Concerned that Linfield’s offense was too one-dimensional? No such thing anymore. Worried that Mickey Inns was the weakness of an otherwise talented offense? Not anymore. Afraid that Linfield would overlook a team like La Verne? What foolish thinking.
The sixth-ranked Wildcats posted a vicious 52-3 beating of La Verne at Maxwell field on a sunny afternoon. If there were any concerns that Linfield would be looking ahead to the Northwest conference opener against Willamette next week, they were erased by halftime. The win improved Linfield’s record to 2-0, an improvement from last season when Linfield was still reeling from the Cal Lutheran loss.
“Anytime you can start out undefeated, that is certainly a much better start,” Linfield coach Joseph Smith said. “We’ve got a lot of areas to improve on, but I’m very pleased with getting through the first two games the way we have.”
After his poor statistical day against Cal Lutheran, Linfield quarterback Mickey Inns rebounded against La Verne, going 18-27 for 210 yards and three touchdowns with zero interceptions. Josh Hill was held to 47 yards on 13 carries, the La Verne defense sucking to him on nearly every play. Stephen Nasca added 45 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries. Diedre Wiersma led the Wildcats with 102 yards and one touchdown on seven receptions.
“He (Inns) was more comfortable,” Injured running back Aaron Williams said. “He had a great last couple weeks of practice; he’s just getting used to being a starting quarterback, and he’s coming into his own.”
“I thought Mickey certainly played a much better game from a statistical standpoint,” Smith said. “He still stood in there and took some hits, which I really like; he’s been showing good poise under pressure.”
On the day, Linfield totaled 461 yards of offense, 26 first downs, and showed the offensive balance (299 passing, 162 rushing) that wasn’t really there against Cal Lutheran two weeks ago.
Thomas Arguello led La Verne with 195 yards on 24-40 passing. He threw no interceptions, but had zero touchdowns and was sacked six times. Running back Tanner Thompson led the Leopards with 92 yards rushing on 12 carries. Wide receiver Cedric Ho had 9 receptions for 75 yards.
On the day, La Verne totaled 312 yards of offense and 22 first downs, a sign that La Verne’s new spread-offense was making some progress. However, La Verne only managed to get one field goal out of five drives that got inside the Linfield 37-yard line, the other drives ended with one interception, 2 red zone stands inside the Linfield 10-yard line, and another 4th down stop.
“We made adjustments to the things they came out with,” Linfield cornerback Nate Dixon said. “They came out with some pretty good tricks, but we made the adjustments that we needed to.”
“You got to give credit to Linfield; their red zone defense is pretty stout,” La Verne Coach Chris Krich said. “We were very pleased with the way we moved the ball against an outstanding defense like they have; we see some good things, but it’s that time where we really need to punch it in that we need to work on.”
Linfield came out of the gates in a hurry in the first quarter. La Verne went three and out on their first two possessions, and Linfield had a 1-yard touchdown run by Bryan Anderson followed by a 34-yard field goal by Josh Kay on their first two; Inns went 4-6 for 67 yards on those first two possessions. After La Verne was stopped on 4th down at the Linfield 3-yard line, Linfield took a 10-0 lead into the second quarter. Five of La Verne’s 11 penalties came in the first quarter, mostly on the first four possessions of the game.
“Those are killer,” Krich said. “We gotta clean up the penalties, and that just comes down to discipline, and making sure we’re in the right spots so that we don’t have to commit those penalties. When you play a good team like Linfield, they’re going to capitalize on those mistakes.”
Linfield capped a five play, 69 yard drive with a 19-yard touchdown pass from Inns to wide receiver Charlie Poppen with 10:43 to go in the second quarter to take a 17-0 lead. After two La Verne drives ended on 4th down inside the Linfield 37-yard line, Linfield got the ball with 2:49 to go in the second quarter, Linfield marched 63 yards in eight plays, resulting in a 2-yard touchdown pass from Inns to wide receiver Erik Koczian to extend Linfield’s lead to 24-0 at halftime. Inns went 14-20 for 173 yards by this point.
Running back Stephen Nasca returned the opening kickoff of the second half 61 yards to the La Verne 9-yard line, setting up Inns’ Touchdown pass to Wiersma on the next play, extending Linfield’s lead to 31-0. After trading a few punts with La Verne, Nasca scored a 1-yard touchdown run with 6:39 to go in the third quarter. On La Verne’s following possession, the Leopards drove to the Linfield 5-yard line before two sacks forced them to settle for a 34-yard field goal by Alex Miller, making the score 38-3 heading into the fourth quarter.
The fourth quarter saw an impressive offensive show being put on by Linifeld’s reserves. Quarterback Josh Yoder threw a 29-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Lucas Jepson to make the score 45-3 with 13:14 to go. Yoder threw another touchdown pass, a 30-yarder to wide receiver Evan Peterson with 9:10 to go in the game to round out the scoring. In the fourth quarter, Linfield’s reserve offensive players put up 14 points and 155 yards, which was better numbers than the starters put up in any of the first three quarters.
“I’m very pleased with how Josh came in and played,” Smith said. “He ran the ball well, was pretty physical in his play, and he made some nice passes. He still has some things to improve on, but for his first considerable action, it was fun to see.”
Linfield begins Northwest Conference play next week against Willamette University at McCulloch Stadium. The Wildcats beat the Bearcats last season at Maxwell Field 35-7.
La Verne opens up SCIAC conference play against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps next week, a team that La Verne lost to 20-14 last season.
“We got to work on our mistakes,” Krich Said. “I think that we get a little too cute as coaches once in a while, trying to do some things to trick people; we really need to focus on the fundamentals: Focus on tackling, focus on jumping off sides, focus on not false-starting. That means we need to back up a little bit on what we do, the amount of stuff that we want to put in, and we need to make sure we do those little things right.”
Link to Boxscore: http://www.linfield.edu/sports/stats/fb/ulv0923.htm
Link to Postgame Analysis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvGY_ceyfZs&feature=channel_video_title
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