#3 Linfield came back from an early 21-7 deficit, three turnovers, and a parade of penalties to defeat Pacific Lutheran 31-24 at Sparks Stadium. The win improved Linfield to 4-0 on the season, which leaves them one win away from extending their NCAA-record winning season streak to 57. The loss leaves PLU at 1-2, with a road trip to Lewis & Clark coming up next.
It was over when: Safety Colin Forman intercepted a Ritchey Dalton pass with 1:32 to go, allowing the offense to run out the clock.
Game ball goes to: Linfield's entire defense. After giving up 169 yards of offense as PLU built up a 21-7 lead with 14:45 to go in the second quarter, Linfield's defense hunkered down and only gave up 146 yards for the rest of the game, putting ridiculous pressure on Ritchey Dalton after his hot start, and ended the game with an interception in the last two minutes.
Stat of the game: 19 yards rushing by PLU on 27 carries. Ten tackles for loss, including seven quarterback sacks, by the Linfield defense contributed to this total. After spending most of the first 16 minutes getting run over by the PLU offense, the Wildcat defense seemingly decided that they had enough, and spent the final 44 minutes of the game pressuring the crud out of the Lutes offense.
Unsung hero of the game: Third-string running back John Shaffer had a big performance in relief of injured star Josh Hill, rushing for 83 yards and one touchdown on 14 carries. His performance was especially critical as Linfield's offense was held to 341 yards, missed a field goal, and coughed up three more turnovers.
What it means: Linfield overcame a disastrous start and dominated the final three and a half quarters of play, especially on defense. On a side note, Linfield made no progress whatsoever with cleaning up their sloppy play from the first three games, even with having an extra week to prepare for PLU; They had three turnovers for the game, as well as a missed field goal and 11 penalties for 92 yards. While Linfield definitely has the talent of a top-five team, they need to eliminate the sloppiness out of their game if they want to celebrate a fourth consecutive conference title at the end ofthe season. For PLU, while they showed in their losses to Cal Lutheran and LInfield that they're a competitive football team, they just couldn't find a way to win a big game. They'll have three more chances as Whitworth, Willamette, and Lewis & Clark remain on their schedule.
Link to boxscore: http://www.linfield.edu/sports/stats/fb/plu0929.htm
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