Football: Gonzaga 38, Carroll 16

By: Eric Gilmore
Content Manager, DigitalSports.com

**Click here for video highlights and interviews with Gonzaga’s Joe Reyda, Alan Elder and Sam Oyekoya, as well as Carroll coach Rick Houchens**

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Down 9-0 to Archbishop Carroll early in the second quarter, Gonzaga College doubted if the scoring drought, which had lasted 13-plus quarters, would ever end. With a swift 45-yard field goal by senior Robbie Colas, the Purple Eagles’ scoring famish formally finished.

After getting outscored 124-0 in the past three games, Gonzaga didn’t stop there.

The Purple Eagles earned its first win over the season against Carroll, fighting off a nine-point deficit by notching 31 unanswered points, before finishing with a 38-16 victory on a beautiful blue-skied Saturday afternoon in the heart of Washington, D.C.

“The kids kept working hard,” said Gonzaga head coach Joe Reyda. “With the past four weeks and the amount of points that we got scored upon us, these kids just kept coming back and fighting. They’re a great group of kids.”

Gonzaga’s Alan Elder tallied 182 yards on 20 carries — a 9.1-yard per carry average — to complement his two touchdowns. Sophomore quarterback Kevin Hogan commanded the offense, completing 10-of-17 passes for 165 yards and a pivotal 21-yard touchdown late in the second quarter. The defense, led by senior middle linebacker John Pfister, even did its part, morphing five Lion turnovers into two touchdowns.

But Elder, a 5-foot-11, 184-pound tailback, paced the Purple Eagles, clipping off chunks of yardage out of the backfield both on the ground and through the air (three catches, 55 yards). One of three captains, his biggest run came early in the third quarter when the game still hinged in the balance.

“Alan’s been our leader all year,” Reyda said. “He’s been our workhorse.”

Up 10-9, Elder, seeing that the Carroll front seven was constantly flowing to the left, knew finding a crease and cutting back upfield was his best chance to get the Purple Eagles out of the WCAC dweller. Fifty-six yards later, Elder revved the purple-shirted crowd, while puncturing the Lions’ poise in the process.

“It was big because we needed to get our confidence up,” Elder, who also added an insurance 1-yard fourth quarter touchdown, said. “Once we scored a couple of times, it got the ball rolling for us.”

Just 72 seconds later, Carroll backup sophomore quarterback Stephon Stephens, who was filling in for an injured Tyrell Temoney, threw a hitch that the receiver mishandled. An opportunistic Gonzaga corner, Alex Beauboeuf, only listed at 5-foot-5, 132-pounds, scooped up the would-be screen and scampered 22 yards for a touchdown.

“Football is a game of momentum,” said first-year Carroll head coach Rick Houchens. “If you start turning the ball over, they’re going to make you pay. It really wasn’t what they did — it was what we didn’t do. We had our chances, we just couldn’t convert.”

Carroll, missing three starters because of nagging injuries, lost three fumbles — all in the second half. After executing a beautiful goal-line stand and forcing Gonzaga to turn the ball over on downs late in the third quarter, Carroll fumbled in its own endzone two plays later, which Gonzaga senior defensive tackle Lawrence Lucas, who also forced the fumble, recovered.

The Lions (1-4, 0-2 WCAC) did manage to cut the margin to 15 points when 6-foot-3 freshman Lamont Baldwin blocked a punt and ran 35 yards for a touchdown. But another costly fumble and Elder’s second touchdown negated any chance of a comeback.

“It’s hard to shore up the past in a short time,” Houchens, whose team went winless in 2007, said. “We’ve made great progress, but we get in key situations and shoot ourselves in the foot. Sometimes the kids are trying too hard. The guys are giving great effort, but we’re just missing a few pieces of the puzzle.”

Meanwhile, the Purple Eagles (1-4, 1-1 WCAC) relied on their 6-foot-4, 190-pound backup quarterback to string together passes to massive tight end John Ruffing (three catches, 43 yard) and Elder out of the backfield. With his team down six points, Hogan’s prettiest pass was a 21-yard loft to senior captain Max Johnston in the back left corner of the endzone.

“[Hogan] was a little erratic in his first start as a sophomore,” Reyda said. “But this week he was composed and felt more comfortable with the offense. He’s going to be a good player. He did a great job today.”

The touchdown was pivotal in allowing Gonzaga, who hosted Reunion Weekend, to notch, not only its first win of the year, but also its first WCAC win after finishing in the middle of the standings a year ago. With Bishop McNamara, who also has a 1-1 league record after inching past Paul VI with a late touchdown on Friday, on the slate next, the Purple Eagles don’t have any time to celebrate.

“This is a big boost for us right now going into the league,” Reyda said. “Every game is going to be a dogfight. We don’t have any easy games.”

E-mail: egilmore@digitalsports.com