Bears Football Loses Final Home Game

Northern Colorado held the team's Senior Day and final home game of the season at Nottingham Field Saturday afternoon that saw the Bears lose another home game to Northern Arizona.

Over the last 13 matchups between the two schools, the home team has come out as the victor. NAU were able to snap that streak after a dominant offensive performance against the Bears.

The Bears started the game off strong by driving down the field 71 yards with 11 of the 12 plays from the drive being run plays. Offensive coordinator Justin Walterscheid came out with a different look as the offense was in the Wing-T formation. It was enough of a surprise to throw the Lumberjacks off for the Bears to get in field goal position and get the first points of the game.

Despite having success with the new formation, it didn’t last long as NAU were able to sniff out which sides the Bears would be running to. Once the running plays stopped working, the offense went back to the spread formation and tried to generate more yards in the formations that they are more comfortable in.

“We knew that [Wing-T] wouldn’t be sustainable all game. We were hoping that it would give us what it gave us,” head coach Ed Lamb said about the shift in offense. “We’ve had a very difficult time passing the football this year since we lost our first two quarterbacks so we wanted to find the best chance for our players to win.”

In the first half UNC finished with 110 total yards with all of them coming from the ground game. The second half was a different story as the Bears only had 55 yards (165 total).

Kia’i Keone was back in at quarterback after Peter Costelli reaggravated his knee last week in the Bears loss to Eastern Washington. Keone gave it his best effort to get the Bears in positive territory, but had no luck. The Hawaiian native finished the game with 44 yards on 7-of-14 passing.

The rushing attack that started strong with a 71 yard in one drive was stalled as the Bears finished with 78. Caden Meis was the teams leading rusher with 67 yards and Vann Schields was second with 13.

On the defensive side, the Bears struggled again and saw a repeat of last week's performance by giving up 535 total yards to NAU. A majority of the Lumberjacks offense came on the ground by piling up 317 yards and were led by Littleton native Seth Cromwell. He finished the game with 155 yards and a touchdown. In addition to Cromwell, 10 more Lumberjack players had a hand in the running game. Four players finished in double digit yards; Mikale Greer with 36, J’Wan Evans with 34, Isaiah Lopez with 30 and Cade Berger with 29.

NAU quarterback Ty Pennington had himself a day by throwing for 193 yards on 17-of-20 passing and two touchdowns. He was also able to add a rushing touchdown that he got off of a quarterback designed run.

The defense of the Bears were able to rattle the NAU offense in the first half after the team was able to force Pennington to throw his first interception of the season. Freshman defensive back Cam Chapa was on the receiving end of the pick after diving for it after two Bears went full tip drill for the ball. Redshirt sophomore edge rusher Ezra Ekuban, son of former Denver Bronco Ebenezer Ekuban, was able to create pressure in the first half by recording two sacks on Pennington.

UNC fall to 1-10 overall and 1-6 in conference play while NAU advance to 7-4 and continue their fight for a playoff push. The last game of the year for the Bears will see the team travel to the east coast and take on the Portland State Vikings.

“I think it’s really got to be about continuous improvement as a target, as a goal and as the first goal,” head coach Ed Lamb said preparing for Portland State. “We’re not going to bow down to any opponent. We want to prepare to win. And it’s our job to sell and motivate that way.”

That game will be on Nov. 23 and will start at 2 p.m. MST. You can catch the game by tuning in on ESPN+.