NAU dominates Northern Colorado on Homecoming to improve to 6-4

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Northern Arizona put on an absolute clinic in their dominant 49-10 win over Northern Colorado on Homecoming Day.

The Lumberjacks did it with a lot of Arizona HS Football alumni making key contributions.

Midway through the first quarter, Ty Pennington's 14-yard TD pass to Jayson Raines put the 'Jacks up 7-0.

Less than 5 minutes later, Willow Canyon alum Darvon Hubbard punched in the TD run from 4 yards out to extend the NAU lead to 14-0.

Early in the second quarter, Northern Colorado kicked a field goal for their first points of the game. The ensuing drive, the Lumberjacks got all the way to the Bears' 32-yard line but turned the ball over on downs.

Just when it looked like Northern Colorado had a chance to get back into the game, NAU forced a turnover on downs of their own which led to a 7-play and 4-minute drive that finished with a Quran Gossett TD run to extend their lead to 21-3 with 2 minutes left in the quarter.

In the two-minute drill, Northern Colorado fought right back and went 11 plays and 75 yards down the field for a touchdown to cut their deficit to 21-10 with 23 seconds left in the half.

Just when everyone thought, the Bears would kick it through the end zone and NAU would take a knee and a 21-10 lead into the locker room, the Lumberjacks had other plans.

Kolbe Katsis returned the ensuing kickoff 100 yards to the house to extend the NAU lead to 28-10 with 10 seconds left in the half.

The Lumberjacks did not look back after that.

On the first drive of the 3rd quarter, the offense marched 75 yards down the field in just 4 plays and Seth Cromwell punched it in from 2 yards out to extend their lead to 35-10 with 13 minutes remaining in the quarter.

Northern Colorado sustained another long drive but turned it over on downs at the NAU 6 yard line. After both teams traded punts, the Lumberjacks went 80 yards down the field in 7 plays and capped it off with Cromwell's second TD run of the game to make the score 42-10 with a minute to go in the 3rd.

Most of the 4th quarter was just chewing clock and then Pusch Ridge alum Ryan Fontaine's 7-yard TD run with 5:15 remaining in the game gave us the final score of 49-10.

Next week: NAU will host Cal Poly in their final home game of the regular season.

Top AZHSFB Alumni Performances

Ryan Fontaine (Pusch Ridge): 11 rush, 44 yards, 1 TD

Isaiah Eastman (Higley): 7 rec, 77 yards

Samuel Hunsaker (ALA Queen Creek): 7/7 PATs, 8 KO, 515 yards, 7 TBs

Alani Ma'afu (Saguaro): 4 tackles (1 solo), 1 TFL

Bobby Nivens (Thunderbird): 4 tackles (2 solo)

Trey Brown III (Arcadia): 2 tackles (1 solo)

Hayden Fletcher (Liberty): 1/1, 11 yards