After Pittsburg State’s 14-3 win over Chadron State Saturday, the Gorilla offense waited to enter the locker room until every member of the defensive unit had entered.
And rightfully so.
The Gorilla defense held Chadron State to just 30 yards on the ground and kept the Eagles out of the end zone for the entire game.
Especially in the second half when the PSU offense seemed to lose focus.
As a matter of fact, 14 points was the lowest scoring output for the Gorillas (2-0) in a win since defeating Missouri State, 9-8 during the 1997 season opener.
“We did wait for them to get to the locker room because the game was theirs today,” said PSU quarterback Zac Dickey. “They played spectacular ... no doubt.”
The defense contained Chadron’s running attack all game, but did have some problems with the short passes — something they had issues with last season as they had the seventh-rated pass defense in the MIAA in 2009. For the game, the Eagles threw for 226 yards on 27-of-46 passing.
“They did a lot of quick passes and screens and it was tough to adjust to that,” said senior safety Alex Kuhlman. “We’ll see that all year long.”
The Gorilla defense built on the momentum of the offense’s early success as they held Chadron’s offense to just 17 yards on their first possession of the game. Gus Tocca came up with a big pass deflection on first down and the secondary hurried Chadron starting quarterback Garrett Treffer into a pair of incomplete passes, including one on third down that forced the Eagles to punt.
The defense kept the pressure up on Chadron’s offense as Bryant Sanchez and Toca provided strong pressure on Treffer, forcing another pair of incomplete passes that led another Chadron punt with 7 minutes, 4 seconds left in the half.
Pitt State’s offense started quickly, picking up a pair of scores on two of their first three possessions — including a game-opening, 3-play drive that was capped when redshirt freshman running back Solomon Watkins scored his first collegiate touchdown on his first collegiate touch from 34 yards out.
It was all set up when junior John Thomas took the opening kickoff 48 yards to the Chadron 35.
But, after the first two scores for the Gorillas, the offense went stagnant. In fact, with 8:28 left in the game, the offensive unit had just one first down and 26 yards of total offense in the second half.
