Freshmen play big role in first victory of 2010
9/26/2010 7:56:00 AM | Football
Huntsville Item Assistant Sports Editor
The Bearkats are far from a finished product, but they sure looked like it Saturday night.
Sam Houston State electrified the crowd with explosive plays in the passing and running games and the defense brought the heat as the Bearkats whipped the Bulldogs of Gardner-Webb 30-14 at Bowers Stadium.
Freshman quarterback Brian Bell threw for 168 yards and two scores and freshman running back Tim Flanders topped the century mark in rushing yards for the second straight game to help Sam Houston (1-2) win its home debut under new head coach Willie Fritz.
"I thought we did some really good things in all phases of the game," Fritz said. "Offensively, early in the ballgame I thought we did a super job of running the football, controlling the clock. We were more assignment-sound this week than we were last week.
"Defensively, I thought we were really aggressive early in the ballgame. Our mantra is stopping people running the football, and early I thought we did a sensational job of making them be one-dimensional."
After two disappointing losses to start the season in which the offense struggled to put points on the board, the Bearkats used some big plays to jump on the Bulldogs (2-2) early.
Flanders, who rushed for 156 yards and two scores in a 56-14 loss to Western Illinois last week, provided the spark Sam Houston needed. He took a handoff from Bell and broke loose in the Bulldog secondary for a 54-yard touchdown run to help the Kats take a 7-0 lead with 5:01 left in the first quarter.
Bell then showed why the Sam Houston coaching staff decided to turn the offense over to a true freshman.
After Gardner-Webb badly missed a 52-yard field goal, Bell tossed a 33-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Kevin Matthews two and a half minutes into the second quarter as the Kats went up 14-0 on Miguel Antonio's extra-point kick.
"We had a good start to this game. We had a big play by Tim at the beginning," Bell said. "It was real easy to get going today. We had a lot of intensity and enthusiasm - a lot more than we have had in the past. I think the home crowd did a great job of getting us rowdy tonight."
The close to 10,000 fans who braved the nasty weather at the start of the contest were treated to fireworks on the field as well as the spectacular show following the game.
The Bearkats made an early defensive statement by forcing the Bulldogs to three and outs on four of their first five possesions. Sam Houston laid some big licks on the Gardner-Webb ball carriers and got constant pressure on quarterback John Rock.
The Bulldogs managed just 57 rushing yards after Western Illinois ran over Sam Houston for 305 last week. The Bearkats recorded five sacks with Victor Carmichael, Edward Decambre, Kash David, Gary Lorance, Darius Taylor and Chuck Obi all getting in on the action.
Safety Robert Shaw also picked off a pass in the end zone that was tipped in the air by cornerback Daxton Swanson that could have cut the lead to 27-14 to start the fourth quarter.
"It was very disappointing last week because we didn't play up to our effort," said Carmichael, who finished with five tackles, a pass breakup and half a sack. "We knew they were going to come out and test us. We watched them on film all week and they like to throw the ball a lot.
"After last week, we knew they were going to test us and we had to come out and establish ourselves early."
Sam Houston's offense was more crisp this week after only putting up 17 points combined in the losses to Baylor and Western Illinois.
Bell only completed six passes, but the wide receivers turned those into big chunks of yardage. Richard Sincere reeled in a 60-yard touchdown pass to give the Kats a 21-0 lead in the second quarter.
Melvis Pride had two grabs for 50 yards, and Seth Patterson made a couple of catches for 20 more.
Sam Houston also got field goals of 26, 43 and 20 yards from Antonio. Flanders had 104 yards on the ground.
"We have to be two-dimensional. We have to be able to run the football and throw the football effectively," Fritz said. "I thought early in the ballgame we ran the ball well that got us to soften them up a little bit. They started crowding the box thinking we were going to run the ball and we hit some passes behind them."
Gardner-Webb scored on a 35-yard pass from Rock to Jamal Patmon and a 1-yard run by Patrick Hall late in the fourth quarter.
Tickets for Homecoming, the "Bearkats for the Cause" Pink Out game with McNeese Saturday November 5 and the regular season finale with Texas State November 19 are onsale now online at www.gobearkats.com/tickets or at the SHSU athletic ticket office located in the Ron Mafrige Field House at Bowers Stadium. Ticket office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The ticket office telephone is 936 294-1729.
