Smith, Sanders turn in key plays for Gorillas

September 07, 2008 12:09 am

— From staff reports
sports@joplinglobe.com
CHADRON, Neb. — Pittsburg State lost a 10-point lead after three quarters against eighth-ranked Chadron State on Saturday.
But the No. 14 Gorillas were resilient and bounced back with late heroics to pull out a 38-31 football victory at Elliott Field/Don Beebe Stadium.
Mark Smith, senior quarterback from St. Mary’s-Colgan, broke loose for a 61-yard scoring run with only 1:45 minutes left in the game for the decisive points.
Caleb Sanders, a redshirt freshman from Carthage, sealed the win with an interception at :35.
Chadron State, trailing 31-21, scored early in the fourth period on Travis Atter’s 23-yard field goal and tied the contest on Joe McLain’s 6-yard strike to Brandon Harrington and Atter’s conversion kick at 7:48.
The loss — and theft by Sanders — nullified a terrific effort by McLain — 38-of-54 for 387 yards and four touchdowns.
Harrington was McLain’s No. 1 target with 13 receptions for 182 yards. Isaac Stockton had nine receptions for 93 yards and two scores.
PSU (2-0 to Chadron State’s 1-1) received 111 rushing yards on 20 carries from Caleb Farabi, another Colgan product, and 11-of-19 for 214 yards and three scores from Smith.
Smith hit Todd Hertzog (2 yards), Harrison Kush (56) and Kendall Fisher (77) for the scores. Gorilla John McCoy also tossed a scoring pass of 35 yards to Marques Nelson.
Nelson was the top receiver for PSU with five receptions for 93 yards.
Jared Witter added a field goal of 39 yards and four extra points for the Gorillas.
Alex Kuhlman, a sophomore safety, had a team-leading 11 tackles to spark PSU on defense. Senior linebackers Rusty Morgan and Austin Cartright, from Joplin, logged 10 apiece.
Sanders, in addition to the interception, finished with nine solo stops and broke up a pass. Junior end Jordan Karr had 1.5 quarterback sacks.
The Gorillas open the home portion of their schedule next Saturday at 6 p.m. against Missouri Southern in the Miner’s Bowl sponsored by Mt. Carmel Regional Medical Center.