BY EVAN THOMPSON, Online Editor
Twitter: @evanthompson_11

One of the Wildcats’ three running backs who dressed for Saturday’s 21-14 victory over Humboldt State hardly knew the offense at all.

That’s because two weeks ago senior Conrad Scheidt wasn’t even playing on the offensive side of the ball. After starting sophomore running back Jordan Todd separated his shoulder in the Wildcats’ 24-17 loss to Azuza Pacific last week, head coach John Picha moved Scheidt from linebacker to running back. Picha, who is also the offensive coordinator and running backs coach, gave Scheidt a crash course on the offense with only a week to prepare.

It goes without saying the Wildcats were thin at the position, but that didn’t mean they were going to be ineffective on the ground. Even without Todd, who is the Wildcats’ leading rusher with 933 yards and seven touchdowns, the offense was able to maintain it’s offensive identity, which consistently does just enough to get the job done.

Todd watched the Wildcats from the sidelines combine to rush 48 times for 209 yards and one score on the ground, while freshman quarterback Jake Nelson passed for 172 yards and two touchdowns.

At a beefy 6-foot, 223 pounds, the Wildcats’ intent was to use Scheidt, who gained three yards on his three attempts, as a short-yardage back.

“Yeah, we brought him over because you need at least three in a game to feel safe,” head coach John Picha said. “And I thought he did a nice job.”

Scheidt’s first play of the game was one he wished he could have back. Scheidt circled out on a wheel route and was targeted by Nelson. Scheidt tried running up field before he caught the ball, which caused him to drop it.

Whether or not Scheidt will continue to be used in the offense once Todd returns to action next week against Western Oregon is still a question in Picha’s mind, but he was still impressed with Scheidt’s ability to pick up the offense so quickly and become an asset to the offense.

“He’s a very good athlete, and he basically picked up our offense very quickly, he did it within a week,” Picha said. “He picked that up really well, and he got to run down there in the short-yardage and he did some good things, so we’ll see if it’s a longer-term thing or not.”

There were times where Scheidt was a little lost, too, however.

“There was a few times where we called a play and he said, ‘What’s that?’ and I had to tell him,” Nelson said. “But he did good.”

Nelson continued to show progress in his development as a consistent game manager at quarterback.

The game’s first touchdown featured an ESPN Top-10 worthy catch by 6-5 junior wide receiver Jordan Kinnune, who used one hand to reel in an arcing pass from Nelson in the end zone.

“That was pretty sweet,” Nelson said. “I just threw it up there and I don’t know how he caught that. He has the best hands on the team. He doesn’t even wear gloves. He’ll make diving one-handed catches in practice in the end zone.”

Kinnune left the game with a knee-injury in the second half, which was serious according to Picha.

In the third quarter, Nelson launched a perfectly lofted pass down the center of the field to junior wide receiver Greg Logan, which set up Hall for a 19-yard rushing touchdown.

I thought he did well, he played within our game plan, he moved the offense,” Picha said. “We got in some passing situations, and without seeing the game film right now, I thought he did well.”

Nelson didn’t leave the game unscathed, however. He made a minor mistake just before the end of the first half when he threw an interception to Lumberjacks’ senior cornerback Kevin Cooper in the red zone, which negated an opportunity to increase their lead to two scores. But, prior to the interception, Nelson rushed two times for 55 yards to set up the scoring chance.

Nelson credited the offensive line for one of the plays that was a designed run, which led to a 30-yard gain. Nelson was pleased that the Wildcats could grind out the victory when they needed the offense to move the chains.

“It was good, we threw the ball well, we ran the ball well when we could, and at the end it was good we ran the ball well when we needed to,” Nelson said.

Central will wait and see the result of tonight’s game between Western Oregon and Azusa Pacific, which sits in first-place in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, to see if it have a chance to win the conference title.