Football | 9/26/2009 9:30:11 PM

Box Score [Box score]  [Photos]

DAVIS, Calif. – UC Davis turned two Western Oregon turnovers into easy scores and Sean Kelley kicked three field goals to stave off the Wolves upset bid with a 29-13 win in front of 10,078 at Aggie Stadium.
It was the first win of the season for the Aggies, who had opened the season with losses to Fresno State and Montana. Western Oregon evened its record at 2-2, with both losses coming at the hands of FCS schools (Football Championship Subdivision).

Western Oregon trailed just 16-13 late in the third quarter. They scored on their first two possessions after the halftime break, first on a 41-yard pass play from Josh Riddell to Justin Ore and then on an 11-yard scamper by Riddell. The senior quarterback's run capped WOU's best drive of the day, a 12-play, 80 yard package.

But UCD answered with a drive of its own right before the end of the quarter, capped by a three yard toss from Greg Denham to Sean Credick. Kelley then kicked two of his three treys in the fourth quarter to seal the verdict.

Meanwhile, the Aggies took full advantage of two critical Wolves turnovers to score its first two touchdowns of the game. In the second quarter, Kenneth Brown intercepted a Riddell pass and returned it to the two-yard line and Joe Trombetta punched it in on the next play to make the count 9-0. Later in the same period, a DJ Jackson fumble gave the ball to the Aggies on the Wolves 11-yard line, where Denham found Bakari Grant for six points from that same distance a few plays later.

Western Oregon's defense was solid the entire night allowing the Aggies only 60 total yards rushing, and UCD had negative rushing totals in the first half. Gavin Romanick had a quarterback sack and a tackle for loss to lead the charge, while John Breza and Andy Jackson contributed 10 tackles each.

“Our defense played very well all night, and they got put in some tough spots,” said Wolves head coach Arne Ferguson. “Our offense got things going in the third quarter. I thought we matched up very well with them physically, we just made too many mistakes to beat a good program like that.”

Western Oregon finished with 247 yards of total offense, while UC Davis had 285. The Aggies had the ball for almost 10 more minutes than WOU. Denham finished with 29 completions in 50 attempts for 225 yards, with Chris Carter as his favorite target (11 catches for 77 yards).

Riddell was 16 of 39 for 200 yards. Ore had four of those catches for 92 yards and Sean Fullerton had four for 43.

Western Oregon will return home next week for another non-conference encounter, this time against Southern Oregon. Kick-off is at 2:00 p.m.