Another Week, Another Rout as Northridge Succumbs, 68-7

It’s that time of week again. Time to talk about the Cal State Northridge football team not having enough scholarships.

The Matadors and their 20 scholarships were pummeled by Northern Arizona, 68-7, on Saturday night before 5,212 at the Walkup Skydome. Last week, Northridge lost to another Big Sky Conference team, Idaho State, 52-0.

Both Northern Arizona and Idaho State have about 60 scholarships.

“We are a decent club,” Northridge defensive lineman David Mori said. “But we just played two Big Sky teams that have a lot more talent than us. Once we start playing the teams in our conference and we can compete, we will pick it up.”

Saturday night’s game was the most lopsided loss in Northridge history, outdoing a 77-17 defeat at Northern Arizona in 1973.

Matador Coach Dave Baldwin, as he did last week, took the loss philosophically.

“This wasn’t a game we figured we would win,” said Baldwin, whose team has applied to join the Big Sky next season.

Although 24th-ranked Northern Arizona (3-1) had plenty of advantages over Northridge (1-2), the most glaring was quarterback Jeff Lewis.

The senior quarterback, who entered the game ranked fifth in the nation in passing efficiency, passed for 254 yards and four touchdowns, while playing only six series.

He was pulled with 11 minutes 1 second to play in the second quarter, just after Ryan Hodson dropped what would have been his 19th completion in 19 passes.

Had Hodson made that catch, Lewis would have tied the Division I-AA record for consecutive completions. His 18 straight completions set the I-AA record for accuracy to start a game.

“I spent five years at Stanford and five years at San Jose State, and Jeff Lewis is as good as I’ve seen,” Baldwin said.

The Matadors were totally outclassed from the first moment of the game. Northridge’s defensive players might as well have been X’s on a chalkboard, doing exactly what they were supposed to do to stay out of the way of the O’s.

It looked easy for the Lumberjacks, who reached the 60-point barrier for the third consecutive week.

Northern Arizona had 28 points at the end of the first quarter, 54 at halftime.

“They could have scored 100,” Baldwin said.

Northern Arizona Coach Steve Axman, a former roommate of Baldwin’s when the two were at Stanford, did his old friend a favor when he had his quarterback sit on the ball at the Northridge one-yard-line in the final three minutes.

Trying to shake up the offense, Baldwin started sophomore Derek Brown at quarterback instead of senior Clayton Millis.

Brown led the first five Northridge drives before Millis replaced him.

Brown completed two of five passes for 11 yards; Millis completed five of eight for 100 yards.

Millis led Northridge to its only score in the past two weeks, an 80-yard drive keyed by a 46-yard pass to Chris Love. Millis scored on a one-yard sneak.