FB: American Southwest Conference

[Ralph Turner]

BELHAVEN WINS!

Belhaven got the ASC off to a 1-0 start with an exciting 28-25 win over Millsaps (rivals that are a block away from campus) last night. Millsaps won by 30 last year, so this was a huge step in the right direction.



The Good:

A solid offensive performance. 420 yards of total offense. McEachern (UTEP transfer was 30-for-55, 334 yards and 3 TD. No INT.

Lamiq Roberts set a school record for receptions in a game with 14. He had 220 yards receiving and one TD.

Blazers were  9-for-18 on 3rd down and 3-for-5 on 4th down. And they played the field position game. They punted the ball one time and it was downed inside the one. There was a sarcastic cheer from the crowd (Normally this is a "go for it" situation, which leads to giving the opponent great field position)

3,987 in attendance for a Division III game in the middle of SEC Country. It was awesome.

The uniforms were slick. Belhaven has an Oregon thing going on with a different uniform combo every week. Sometimes they miss badly. Last night looked good. All white uniforms with white helmets and a chrome logo. Looked sharp.

Young offensive line only gave up 2 sacks against a strong defensive front and they were both late in the game. . I think MHB had 30 on us last year.


The Bad

Belhaven looked flat in the first half. It was 10-0 Millsaps before most people found their seat.

We only had one turnover - but it was a stupid one. Roberts fumbled it going into the end zone.

11 penalties for 87 yards. Mostly stupid penalties.

The Ugly

Tackling. Millsaps sustained drives and turned short gains into long ones because of poor tackling. Going to have to fix that in a hurry.

Next up: Just a small trip to Whitewater, Wisconsin.

Hal "Air Raid" Mumme

[umhb2001]

http://sidearm.sites.s3.amazonaws.com/cruathletics.com/documents/2016/9/2/Game_Notes_OWU_2016.pdf?id=1160

Here are this week's game notes.  Looks like the Cru is banged up on both sides of the ball, but nothing too serious.  All signs point to a good matchup tomorrow. Can't wait!

[DFWCrufan]

Belhaven pulls it off.. good for them....watched the game, good tenacious stand ( I love my work I can watch games streaming all day long)...

[Kelly Boggs]

[DFWCrufan]

At the half:

UMHB 28 OWU 0
ETBU 30 TLU 0
HSU 7  Southwestern 3

That is all

[GillCJ1]

The Good:
-1-0.
-QB play from Blake.  He's definitely improved as a passer, though he still has a tendency to overthrow his receivers down the field (there were 2 in a row in the end zone that were unreachable).  Also, I think he's an even better runner than he was last year.  Once he tightens up his passes, he will be a true dual-threat.  No INTs.
-Defense and Special Teams.  3 INTs and a recovered fumble (including a pick 6).  Punt return for a TD.  Feels good knowing this is still a strength.

The Bad:
-PENALTIES.  Goodness gracious.  I was hoping this would be improved from last year.  Granted, it's only the first game.  But there were so many dumb penalties.  I lost count how many times that stupid yellow piece of cloth went flying onto the field...
-Kicking game.  Baylor did ok (despite one awful punt off the side of his foot), but the FG attempts were bad.  Neither was even close.  Hope that gets better and/or we're not having to rely on it too much.


All in all a very good opener.  Offense looked more prepared than they have been in the past this early in the season.  Hope the big play trend continues.

[Ralph Turner]

A good weekend for the conference.
Belhaven beats Saps.
ETBU takes care of a Top 25 TLU.
UMHB and HSU win as expected.
IMHO, HPU played better than I expected.
I guess that SRSU should not have beaten a D-2,even if it was UTPB's first game ever.

LaCollege almost upsets Top 25 Huntingdon.

[umhb2001]

TLU must have been looking ahead and most certainly must win for their playoff hopes to survive.

HSU was stagnant, it seems, by the mere fact it took so long for them to take over the game.

The worst part of the night for UMHB was the FG kicking. Not good, especially after what we have had the last couple seasons.

Run game loomed revamped and Blake was sharp early. He stayed in way too long though.

Hope to make TLU next week. All in all, a good day.

[zipmac22]

The Cru played well with it being the first game of the season, but there were some areas that need to be addressed.

1. The Yellow Flags: The refs were calling a lot and most of those calls were against The Cru. Some of those calls were foolish errors that will fix themselves in the next few weeks. But, one call that should of never been called was The Cru players being outside of the players box. I think 90% of The Cru players were never in the box and looking across the field you could see 90% of Ohio Wesleyan players stayed in the box.

2. It was getting old watching The Cru run the ball up the middle three times and then punting. This seemed to happen way too often. I understand not wanting to dig into the playbook to show a lot of offense, but at least mix it up more and keep the defense on their heels instead of their toes. It's a whole lot easier to be ready for a sure thing than not knowing for sure what was going to be thrown at you next.

3. The kicking game. The field goal kicking needs some serious addressing. Yes, they are able to make long 40 yarders plus during warm-ups, but when there isn't someone putting pressure on the kicker there isn't that sense of urgency. The punting didn't look too bad. There was the one bad punt that Mullins caught on the side of his foot, but overall the punting should clear itself up in the next couple of games.

