LOS ANGELES, Calif. (Oct. 27, 2007) - An
undefeated conference season was on the line for both teams tonight
as the Occidental Tigers hosted Southern California Intercollegiate
Athletic Conference foe Cal Lutheran at D.W. Patterson Field
tonight.
Two injury plagued teams took the field to
battle it out for the top spot in the conference. Cal Lutheran got
on the board early and often, taking a commanding 23-3 half time
lead and continued to dominate the second half, adding 30 points en
route to a 43-25 upset of the #14 ranked Tigers.
Late in the first quarter Neil
Martin got the Tigers on the board with a 22 yard field
goal. Occidental started strong in the second half, scoring on its
first two possessions. Joey Coverson scored both
third quarter touchdowns, cutting the Tigers' deficit to
23-17. Once again, however, the Kingsmen rallied back with two
touchdowns of their own.
Leading 36-17 with 12:52 remaining Cal
Lutheran senior defensive end Josh Richards intercepted Oxy's
Justin Goltz, running it back for a 16 yard
insurance touchdown.
Occidental was credited with a safety to add
two more with 4:02 in the fourth quarter. After Goltz went down for
the second time in the game, senior quarterback Danny
Soutwick re-entered and threw a six yard pass to Coverson,
who again found the end zone. It was too little, too late for the
Tigers as time expired.
CLU quarterback RJ Benedict finished the game
20-33 with three touchdowns and one interception. Benedict
completed a 68 yard TD pass to junior Jesse Matlock, the longest on
the night. Matlock tallied 163 yards on eight catches, including
two touchdowns while Louis Montano also added two touchdowns for
CLU, both first half rushing TDs.
Richards was a defensive nuisance all night
for the Kingsmen with six solo tackles, 4.5 sacks for a loss of 27
yards and an interception, returned for a touchdown to clinch the
game for the Kingsmen.
The Occidental offense converted 31 first
downs and had 427 total offensive yards. Unfortunately for the
Tigers they were only 6-20 on third down conversions and 4-8 on
fourth down tries. Oxy managed to score in four of their six red
zone opportunities though.
Goltz was 33-58 passing for 302 yards and two
touchdowns, but was sacked nine times and picked off twice.
Southwick turned in an 8-13 performance for 79 yards and one TD.
Jason Haller led the running
game for Oxy with 147 yards. Receiving, Rocky
Ciasulli caught 15 passes to total 104 yards. Coverson and
Chris Washington each finished with seven catches
for 89 and 32 yards respectively. Washington also recorded 121
yards on kickoff returns, including a 32 yard gain late in the
third quarter. Jason Lehman caught the longest
pass of the day, a 40 yarder from Southwick.
Punting for Oxy was done well again as
Alex Groh punted four times, averaging 50.8 yards
per attempt.
Defensively James Leonard led
the Tigers with 7.0 tackles and he also broke up a play.
Daniel Tromello finished with 6.0 and
Patrick Sarkissian had 5.5. Each of these three
players had five solo stops. JD Ciasulli recorded
the only Occidental interception of the game. Tommy
Andre broke up a pair of plays tonight as well.
The last time the Tigers were defeated by the
Kingsmen was 2002. The loss breaks the Tigers' 32-game
regular season winning streak that dated back to the 2004 season.
Homecoming festivities will take place next
week at Patterson Field when the Tigers host the Chapman University
Panthers at 1:00 p.m.
