TABOR COLLEGE: Tabor routs SW Assemblies 44-2 years ago
BY RYAN RICHTER
Sports writer
Call it a stroll down memory lane for Tabor head football coach Tim McCarty.
When he took over a plummeting program four years ago, he was in the same position that Saturday's season-opening opponent, the Southwestern Assemblies of God, was in.
Since McCarty was thin in numbers, it was always the heavily favored opponent that got to beat up on the undermanned Bluejays.
It's water under the bridge since then, and Saturday afternoon in Hillsboro, it was Tabor that got a taste of what it's like being heavily favored.
With less than 30 players on the roster, the Lions were no match for the revamped Bluejays.
In spite of the game being called off with 12:59 still left in regulation due to lightning and pounding rain, Tabor decimated the Lions, 44-2.
'We're glad to have a win," McCarty said. "But when you win, you're always looking for things we could do to get better.
"We didn't play to our potential Saturday, but for our first game, there were extenuating circumstances."
For the game, the Bluejays were a tart two for seven in third-down conversions and zero for two on fourth down.
Two stats that didn't sit well with McCarty.
Last season, Tabor was more productive with the pass than with the rush.
That changed Saturday with the Bluejays getting 132 yards on the ground and 120 in air mail.
Quarterback David Hernandez was a sub-par nine for 22 with two going to last year's NAIA runner-up in receiving yards Tyson Ratzlaff.
"We overthrew about four or five times," McCarty said of Tabor's passing. "There were several times (Ratzlaff) was wide open, but we were a little out of synch in our passing game on Saturday."
The game got off on the wrong foot with Cameron Conant fumbling on Tabor's opening offensive series.
Conant still earned KCAC Player of the Week honors with three touchdowns from a game-high 16 carries for 99 yards.
Aided by a 25-yard touchdown reception from Hernandez, Conant burned the Lions for 124 all-purpose yards.
But Conant wasn't the Lions' only problem.
NAIA Player of the Week Tyler Marsh stung the Lions for 173 all-purpose yards with 129 coming from five punt returns.
Marsh's 56-yard return for a touchdown in the third quarter capped off the Bluejays' scoring attack.
He would have added another touchdown, but officials claimed Marsh was pushed out of bounds at the one-yard line.
Conant began the onslaught with just outside 10:00 left in the first quarter, bouncing off right guard for a nine-yard touchdown.
Keenan Morris' PAT finished what would be seven of the Bluejays' 44 unanswered points, making for an eternal afternoon for the Lions.
The Bluejays broke the game wide open before the end of the first quarter as Justin Friesen recovered a Lion fumble in the SW end zone.
Friesen played relentless pacing the Bluejay defense with six solo tackles.
Sack-master Chad Duerksen dropped Lion quarterback John Norman twice for a 17-yard loss.
The duo, along with Eli Kennedy and Jason Phelps, were key figures in a defense that yielded a modest 109 yards of offense to the Lions.
"We played pretty good defensively," McCarty said. "We made some mistakes, but we've got good enough speed to help cover that mistake up."
Morris stretched Tabor's lead to 17-0 with a 30-yard field goal before Hernandez snuck in from a yard out to give the Bluejays a commanding 24-0 lead with 4:13 left in the first half.
Hernandez's 25-yard touchdown completion to Conant sent Tabor in at halftime well on its way to victory, up 31-0.
The Bluejays' shutout blew up with 3:07 left in the third quarter.
A bad snap sailed over punter Tracy Wehrman's head and out of the end zone for a safety.
Tabor travels Saturday to Sterling for a 7 p.m. game.
The Warriors are coming off a 72-12 shellacking by ranked- NCAA Division II stalwart Central Missouri State.
