For a half, things were not going
as planned.
Linfield’s offense
was moving the ball up and down the field at will, but they had trouble putting
the ball in the endzone against a Pudget Sound defense that was arguably the
weakest defense in the nation.
The Loggers
offense failed to put anything together, but with the Linfield offenses’
first-half struggles, there was a lot of hope in the Pudget Sound fan base,
dreams of a legendary upset dancing in their heads.
By the end of the
third quarter, hopes were dashed, spirits broken, and the game unofficially
over.
“We had a hard
time putting points on the board for a variety of reasons early, but we were
able to move the ball with great regularity; just didn't put it in the end zone,”
Linfield coach Joseph Smith said, “That was disappointing, but I sure loved how
our defense played, and I don’t think the game was really ever in question.”
The third-ranked
Linfield Wildcats defeated the Pudget Sound Loggers 47-7 on Saturday afternoon,
extending their conference winning streak to 25 games while the Loggers losing
streak reached 17 games. The win pushed
Linfield to 8-0 on the season, 5-0 in conference play. The loss dropped the Loggers to 0-8 on the
year, 0-5 in NWC play.
The ‘Cat Attack,
despite early red zone struggles, rolled to a big day on offense, ending the
afternoon with 692 yards of offense, including a school-record 541 yards
passing as a team. Mickey Inns had a
monster day, going 27-39 for 422 yards and three touchdowns with no
interceptions. Back-up quarterback Josh
Yoder went 5-8 for 119 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions Deidre Weirsma led all receivers with eight
receptions for a career-high 133 yards and two touchdowns. Charlie Poppen added 88 yards and a touchdown
on five receptions. Westley Mang added
74 yards on three receptions. Stephen
Nasca lead the team with 56 yards rushing on nine carries.
“It’s great for
those guys,” Smith said in regards to the school-record passing yardage. “There was 12 receivers or something, and
that’s a group honor to be able to do that as a team.”
Pudget Sound’s
offense came into the game as the worst offensive unit in the Northwest
conference, and they lived up to the part, getting held to 218 yards of offense
and the lone touchdown. Quarterback
Braden Foley went 13-25 for 169 yards with no touchdowns and no
interceptions. All-American wide
receiver Adam Kniffin had eight receptions for 75 yards. Running back Austin Wagner led all rushers
with 66 yards and one touchdown on 13 carries.
“The offenses that
we’ve face have gotten progressively worse in some regards, so our defense has
gotten better relegated to who we’re playing, but we’re playing at a high
level,” Smith said. “They’re playing together
nicely, and the back row is doing a tremendous job of taking away quarterback’s
first options, making him hold onto it, and then the front row gets ‘em.”
After forcing the
Loggers offense to punt on their first possession, the Wildcats went 64 yards
in 11 plays, capped by a 32-yard field goal by Josh Kay to make the score 3-0
Linfield with 10:53 to go in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Shaffer added a 1-yard touchdown run to make the
score 10-0 with 10:03 to go in the quarter, capping an eight-play, 74 yard
drive. After forcing a Pudget Sound
punt, the Wildcats went 70 yards in nine plays, capped by a 27-yard field goal
by Kay to make the score 13-0 with 4:42 left in the quarter.
“We just had a lot
of things go wrong at different times,” said Smith about Linfield’s first half
struggles in the redzone, “we had some missed signals, we had some poor
play-calls by myself, we had some missed passes, we had some touchdowns called
back, and we had some penalties down in there.
I don’t think it’s anything that UPS did; it was just little mistakes
that we made, everybody taking turns making a little mistake here and there.”
First possession
of the second half, Linfield drove the ball 55 yards in seven plays, capped by
a 9-yard touchdown pass from Inns to Weirsma to make it 20-0 with 12:31 to go
in the third quarter. After forcing a
Loggers punt, the Wildcats went 55 yards on seven plays, capped by a 28 yard
touchdown pass from Inns to Poppen to make it 27-0 with 8:28 to go in the
quarter. After another Logger drive
ended in a punt, Linfield drove 80 yards in eight plays, ending with a 23-yard
touchdown pass from Inns to Weirsma, making it 34-0 with 2:48 to go in the
quarter.
Yoder threw a
29-yard touchdown pass to Evan Peterson to make it 41-0 Linfield with 14:23 to
go in the fourth quarter. The Loggers countered
with a nine play, 64 yard drive, ending with a 19 yard touchdown run by Wagner
to make it 41-7 with 10:00 to go. Yoder
threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to Derek Priestly with 7:53 to go to make it 47-7.
Linfield’s next
game is at their regular season and home-finale against Pacific, who is coming
off a 35-31 loss to the Willamette Bearcats.
Linfield defeated the Boxers 49-6 at field last season.
Pudget Sound’s
final game is against the Willamette Bearcats, who are coming off the close win
over the Pacific Boxers.
Link to Instant Analysis: http://wildcatspread40.blogspot.com/2012/11/linfield-vs-pudget-sound-instant.html
Link to Boxscore: http://www.linfield.edu/sports/stats/fb/ups1103.htm
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