Victoria Advocate | "Anderson runs wild in Industrial win over Louise" by WesBloomquist

Anderson runs wild in Industrial win over Louise

By WesBloomquist in the PRESSBOX
September 5, 2009

LOUISE – Wide-eyed with anticipation, Industrial’s Matt Anderson went up for an interception but came down with a missed opportunity.

“I think I might have got a little too cocky there,” Anderson said. “The ball was right there for me, but I tried to start running before I caught the ball. I wish I had that one back.”

But let’s not be too picky.

After all, the Cobra senior who has orally committed to play at the University of Utah and still has major college recruiters showing up at his games, was more than impressive in Industrial’s first game of the season.

Anderson led Industrial to a 20-9 win over the Louise Hornets on Friday, running for 151 yards and three first-half touchdowns. He touched the ball six times in the first half, including touchdown runs of 28, 62 and 4 yards. It was one of those performances where every time he touched the ball, the expectation was that he was going to run for a touchdown.

“It’s an awesome feeling when you’re able to break it at anytime,” said Anderson, who also had a 67-yard touchdown called back on a holding penalty in the second half. “I’ve put in a lot of work in the offseason to get to this moment.”

On defense, where he is projected to play for the Utes, Anderson knows improvements can be made from his and the Cobras’ performance on Friday. The cornerback only had to defend four passes from Hornet quarterback Macauley Vera, but had a pass interference penalty and the dropped interception.

“We are really going to have to step it up on defense,” Anderson said. “We had way too many bad plays and penalties. I felt like we shot ourselves in the foot on a lot of plays that we should have made.”

With Anderson’s big plays, Industrial (1-0) took only 31 snaps and threw the ball only twice. Austin Smalley found Lucas Gaspard for a 28-yard completion but was relegated to handing the ball off the rest of the night. Smalley, a two-year starter at quarterback coming into his junior season, knows the benefits Anderson has on the entire team and is content not throwing the ball if it means the Cobras keep winning.

“Teams are always going to be keying on him,” said Smalley at practice on Thursday. “That’s going to open things up down field when we need them.”

The Hornets (1-1) fell behind 20-0 but didn’t back down or allow Industrial to score after halftime. Louise controlled the clock in the second half with the run and finished the game with 151 yards on 44 carries.

Despite their success, the big play potential and reality of Anderson was too much for Louise to overcome.

“We probably won’t see a better running back all year,” said Louise head coach Mark Stevens. “He’s hard to stop. Last year if he got loose we weren’t going to stop him, but I thought we didn’t have too much trouble tackling him. This year, we were there to tackle him and he ran right through our tackles. You can tell he’s gotten a lot stronger over the summer.”

Friday will not be the last time Anderson gets praise from an opposing team’s coach and is sure not to be the last from his own head coach.

“He’s one of those very special backs,” Industrial head coach Doug Kuhlmann said. “He looked great running the ball early and is going to have a great season for us. He’s always working hard and has a very level head about everything which is great for our team.”

Notes: Desmond Pulliam was the workhorse for the Hornets, carrying the ball 18 times and scoring Louise’s lone touchdown late in the fourth quarter… Industrial junior Eric Santillan came in for Anderson late in the game and ran for 22 yards on three carries… Robbie Williams got the Hornets on the board late in the second quarter with a 26-yard field goal… Industrial was penalized six times for 75 yards in the game.