win,” Fredenburg said. “Then they came out in the second half and took it to us.”
SOU took it to UMHB for the first 25 minutes before the Crusaders finally counter-punched in the last five minutes before halftime.
Saenz threw his first interception of the season, and the Raiders turned it into a 7-0 lead on J.C. Hunsaker’s 24-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Stout with 2:28 left in the first quarter.
Josh Landrum’s 7-yard scoring scamper tied it before Southern Oregon scored twice in a span of 4½ minutes to put UMHB on the ropes.
Hunsaker’s 9-yard scoring toss to Darryl Price came a few plays after a successful fake punt, and the Raiders were up 14-7 six minutes into the second quarter.
Almost five minutes later came the sack in the end zone for a 21-7 deficit.
The Crusaders got clicking by going to the air, throwing seven consecutive passes during a span of two drives. The first was capped by Saenz’s 47-yard hook-up with Brian Scott (Cameron Yoe). The second was finished by Aerttrail Robinson’s nifty catch of a Saenz throw that resulted in a 33-yard TD and 21-all tie just 1:13 before halftime.
The Raiders got a 2-yard TD run from Marlon Rosales and a 17-yard scoring toss from Hunsaker to Stout to go up 34-21 midway through the third.
The Crusaders’ only points of the second half came on Temple graduate Derrick Williams’ 47-yard fumble return with 3:01 left in the third. But that was followed less than 2½ minutes later by the botched option pitch and SOU’s final points.
edrennan@temple-telegram.com
