The Simon Fraser Clan football team lost their second straight Great Northwest Athletic Conference match Saturday night in Arcata, California as the Humboldt State Lumberjacks beat the Clan 41-21.
"I'm proud of the way our guys played," Clan head coach Dave Johnson said in a press release. "That's one of the best teams in the country and until we made some mistakes late, we had them. We came in and played physical. We've seen their stuff, we know what they run and our guys gave them all they could handle."
The Clan were once again led by two Coquitlam products, wide receiver Lemar Durant, who had 11 catches for 159 yards, and Bobby Pospischil, who finished with 10 catches for 73 yards.
Clan QB Trey Wheeler went 34 for-57 for 310 yards and two touchdowns, but four interceptions hurt the sophomore quarterback.
Wheeler finished the game as the Clan's leading rusher, scrambling three times for 51 yards.
The Lumberjacks were led by running back Nick Ricciardulli, who rumbled for a touchdown and 204 yards on 33 carries.
The Lumberjacks opened the scoring on an Alex Hiebert TD reception and extended the lead to 14 before Wheeler found tight end Jamal Kett in the end zone to cut the lead back to seven.
The Lumberjacks restored their lead on Ricciardulli's TD before Clan running back Bo Palmer scored to make it 21-14 at the half.
Humboldt State controlled the second half, added three more TDs with SFU's only response a sixyard Wheeler TD pass to Tanner Davenport-Thuet.
"Our offence was churning, but we turned the ball over four times in the second half, twice in the end zone and that killed us," said Johnson.
With the loss, the Clan fall to 1-2 on the 2012 season.
"If we can come out and play like that against the 11th best team in the country, we can win some games," said Johnson. "We need to keep improving and correcting our mistakes, but we can win some games.
"I'm proud of how our kids played, they gave it everything they had on every play, regardless of the score."
The Clan head to Monmouth, Oregon to take on the Western Oregon Wolves at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 22.
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