TABOR COLLEGE: Tabor falls to Southwestern
Inconsistency still haunting team in Tabor's 29-13 loss
to Southwestern
BY RYAN RICHTER
Sports writer
The Bluejay fans began filing out of the Reimer Field stands late in the fourth quarter Saturday with the Bluejays hosting the red-hot Southwestern Moundbuilders.
Bluejay senior defensive secondary Jared Johnson didn't blame fans for making an early exit.
Knowing the luck Tabor has had with Southwestern in the past, who could?
For the last 20 years, the Moundbuilders have been the lone league puzzle not solvable for Tabor.
Six turnovers combined with offensive inconsistency on Tabor's part made it 21 years and counting with Southwestern delivering the Bluejays a 29-13 punch in the gut.
Saturday's game was the perfect example of the frustrating season that it's turned out to be for the Bluejays.
Dropping four of its last six games and going 2-3 at Reimer Field, Tabor falls to 5-4 on the year and 4-4 in the KCAC.
"We had an ugly football game," a disappointed Bluejay coach Tim McCarty said. "We are still struggling with how to handle the adversity of losing two key players (Tyson Ratzlaff and Tyler Marsh), and we haven't been able to overcome it."
Tabor looked like it was off to the start it needed to put the Moundbuilder curse behind it with Dave Hernandez capping off a 16-play 74-yard drive at 6:41 with a three-yard touchdown.
That was the best drive the Bluejays engineered, finishing with 95 yards on the ground and 195 in the air.
Keenan Morris split the uprights on the PAT with 1:10 left in the first quarter, and Tabor was off to a 7-0 lead.
Things went south on the Bluejays in the second quarter with a Moundbuilder punt pinning them back at their one-yard line.
Nils Bourquist was dropped in the Bluejay end zone on the ensuing play, and the Moundbuilders had trimmed the lead to 7-2 with 9:29 left in the half.
One of the biggest keys for the Bluejays' success is their defense.
But Tabor simply couldn't corral the Moundbuilder ground game and fleet-footed tailback James Kelly, who lit up Bluejays up for a game-high 148 yards on 24 carries. Keeping the ball on the ground 56 times, Southwestern churned up 286 of its 320 yards of total offense.
Kelly did all his damage sweeping around the right side, putting the Moundbuilders in front, 8-7, with a 15-yard run.
Despite the Bluejay offense sputtering, Morris made it a 10-8 game at intermission with a 27-yard field goal.
Southwestern perfected the skill of keeping the Bluejay offense off the field.
In the first half, the Moundbuilders controlled the clock for 16:37 to Tabor's 13:23. In the pivotal second quarter for the Moundbuilders, the Bluejays were left with 2:48 to work with.
Tabor's lead evaporated with Hernandez fumbling away the first drive of the second half with Matt Williams recovering at the Bluejay 34.
After a 16-yard run by Kelly and another one for 18 yards, the Moundbuilders buried Tabor for good, 14-10.
The best thing that happened for Tabor in the third quarter was Justin Friesen picking off Zach Smith's two-point conversion pass.
For the second week in a row, the Bluejays gave up four points off safeties.
