Sixth-ranked Linfield hosts La Verne at Maxwell Field this coming Saturday; Linfield will be looking to add to their 13-game home win streak. It will only be the second time ever that the two schools have faced off, the first being last season at Ortmayer Stadium when the Wildcats routed La Verne 30-3.
“I don’t know what to expect: they’ve played one game, and we have one game on film; they could do anything,” Linfield coach Joseph Smith said. “It’s one of those games where we have to be prepared for anything from a schematic standpoint, because I’m not really sure what we’ll see.”
One of the big stories of Linfield’s 24-14 victory over Cal Lutheran was Linfield’s explosive running game, which racked up 256 yards (the most ever against a ranked team in the two plus seasons that Linfield has been running the spread offense). Junior running back Josh Hill came on after Aaron Williams got hurt, and carried the day with 164 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.
“Stopping Hill is the biggest challenge that we are going to face,” La Verne Coach Chris Krich said. “The offensive line is a tough, physical offensive line that moves very well, and really complements the running back.”
The big question mark for Linfield’s offense entering the season was their quarterback play following the graduation of Aaron Boehme. Although Mickey Inns didn’t have a great day statistically, His leadership and composure were on full display against Cal Lutheran.
“I thought he did a really nice job controlling the game once he got settled in,” Krich said.
After their dominant performance against Cal Lutheran, Linfield’s defense faces a La Verne offense that they held to 78 yards and three first downs in last season’s 30-3 rout.
“Linfield does a great job because they’re really sound at what they do,” Krich said. “They don’t do a bunch of things; they do a couple of things really, really well. We have to try and get them out of their comfort zone, and we’ll have to change some of our tendencies.”
While they don’t have nearly as many offensive weapons to throw at Linfield as Cal Lutheran did, La Verne does field an experienced dual threat quarterback in Thomas Arguello, who led the Leopards with 113 yards passing and 44 yards rushing in their 65-14 loss to Azusa Pacific two weeks ago
“We just got to play within our system,” Smith said. “Keep him in the pocket, and slowly collapse that pocket, play good coverage behind him. We need to treat him like we treat most quarterbacks, but we do need to be quick to react when he breaks contain.”
Although La Verne has lost 20 of their past 21 games dating back to 2008, change may be on the horizon for the Leopards.
“They have a coach who’s pretty energetic, and they’re going to get better,” Smith Said. “They’ll bring some energy into it, and they have some talent down there too. They’re running new schemes and learning a new language, so you’d expect them to get better and better as the year goes on.”
With the Northwest Conference opener against Willamette next week, and the winner of that game having the driver’s seat to the conference title, the temptation to overlook a lowly program like La Verne is ever present.
“The guys know what level we want to play at, the guys know what level of execution it takes to be a playoff-caliber team, and we aren’t there yet,” Smith said. “Our guys know that we’re not playing at the level we need to, so it’s pretty easy to stay focused on what we need to do to get to that level.”
Keys To The Game For Linfield:
-Establish the run: Last season, even though they won 30-3, Linfield only ran for 123 yards, averaging 2.8 yards per carry. Coming off their impressive rushing performance against Cal Lutheran, Linfield will need that to carry over to La Verne while the passing game comes along.
-More efficient passing: Linfield QB Mickey Inns’ passing numbers against Cal Lutheran were very pedestrian: 9-24, 122 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions. Of the nine completions, three of them went for 25 yards or more. The explosive passing game is still there; it’s just a matter of completing passes. La Verne will be the perfect opportunity to work on that.
-Avoid red zone turnovers: Linfield had two turnovers in the Cal Lutheran game, which isn’t a bad amount to have, but both of them were turnovers in the red zone that ended long drives where they were moving the ball. In order to put La Verne away, Linfield will need to cash in on their opportunities.
Keys To The Game For La Verne:
-Hope that Linfield overlooks them: It would be nice if there some area of the game where La Verne had some sort of advantage, but the fact is that Linfield is more talented across the board on both sides of the ball. The only way La Verne can compete in this game is if Linfield doesn’t bring their hard hat and lunch pail, which is never the case for a Joseph Smith-coached team.
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