Wolves Defense Comes Up Big in Win Over Southern Oregon

WOU senior cornerback Nick Smith had two picks on the day, returning one 18 yards for touchdown.

Senior cornerback Nick Smith had two picks, returning one 18 yards for touchdown for the Wolves. Photo courtesy: WOU Athletics

MONMOUTH, Ore. - Mark Thorson threw three touchdown passes and Western Oregon's defense intercepted four Southern Oregon tosses as the Wolves won their 2007 Homecoming game at McArthur Field on Saturday afternoon, 37-13.

With the win, Western Oregon improved to 5-2 on the season, while the Raiders dropped to 3-4.

Thorson threw touchdown passes to Cory Dickson (15 yards), Shaun Kauleinamoku (33 yards) and to Sean Fullerton (8 yards). The senior quarterback was 16 of 29 on the day for 253 yards with no interceptions. He now has 47 touchdown passes in his career, tied for first on WOU's all-time list with Brain Traeger (1993-96).

Meanwhile, there were plenty of interceptions by the Wolves defense. Senior cornerback Nick Smith had two picks, returning one 18 yards for touchdown.

Jay Darden also stole a pass, as did Caleb Singleton. Southern Oregon quarterback Brian Lee-Lauduski threw 56 times, completing 25 passes for 242 yards.

Western Oregon had no turnovers on the day, but hurt themselves with 14 penalties for 107 yards. The Raiders had just four flags for 30 yards, but five turnovers killed scoring drives for them.

Southern Oregon dominated the game early, holding the Wolves to just one first down in their first three possessions. The Raiders got on the board first on a 35-yard field goal by Corey O'Neill to take a 3-0 lead late in the first quarter.

WOU would answer though on its next opportunity, using a 46-yard pass from Thorson to tailback Tyler Wilson to set up the scoring strike to Dickson (15 yards).

Bruce Voges kicked a 43-yard field goal to put the hosts up 10-3, and Ben Kuenzi added six more points on a 31-yard run before the end of the half to give the Wolves a 16-3 lead at intermission.

WOU's offense struggled in the third quarter but the Wolves still put points on the board with Smith's interception return for a touchdown.

Still, the Raiders wouldn't go away, putting together a 7-play, 61-yard drive for a score with 6:36 left in the third quarter to make the count 23-13.

SOU would drive inside the 10-yard line with a chance to pull even closer, but Smith picked off another Lee-Lauduski pass, this time in the end zone. That would be the best and last opportunity on a wet day for Southern.

The Wolves would put together two impressive drives in the fourth quarter, with Thorson throwing TD passes to Kauleinamoku and Fullerton. The Wolves drove one final time down to the SOU 10-yard line before letting the clock expire.

WOU had eight different players catch Thorson passes, while Wilson led the ground game with 55 yards on 14 carries. DJ Jackson had 47 yards on eight carries, all in the final possession of the game. Kuenzi had just 39 yards on nine carries, and did not play in the second half.

Western's defense held Southern to just 35 yards on the ground in 31 attempts. But receiver Darryl Price was a huge bright spot for the offense, catching a career-best 10 passes for 140 yards.

JT Gilmore had nine tackles to lead WOU's defense, while Matt Buche had two tackles for losses and seven total.

Austin Stack led the SOU defense with five solo tackles and nine total. Stack, a linebacker also had a 34-yard rush on a fake punt attempt and scored on a one-yard blast at the goal line in his one play at tailback.

Western Oregon will hit the road next week, traveling to Bellingham to take on Western Washington. Start time at Civic Stadium is 1 p.m.
Source: Western Oregon Athletics

Adding comments to these stories has been disabled. View the current sports stories Salem-News Sports