By Chris Estrada
Coming off a blowout loss last week against Richmond, the football team made sure its performance would not be repeated against Northwestern State Saturday. The Huskies displayed a marked increase in aggression on both sides of the ball. Northeastern (1-2) wore down the Demons (2-1) and pulled away with a satisfying 42-14 victory at Parsons Field.
With NU going on the road this week to UC Davis and then taking a bye before its Oct. 6 game versus James Madison at 12:30 p.m., the much improved effort came just in time and followed a tough week of practice.
“Our guys hung together after a performance last week that was, simply stated, very uncharacteristic of how we are able to play,” said head coach Rocky Hager. “We practiced hard, found a way to keep ourselves from being easily distracted and pulled things together. I’d say the leadership group are the men that deserve as much credit as any.”
Hager also credited his coaching staff for working closely with the team all week.
“Obviously, the assistant coaches have a role in that as well,” he said. “But there was actually no doubting a much firmer, more intense way of doing things through the week and I’d say you saw the end result of that.”
It was clear from the opening drive that the Huskies were bent on playing high-energy football. Junior quarterback Anthony Orio (7-for-12, 130 yards, 2 TD) connected with receiver Chris Plum for a 46-yard touchdown strike to put the Huskies ahead 7-0.
Orio said he took advantage of the Demons’ penchant for going man-to-man on defense to make plays like his scoring pass to Plum.
“We knew that they were primarily a man-three team,” the New Jersey native said, referring to Northwestern State’s “4-2-5” defense that adds an extra third cornerback. “We knew that there would be an opportunity to throw the ball down deep, which we did earlier in the game.”
Orio said the offense was able to be effective because of a thorough scouting report on NSU.
“We weren’t surprised by anything they did,” Orio said. “We were expecting to see a lot of man coverage, which we saw. And we were able to hit some plays in the first half to get us going.”
Northwestern State was also raring to go, and on its first drive they marched 63 yards in a span of 6:05. Quarterback Germayne Edmond (8-for-15, 126 yards, 1 TD) found tight end Gordon Freeman in the middle of the end zone for a three-yard touchdown pass that tied the game.
The Demons took a 14-7 lead on their next possession as Edmond rolled out to his right and found tight end Clay Broyles, who rumbled over the goal line for a 30-yard touchdown reception with 1:20 left in the opening quarter.
But this time, the Huskies wouldn’t fold. After the Huskies tied the game in the second quarter with an 11-yard touchdown rush by Orio, the Northeastern defense was solid, led by senior linebacker AJ Lillie, who sacked Edmond on third-and-11. On NU’s next drive, Orio appeared to call an audible on second and eight from the Demon 21, then fired to junior tailback Alex Broomfield (72 total yards, 2 TD) in the end zone to push the Huskies to a 21-14 edge with 9:22 left in the first half.
“When they came down and scored two possessions in a row, [defensive coordinator] Paul Schaffner just told us to stay focused, stay relaxed,” said sophomore linebacker Alton Bradley, who had three tackles and one fumble recovery. “For the last two weeks, we’ve been starting off kind of slow, so we just went on, made some checks, made some changes to what we needed to do and just went out and executed.”
For all the Huskies’ heroics on defense, they were also helped by 16 offensive penalties committed by the Demons, many of them stalling drives before they began.
The Huskies extended their lead to 28-14 late in the third quarter as Orio faked a handoff, broke three tackles and charged through another to score on a 25-yard run.
Junior defensive back Cord Parks returned an interception to the 17 yard line and set up senior captain Maurice Murray for a five-yard touchdown run with 5:44 left in the game to make it 35-14. Broomfield finished the scoring with a nine-yard scamper at the 1:48 mark.
Murray chewed up 175 yards on 33 carries. Afterward, he said he owed his fine day to his linemen.
“I can’t run without them,” Murray said. “We knew that it was going to rain out and we knew that we were going to have to run the ball today to be effective, and I was just happy to see all five linemen. They came out together and came out playing.”
