It was supposed to be the Northwest Conference game of the year: A pass-heavy spread offense against a no-huddle, up-tempo spread offense, and the top-two quarterbacks in the conference facing off. Linfield was playing for their third straight conference title, while Lewis & Clark was seeking their first conference title since sharing the conference title with Linfield in 1991.
It wasn’t much of a contest, as it turned out.
The fifth-ranked Linfield Wildcats beat down Lewis & Clark 47-14 in a cold, rainy game at Maxwell Field, giving Linfield the second undefeated regular season in the last three years. Linfield improved to 9-0 on the season, and extended their home winning streak to 17 games. Lewis & Clark finished the season 7-2, and second in the Northwest Conference.
“I think what we pretend to see is that the rich stay rich, and the poor get poorer, so maybe that’s why it doesn’t seem as special” Linfield coach Joseph Smith said when addressing the team’s undefeated season. “When you’re in the middle of it, it’s hard to do. The margin of error is so small between a win and a loss; just because you should win doesn’t mean you’re going to. I’m very proud that our guys were able to do that; ten teams out of 240 went undefeated this year; it’s not bad.”
“It was disappointing, very disappointing,” Lewis & Clark coach Chris Sulages said.
Linfield’s spread offense took advantage of Lewis & Clark’s mediocre defense, totaling 477 yards and 29 first downs on the afternoon. Quarterback Mickey Inns lived up to his sterling reputation, going 20-30 for 286 yards and four touchdowns with zero interceptions. Evan Peterson led the receiving core with 94 yards and one touchdown on six receptions. Deidre Wiersma added 75 yards and one touchdown on five receptions. Buddy Saxon had 38 yards and two touchdowns on three catches. Josh Hill finished with 111 yards and one touchdown on 18 carries, his fourth 100-yard game of the season.
“I’m very pleased with how we played: I felt that we should score on every possession. I was disappointed that we didn’t score touchdowns on the first two,” Smith said. “I felt that we could’ve scored right before halftime; we stumbled a bit there, and I thought we should have scored right out of the gate. We played well, but we could have played a little bit better on offense.”
“We came up short, especially on some third and longs,” Sulages said. “We got hurt on some third and longs, and we should have done a better job with that.”
Lewis & Clark, an offense arguably as explosive as Linfield’s over the course of the season, was held in check on Saturday; The Pioneers were held to 347 yards of offense including 128 on the ground. Quarterback Phenomenon Keith Welch went 18-30 for 198 yards, one touchdown and one interception, but was held to 49 yards rushing on 15 carries. All-American tight end Shawn Evans had a team-high 57 yards on four receptions. Andrew Frisina had six catches for 49 yards and one touchdown. Running back Joevonte Mayes was held to 14 yards on eight carries, but had five catches for 52 yards.
“Their tempo is really good when their able to get first downs,” Smith said. “When you’re a fast-tempo offense and you’re three and out, that’s not good. It was important to get those three and outs and keep their drives short.”
The game opened up with a bang for Linfield; the wildcats drove 52 yards in five plays, capped by a 25-yard field goal by Josh Kay. Linfield led 3-0 not even 90 seconds into the game. After Lewis & Clark went three and out on their first possession of the game, Linfield drove 89 yards in 12 plays before settling for a 27-yard field goal by Kay, giving them a 6-0 lead with 9:08 to go in the first quarter. After another Pioneer three and out, Linfield went 67 yards in 11 plays, capped by Hill’s 6-yard touchdown run, giving Linfield a 13-0 lead with 3:36 to go in the first quarter. On their next possession, Lewis & Clark drove deep into the Linfield redzone, and was on the verge of scoring a touchdown when Curtis Shirey fumbled the ball into the endzone.
The second quarter got even worse for Lewis & Clark; Linfield went 80 yards in 12 plays, with Inns tossing a 3-yard touchdown pass to Wiersma to make the score 20-0 Linfield with 10:41 to go in the second quarter. After yet another three and out for Lewis & Clark, Linfield marched right back down the field, going 44 yards in five plays, and Inns found Saxon for a 9-yard touchdown pass to make it 27-0 with 7:37 to go in the second quarter. Déjà vu struck the Pioneers again as they went three and out on the following possession, and Linfield marched down the field for another Inns-to-Saxon touchdown pass, this one a 10-yarder, to make it 34-0 Linfield with 4:50 to go in the second quarter.
After Lewis & Clark fumbled the ball away to Linfield on their first possession of the second half, the Wildcats had a rare three and out, settling for a 40-yard field goal by Kay to make it 37-0 with 12:51 to go in the third quarter. Welch hit Frisina for a 28-yard touchdown pass to make it 37-7 with 4:43 to go in the third quarter. Linfield responded by returning the ensueing kickoff to the Pioneer 29-yard line, and Inns hit Peterson for a touchdown on the next play to make it 44-7 with 4:30 to go in the third quarter. Josh Kay added a 24-yard field goal with 13:43 to go in the Fourth quarter. Lewis & Clark’s back-up quarterback Dustin Dailey tossed a 21-yard touchdown strike to Evan Stanbro to make it 47-14 with 11:27 to go in the game.
Linfield will be playing #8 Cal Lutheran in the first round of the NCAA playoffs at Maxwell field on November 19; Linfield defeated the Kingsmen 24-14 in the season opener.
Link to Postgame Analysis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysrttvHvqow&feature=channel_video_title
I've been listening to Sulages talk and talk and talk this season with all of his radio interviews and that's all he had to say about Saturday. To steal a thought from Sulages...disappointing.
ReplyDelete