TOWSON VS. NW FOOTBALL HIGHLIGHTS | www.thetowerlight.com
Towson toppled in ‘cat’ fight, 47-14
Eric Gazzillo/ The Towerlight
Towson true freshman quarterback Peter Athens is swarmed by the Wildcats defensive line Saturday afternoon in the Tigers’ season opener
loss to Northwestern, 47-14. Athens had growing pains typical of a freshman, but still threw for 140 yards and a touchdown.
Tigers drop first
game of season to
Northwestern, true
frosh starts at QB
KEVIN HESS
Associate Sports Editor
EVANSTON, Ill. -This may not have
been the way the athletic department
envisioned things to begin for new
Towson head coach Rob Ambrose.
His first game pacing the sidelines
was against the toughest opponent
in school history and, in the end,
his Tigers coaching career began the
same way Gordy Combs’ ended: with
a loss. The Northwestern Wildcats
made sure Ambrose, a Skokie, Ill.,
native, had a homecoming that was
anything but welcoming. One of the
Big Ten’s emerging powers proved too
much for the Tigers to handle, thrash¬
ing Towson 47-14.
"Northwestern is a hell of a team,"
Ambrose said. "While the numbers
on the board don’t exactly look great,
I just left the locker room where the
eyes and the hearts really do."
It seemed as if everything that
could go wrong for Towson did, as
some of their best moments were
marred by head-scratching mistakes.
Dropped passes, bad snaps, muffed
kickoffs and penalties all put a damper
on any sort of momentum the Tigers
tried to gather in front of 17,857
fans at Ryan Field. And though a
faction of Towson supporters, includ¬
ing ex-quarterback Sean Schaefer and
associate vice president of campus life
Teri Hall, were clad in yellow behind
the visitors’ bench, their spirit wasn’t
enough to put Towson anywhere close
to the Wildcats, who built a 30-0 lead
in the first half.
The no-huddle spread offense of
Northwestern kept the Tigers’ defense
guessing all day, piling on 485 yards
of total offense with a consistent run
game and an opportunistic, quick hit¬
ting pass game. Three Wildcats scored
rushing touchdowns, and that didn’t
even include their leading rusher on
the day, tailback Stephen Simmons,
who churned out 77 yards on 18 car¬
ries. True freshman Arby Fields used
his explosive speed to his advantage
by scoring two touchdowns on only six
touches, including a 22-yard-long
See CATS, page 22
