Big General makes North unstoppable

Fresh off playing “the Fridge” in Saturday’s Les Schwab Bowl, meaty defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh is setting his sights on college football. The all-star game whetted the big fella’s appetite. He chased quarterbacks. Scared away running backs. Delivered a pancake block. And scored the winning points when he burst through the South line, à la William “Refrigerator” Perry in Super Bowl XX. His three-yard touchdown run with 38 seconds left gave the North a dramatic 36-30 win. No 155-pound cornerback dared to lay a hat on big No. 74, the bulbous ex-Grant High star who’s headed to Nebraska. “Yeah, I do remember the Fridge, yep,” the 300-pound Suh says, certainly thinking of video clips of Perry, who scored in Chicago’s Super Bowl rout of New England in 1986 — before he was born. Suh says the North practiced plays with him carrying the ball. So did Grant, and the Generals planned to let him carry it against Madison, but the season finale against the Senators had too much riding on it. The last time he touched the pigskin, Suh recovered a fumble against Marshall. “It feels really good,” he says of Saturday’s TD. Suh showed off his big-time talents in other ways, too. The South refused to try to penetrate the defense of Suh and fellow tackle Rudy Schaffroth, the Clackamas wild man who has a scholarship to Portland State. Suh continually broke free of blockers to chase ballcarriers. On one fourth-quarter play, he virtually stood up his blocker, and then darted after the South QB and knocked the ball from his hands. And Suh provided some comic relief at the expense of South’s Trevor Hoffard. In the game to block on a 2-point conversion in the first half, Suh took on the hard-charging defender, who got under the big fella’s block. But the big fella wasn’t budged, and he slammed the 6-2, 210-pound Hoffard to the ground. Would you like some syrup with that pancake? “That’s the way it goes,” Suh says. “I’m a little stronger than some of the guys here. It’s expected from me.” Suh leaves for Nebraska in July, hoping to play as a freshman. He says John Blake, the Cornhuskers’ defensive line coach, talks with him about playing both tackle and strongside end (across from the tight end). He’s better at using moves to rush, instead of just bull rushing. “Wherever they need me,” Suh says. If Nebraska wants him to redshirt, “so be it,” he says. “I’m just looking to play hard (in camp) and see what comes of it. “The key will be my quickness, because of how big I am. I know I’m not going to be as strong — I’ll have mediocre strength (compared to college players) — but my quickness will help me out quite a bit. I’m definitely going to get stronger; it’s not a concern for me.” Notes Receivers Kevin Maher of Lake Oswego (six catches, 155 yards, three TDs) and Isaiah Smith of Roseburg (seven catches, 163 yards, three TDs) stood out. … Smith will play for Western Oregon. … Maher doesn’t seem too disappointed with needing to attend Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, Calif., because he couldn’t pass the SAT to get him into Oregon State. “I’d rather be in San Francisco — the city itself — than Corvallis any day,” he says. “I’ve got to get my school straight, and I’ll be right back up here. We have a mutual agreement” that he will sign with OSU again after completing junior college schoolwork. Maher caught two touchdown passes from Jesuit’s Jon Breuer, and one from Central Catholic tight end Riley Showalter, a 52-yarder late in the fourth quarter. Maher added the two-point catch of Breuer’s pass to tie the game 30-30. … Maher will play receiver and strong safety at Foothill, before an expected switch to strong safety at OSU. “I don’t want to mess around with wide receiver in the Pac-10. There are dudes there who are cold,” he says. Maher and Matt Leunen of Redmond exchanged heated words in the handshake line after the game. Each said the other trash-talked during the game; Maher says Leunen needled him about the North falling behind 30-14. “ ‘Lunar’ was totally in my ear the whole time,” Maher says. “It came back to bite him.” Breuer showed off his strong and accurate arm, and his talent had North offensive coordinator Frank Geske scratching his head. How does Division II Assumption College get Breuer, and not a Big Sky Conference school? “He throws a beautiful deep ball — tight spiral, soft arc,” Geske says. Adds Maher: “He’s going to make an impact right away (in college). He didn’t get enough hype. That release on that ball … ” What, Dan Marino-like? Lincoln’s Taylor Kavanaugh leveled a pursuing South tackler on Maher’s TD reception in the first half. “I was on a post route, and (Maher) was on a hitch,” the 5-10, 170-pound Kavanaugh says. “We were both open. I kept my head on swivel and saw guys chasing Kevin. I didn’t want to clip the guy, so I just put my shoulder into it.” … Kavanaugh will walk on at Oregon State. The next Mike Hass? “If I could be half as good as Mike Hass, I would be happy,” he says. Peter New’s night was a tale of near glory and pain. The Wilson defensive back nearly intercepted a pass — “It hit the ground; I bobbled it,” he admits — and then wrenched his back on a tackle. “The doctor said it was a bad bruise and maybe a cracked rib,” he says. New put his pads back on for the post-game handshakes. “I didn’t want to come off the field with a towel over my head,” he says. Geske, the former Tigard coach, was scheduled to start his new job as Portland State running back coach Monday morning. He can’t wait to get recruiting. “I’ll love that,” he says. “I’ve always kept an eye on kids, always wanted to know everybody in the state. I’ve made it my business to know where the good guys play.” But he pauses when asked whether he is achieving a career goal by coaching in college. “I don’t want to hurt any kids’ feelings, and I’ve never been one to say the grass is always greener,” he says, “but I’ve always loved that Portland State staff and (coach) Tim Walsh. If I was going to go somewhere, it would be there.”
By JASON VONDERSMITH