By ERIN BASS
emb023@latech.edu
Last Saturday night’s huge 46-14 victory over the Rainbow
Warriors (1-4, 1-2 WAC) places the Bulldogs (2-2, 2-0 WAC) second in the
Western Athletic Conference right under the Nevada Wolf Pack, who they face
Saturday afternoon in Reno.
The last half of the game, Tech scored 23 unanswered
points in their third meeting with Hawaii, but the first win.
Tech was obviously the under-’Dawgs
going into last week’s game against a very aggressive Hawaii team, but
surprised even themselves with a 32-point deficit win.
“I was totally shocked, I really was,” head coach Jack
Bicknell said. “Even in the second half
I thought it was going to be a barn burner. I just wasn’t comfortable that we
could totally stop them because of their offense. The week before, they had
just scored 41 points on Boise State. If you can do that, you are in pretty
good shape.”
On the Warriors’ first possession, defensive lineman Moqut Ruffins obviously wanted
the ball more as he recovered a fumble which ultimately led to Tech’s first
score.
“One of our goals was to shut down their running game,”
said Ruffins, who was named X-Box Live WAC player of the week.
“After we did that, they started to pass it, and we were
able to shut that down as well.”
Then, with about eight minutes left in the first quarter, kicker Danny Horwedel made a 33-yard field goal, making the game 3-0.
A few minutes later,
After the Bulldogs got the ball back, it would only take
two plays and 68 rushing yards by running back Mark Dillard, for them to score
again.
“We were able to run the ball, obviously, which was
huge,” Bicknell said. “That offense is a nightmare, you know, and to be able to
keep the ball away from them like we did was great. We weren’t able to do a lot
of that last year.”
Unfortunately, the extra point was blocked, which made
the score 9-7 at the end of the first quarter, but that would not discourage
our guys one bit.
On their first possession of the second quarter, the ’Dawgs were able to both rush and pass the ball down the
field successfully for another touchdown taking the game to 16-7.
The score came when quarterback Matt Kubik
belted one to wide receiver Eric Newman.
Tech would then score again five final times with another
touchdown pass to Eric Newman, two Freddie Franklin four-yard rushes, a Mark
Dillard 32-yard rush and a Danny Horwedel field goal.
The last extra point attempted was no good bringing the score to a final of
46-14.
The Bulldogs have another conference showdown Saturday in
Biknell said, “