Despite the addition of the
patented Fly Offense in the offseason and the advantage of having played a game
beforehand, the Menlo Oaks could do no better against Linfield than in the
previous season, thanks to a dominant defensive effort paired with timely
offense by the Wildcats.
The
fifth-ranked Linfield Wildcats defeated the Menlo Oaks 30-9 at Maxwell Field on
a sunny September afternoon in their 2012 season opener. The win gives the Wildcats a 1-0 record on
the season, while the loss dropped the Oaks to 1-1 on the season.
The
Linfield offense was hit-and-miss most of the day, managing to put together a
couple scoring drives in the second quarter before the offense lost all
momentum in the second half. On the day,
the “Cat attack gained 359 yards of offense and 20 first downs. One positive aspect of the offense was their
rushing total of 170 yards on the day after being held to 44 yards on the
ground last season against the Oaks; Josh Hill led the way with 113 yards on 18
carries.
“I
would say that we had a better plan than last year,” Linfield coach Joseph Smith
said, “we looked at that pretty closely, we did some technical things a little
bit different. Coach Hire did a great
job of adjusting our schemes a little bit more to their specific defense.”
Mickey Inns had an
off-day passing, going 10-25 for 172 yards and two touchdowns with no
interceptions. Deidre Weirsma led the
Wildcats with 49 yards and a touchdown on four receptions. Lucas Jepson added 51 yards and a touchdown
on two receptions.
“I think it’s a myriad
of factors,” Smith said, “one being the timing factor, one being some technical
things with how much air you wanna put under the ball, which increases the
margin of error, and the other is that the plays themselves are low-percentage plays.”
The Menlo offense,
despite a complete schematic overhaul from last season with the induction of
the Fly offense, still could not crack the nut that is the Linfield
defense. Held to 265 yards on the day,
the Oaks turned the ball over four times, including three lost fumbles, one of
which was returned 87 yards by Linfield defensive end Matthew MaClanathan for a
touchdown, and a safety. Quarterback
Matt Pelasasa went 9-15 for 118 yards with one interception while rushing the
ball 27 times for 51 yards and one touchdown.
Wide receiver Michael Alexander led the Oaks with five receptions for 76
yards, and Running back Joey Evans added 51 yards rushing on 12 carries.
“At one point, the
defense was winning 9-3; I told coach Vaughn that he gave up the win there,”
Smith said with a chuckle, “That ‘s just an unbelievable performance to hold a
team to very few points and then to score a little bit yourself; you’re gonna
win every time. I was real pleased with
our defense; they had a dominating effort.”
The game started
off very slowly for both teams. While
Linfield missed a 41-yard field goal attempt and botched another field goal
attempt, Menlo kept fumbling the ball right back to the Wildcats, who finally
capitalized when Inns hit Weirsma with a 14-yard touchdown pass to make it 7-0
Linfield with 10:49 to go in the second quarter. After forcing a three and out on Menlo’s next
possession, Linfield put together a six play, 82 yard drive culminated by Inns’
40-yard touchdown strike to Jepson to make it 14-0 Linfield with 6:03 to go in
the second quarter. A 13 play, 65 yard
drive by Menlo ended with a 31-yard field goal, making it 14-3 Linfield with
0:37 left in the second quarter.
The second half
saw a lot of action from the Wildcat defense.
After Linfield’s first drive of the half ended with a punt, a 51-yard
punt by Linfield put Menlo at their own five yard line. Two plays later, right after a Menlo timeout,
Pelasasa recovered a fumble in the endzone, the safety making it 16-3 Linfield
with 12:22 to go in the third quarter.
After a Menlo interception set the ball up at the Menlo 17-yard line,
Josh Hill threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Mickey Inns on a halfback toss to
make the score 23-3 Linfield with 4:27 to go in the third quarter.
In the fourth
quarter, Menlo had a first-and-goal in the Linfield four yard line. Two negative plays later, MaClanathan scooped
up a fumble and returned it 79 yards for a touchdown to make it 30-3 with 12:46
to go in the game. A four-yard touchdown
run by Pelasasa made it 30-9 with 7:13 to play.
“He had a nice
convey of blockers that went down there with them, and Tyler Robitaille was
talking to him the whole time, kind of telling him when there was nobody or “another
guy back here,” or “we got him,” kinda got air traffic control down the runway
so to speak,” Smith said.
Linfield’s next
game is against Hardin-Simmons, who is coming off a 58-34 loss to Willamette
University where they gave up 727 yards of total offense to the Bearcats. Linfield last played Hardin-Simmons in 2009,
when they opened up the season with a 37-22 victory over the Cowboys, who were
ranked fourth in the nation at the time.
Menlo’s next game
is against Pomona Pitzer, who is coming off the 0-9 campaign in 2011, on
September 8.
Link to Postgame Analysis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOcZyS457Gc
No comments:
Post a Comment