There wasn't much of a surprise in yesterday's games, but that's just specific to which team won the games. Both GNAC contests opened with huge kickoffs that led to near immediate touchdowns. Both Humboldt State and Western Oregon won convincingly and continued the growing anticipation for these two teams to battle. Unfortunately, game one of two won't happen until October 22. There's plenty of exciting football to watch before that happens, including Central Washington's rematch with both teams within the next three weeks. At that point we'll see if CWU has suffered a poor start to 2011 and bounces back or if 2011 can't end soon enough for the Wildcats.

The Wildcats, though, didn't play yesterday, so let's move on to those recaps.

Humboldt State 35, Simon Fraser 7
The first play of the game was telling - Humboldt State's JJ Latu took the opening kickoff 78 yards to the Simon Fraser five-yard line. Two plays later, Chris Bolt caught a three-yard pass for the score with just 48 seconds off the clock. How did SFU respond? Trey Wheeler was intercepted on SFU's first offensive play from scrimmage by Kevin Cooper, who returned the pick 32 yards to near midfield.

While the Lumberjacks failed to score off that turnover HSU still improved to 3-0 on the season (2-0 in GNAC play) with its dominating win over Simon Fraser in front of just 350 fans at Terry Fox Field. The Lumberjacks got 136 yards and one TD from Lyndon Rowells on the ground as part of 200 total rushing yards for the squad. Mike Proulx, however wouldn't be outdone and threw for 262 yards and three scores to overshadow two picks that didn't proved to be that costly for the 'Jacks.

For Simon Fraser, Bo Palmer's 148 yards were the bulk of the Clan's offense on the day (248 total yards). What's even more telling is the fact that 68 of those yards came via his touchdown run. Take that away, and Palmer rushed 22 times for 80 yards, still a decent 3.6 ypc average, but not as dominating as his overall stats would indicate (6.4 ypc).

Where Simon Fraser (1-3, 0-3) continues to lack is in its aerial attack. Trey Wheeler completed 47% of his passes for just 50 yards. Conversely, Proulx spread out 26 completions between seven different receivers, and three of them (Dirk Dallas, Bolt and Rowells) caught five balls. Bolt had two TDs. Even with Patrick Gondkoff out for the season, Proulx has his choice of a handful of different receivers.

Humboldt State didn't find success on every drive, as Simon Fraser stalled the Lumberjacks a few times. After the initial touchdown, Humboldt stumbled through the next four drives that netted just 58 yards. Of course, the following two drives totaled 16 plays and 123 yards to push the advantage to 21-0 early in the second.

Before Simon Fraser scored its lone touchdown of the day, the Clan had totaled just 88 yards on seven different drives until late in the second quarter.

Jona Faraimo led the Lumberjacks with 11 tackles, including two for a loss and a forced fumble. Travis Hayes led the Clan with 11 tackles.

Simon Fraser has scored seven points apiece in its last two games (losing 42-7 to Dixie State a little more than a week ago). Despite the fact that Central Washington is 0-3 on the season, SFU won't have an easy task on the road against the Wildcats next week.

For Humboldt, the Lumberjacks take on Dixie State in Arcata next week. Dixie hasn't fared well in stopping teams this year. Both Colorado Mesa and Western Oregon have scored 50+ against Dixie and neither team has as potent of an offense as Humboldt, which is averaging 34 ppg so far this season.

Western Oregon 56, Dixie State 0
Western Oregon should probably recruit more guys named Trevor.

Trevor Roush returned the opening kickoff 40 yards and Trevor Gates hauled in a 60-yard touchdown pass on the first play from scrimmage putting the Wolves on the board with just 28 ticks off the clock.

Western Oregon (3-1, 3-0) methodically put points on the board throughout the game, scoring on quick strikes, long scores and on defense as well (Raymond Williams had a pick-6 from 37 yards out to make it 21-0 after one period).

Williams wasn't the only highlight from the defense. In addition to blanking the Red Storm (1-3, 1-1), WOU's defense took advantage of DSC like every other team has thus far this season, sacking two Dixie quarterbacks (Cody Stevenson and Stefan Cantwell) a combined seven times (25 sacks against Dixie already this season).

Dixie still hasn't found much of a running attack as the Red Storm totaled just 48 yards. Stevenson and Cantwell, however threw three interceptions and just 132 total yards, connecting on just 40% of their passes.

Their counterpart, Evan Mozzochi, didn't throw many passes (15), but he was very effective by connecting on 12 passes for 267 yards. Gates was the leading receiver on the day with 167 yards (take away is 60 yard touchdown reception and he still had more than 100 yards receiving).

Western Oregon's Scotland Foss continues to shine as a key cog in the Wolves' defense. Foss had 3.5 tackles for loss, including two sacks. Gavin Drake also had two sacks for WOU.

The Wolves are streaking at the right time, and the momentum is needed before a huge NCAA Division II Super Region 4 game at Abilene Christian, ranked eighth in the most recent national poll. ACU's only loss is a close decision to No. 2 North Alabama. For Dixie, the Red Storm have a bit of a rude awakening for them. Not only do they travel to Humboldt State, but DSC hits the road for the first time this season after four straight at home to open 2011.