The team came out at the start of the game with fire in their bellies and the desire to put the time and effort in to get the job done. Next weeks game with TLU is going to come at us full bore. They already have their backs against to wall with their loss to ETBU. If The Cru can continue and keep improving next Saturday they should take TLU to task. But, if The Cru goes down to Seguin and lets up any, TLU will take advantage of that and hand them a loss.

As always there were some surprise losses in week one, lets make sure that The Cru hands those losses out to everyone on the schedule!

Go Cru!

[Kelly Boggs]

My two-cents worth (and that is really about all it is worth):

I agree with the observations already made concerning Blake,  the kicking game and penalties; Blake good, FGs not good right now, penalties not good at all - down right ugly.

FWIW, I'll add a few of my own thoughts:

Defense look very good, especially the defensive line. The CRU did seem to go a little flat in the 2nd quarter and gave up some rushing yards to the QB, but overall, the defense is again The Purple CRUsh.

Receiving corps: Fast, fast, fast! Did I mention they are fast? All looked good, but TJ Josey look very good. He's bigger and stronger and still plenty fast.

Running backs: Solid. Duane Thompson has good vision and is elusive. Markeith Miller (Malcolm Miller's younger brother) is big, strong and his really good speed. A great addition to The CRU.

Kickoff unit gave up way too many return yards, mainly because the kickoffs themselves did not have enough hang time, they were pretty much line drives. It would be nice if they were deeper, but improved hang time would help. The return man gained 10+ yards before UMHB's coverage was anywhere near making a play.

Punt return was fun to watch. Bryce Wilkerson is quicker than a hiccup and lightening fast. He is a threat to take every punt back for a TD. OWU figured that out quickly and punted away from him, which meant they were punting to Baylor Mullins who is a pretty shifty runner himself.

The O-line needs improvement. Pass blocking was decent but the dominant upfront push CRU faithful have come to expect was just not there.

All in all, the penalties aside, it was one of the best first game showings by UMHB I can remember.

One thing to take note of: Of the 44 players listed on the UMHB 2-deep roster for the OWU game, only 10 are seniors (5 on offense/5 on defense). Also, UMHB is still a little banged up. Kris Brown (Junior), a great cornerback, did not play but hopefully will return soon.

In my opinion, this year's CRU has the potential to be one of the best, if not the best, UMHB has ever put on the field. The next two Saturdays will be crucial tests to see when and/or if that potential will be realized. I've been drinking the purple, gold and white Kool-Aid since 1998, so I firmly believe The CRU will "git er done!"

Road trip to Seguin next Saturday to face a TLU team that, if the Bulldogs have any hope of the post season, cannot afford another loss. If you are making the trip, get there early. If you recall from the trip to TLU in 2014, seating capacity is severely - and I do mean severely - limited. And that is being generous.

I will be heading out early enough to insure I have a place to stand (in order to cram as many people as possible into the tiny bleachers, the vast majority of us stood during the game in 2014). If you would like to join me, I might have room for one, maybe two. Let me know.

UP with the PURPLE!

[DFWCrufan]

Overall the Cru had the game in hand, very comfortably, and yes there were some first game jitters, first game this or that but overall I believe the team as a whole looked far more comfortable all game long. Blake has them in hand, doing very well in my mind and has picked up the mantle to lead. I like this year's team chances better then the last two seasons, really looking good, and I know it's early but something is clicking here.. let's just hope it clicks all season and then really well at playoff time.

Kicking is a, well...it's going to be hold your breath fellas...every time, slicing it off to the sides constantly which is an approach and plant foot problem, and he's a bit slow (approach) I'd like to see a mini clinic in that phase take place.

The cards. one was ridiculous for a player to run onto the field to celebrate...com'on guys ya'll know better...Yeah, gotta get the emotions in check at some point.

[umhb2001]

Great discussion and observation by all. Thanks. Here is the TDT Report on yesterday's game. Enjoy!

http://m.tdtnews.com/sports/article_b7374b72-7253-11e6-92a3-bb13bc0ffaec.html?mode=jqm

[Hooyah Cowboys]

Well, any questions about the Cowboy defense have been answered. I know SW is not a high-flying offense by any means but the HSU defense was stifling last night. It took much longer than I would have liked for us to get rolling offensively but we showed flashes of brilliance throughout the entire game. 26-3 may not look like the dominating performance we are used to from last year's championship team but in reality, 2 touchdowns were called back on petty, well behind the play penalties that had no impact on the result. The final score could have and should have been at least 40-3 which would have been much more satisfying. Just have a couple things to tighten up before we take the field again in 2 weeks but overall I feel good about the way we started the season. Lots of talent on both sides of the ball, should be a fun season to watch!

Cowboy Up!!

[umhb2001]

Well, any questions about the Cowboy defense have been answered. I know SW is not a high-flying offense by any means but the HSU defense was stifling last night. It took much longer than I would have liked for us to get rolling offensively but we showed flashes of brilliance throughout the entire game. 26-3 may not look like the dominating performance we are used to from last year's championship team but in reality, 2 touchdowns were called back on petty, well behind the play penalties that had no impact on the result. The final score could have and should have been at least 40-3 which would have been much more satisfying. Just have a couple things to tighten up before we take the field again in 2 weeks but overall I feel good about the way we started the season. Lots of talent on both sides of the ball, should be a fun season to watch!

Cowboy Up!!

Welcome to the boards! Glad to see a fresh HSU poster!

[D O.C.]

gave up some rushing yards to the QB

Uh Oh.