At first, it seemed like it would be another stern road test for Linfield. Pacific was down by just four, and the home crowd of Lincoln Park Stadium was into the game. It was looking like maybe Linfield’s dominance only resided at Maxwell Field.
Two minutes later, two special teams touchdowns had restored order, and Linfield was back in business against the winless Boxers.
Fifth-ranked Linfield trounced Pacific by a score of 49-6 at Lincoln Park Stadium on a warm, sunny afternoon. The Wildcats improved to 5-0, including a 3-0 mark in Northwest Conference play. Pacific fell to 0-6 on the season, 0-3 in conference play.
“I wasn’t really pleased with how we played,” Linfield coach Joseph Smith said. “The scoreboard was fine, but the manner in which we played wasn’t up to our standards.”
Linfield’s offense put on exhibition that would have made the Oregon Ducks proud; despite being on the field for only 21 minutes and running only 57 plays, the ‘Cat Attack put up 477 yards of offense, 381 of it through the air. Mickey Inns continued his stellar play, going 16-25 for 239 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. Lucas Jepson led all receivers with 91 yards and two touchdowns on three receptions.
“He has a little bit of burst to him, so I think he’s fairly explosive,” Smith said. “he really attacks the deep ball, which leads to those long touchdowns.”
Buddy Saxon had 61 yards and one touchdown on four receptions. Deidre Wiersma had 45 yards on five receptions. After injuring his left shoulder against Puget Sound, Josh Hill led all rushers with 69 yards on 12 carries.
Despite being on the field for over 39 minutes on Saturday, Linfield’s defense held Pacific’s offense to 228 yards, including minus five yards on the ground. Quarterback T.C Campbell was held to 12-24 for 129 yards, no touchdowns with one interception. All-conference receiver Jordan Fukumoto, the NWC leader in receiving touchdowns coming in, finished with 82 yards on five receptions.
“Our defense is what I was a little disappointed with,” Smith said. “Just a lack of fire and a lack of play-making on the ball; we had several interceptions that we didn’t make, and our tackling was sub-par.”
The game started out slowly for Linfield. After a long drive by Pacific resulted in a punt, Linfield drove down the field on their first possession, with Inns tossing a 14-yard touchdown strike to Jepson, making it 7-0 Linfield with 8:37 to go in the first quarter. On their next possession, aided by a personal foul penalty on fourth down by Linfield, Pacific drove 55 yards in 10 plays, resulting in a 37-yard field goal by Villareal-Gomez with 2:46 to go in the first.
It seemed like Linfield had a fight on their hands, until the ensuing kickoff when Colin Forman returned it 86 yards for a touchdown to make it 14-3 Linfield. On Pacific’s next possession, the boxers had a punt blocked, and Drew Fisher recovered the ball and returned it four yards for another touchdown, making it 21-3 Linfield with 48 seconds to go in the first quarter.
“It’s fairly demoralizing, especially when your offense goes down and scores on their first drive, then you give up back to back special teams touchdowns,” Smith said. “you’re definitely very deflated.”
On their next possession, Pacific drove 59 yards in 11 plays, taking nearly six minutes off the clock, before tacking on a 22-yard field goal to make it 21-6 with 9:48 left in the quarter. Linfield’s offense took over on their next possession, and drove 70 yards in eight plays, capped by Inns’ 4-yard touchdown pass to Saxon with 6:40 to go in the second quarter.
On the opening play of the second half, Inns found Jepson for a 65-yard touchdown strike to make the score 35-6 with 14:44 to go in the third quarter. The two teams traded punts the rest of the quarter before Linfield inserted their back-ups in the fourth quarter. First possession of the fourth quarter, Linfield went 88 yards in seven plays, capped by Josh Yoder’s 4-yard touchdown run, making the score 42-6 with 12:08 left in the game. After a Pacific punt, Linfield put together a scoring drive of 48 yards in five plays, capped by Matt Yarbrough’s 24-yard touchdown pass to Colin Nelson, making the score 49-6 with 8:01 to go.
Linfield will host Pacific Lutheran at Maxwell field next Saturday; the Wildcats defeated the Lutes 35-20 at Sparks Stadium in a game that ultimately decided the Northwest Conference championship.
Pacific will travel to the Pine Bowl to take on Whitworth. Whitworth beat the Boxers 24-12 last season at Lincoln Park Stadium.
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