Kingsmen Keep Rolling, Beat CMS 41-14
CLAREMONT, Calif. - With a 41-14 victory at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Saturday, the Cal Lutheran football team clinched at least a share of the SCIAC Championship. The Kingsmen put up 547 yards of total offense in the win while yielding just 222 total yards to the Stags.
The Kingsmen are ranked No. 22 in the latest D3football.com poll and No. 20 in the American Football Coaches Association coaches' poll.
Quarterback Jake Laudenslayer threw for 321 yards and four scores while running back Deme'Treck Chambers totaled 116 yards and a touchdown on the ground.
The Stags scored first on their initial drive of the game. After taking the opening kickoff, CMS went 75 yards on 13 plays behind its triple-option offense and took a 7-0 lead after a two-yard touchdown run from Alex Wheatley. CMS used 12 rushing plays to drive down the field.
CLU would even the score at 7-7 on its second possession. Laudenslayer completed five passes on the drive including a 29-yard scoring strike to Jake Speckhard.
Laudenslayer finished 17-for-22 and Speckhard had four catches for 68 yards and the first-quarter score. Eric Rogers led all receivers with 10 catches for 123 yards and two touchdowns.
On its next possession, CLU took a 10-7 advantage on a 20-yard field goal from Jackson Damron. The Kingsmen used 10 consecutive rushing plays to move the ball 54 yards downfield to setup the close field goal attempt.
Damron was 2-for-2 on the day, converting field goal attempts from 20 and 29 yards out.
With 5:29 to play in the second quarter, the Kingsmen went up by 10 after Laudenslayer found Rogers for a 4-yard touchdown.
After getting the ball back with just 1:13 to play in the half, CLU went 83 yards on seven plays and scored a touchdown as time expired when Laudenslayer hit Rogers again, this time for a 20-yard score.
Up 24-7 at the half, the Kingsmen offense was quick to continue its success in the second half. Laudenslayer completed a pass to Nick Wallin and the freshman wide receiver went in for a 77-yard touchdown to put CLU up 31-7. Wallin finished with two catches for 87 yards.
The Stags would respond with a fourth-and-one conversion deep into CLU territory on their next drive and later Wheatley scored from one yard out and cut the Kingsmen lead to 31-14.
Again the Kingsmen offense could not be stopped as Chambers accounted for 39 rush yards on the next drive including a six-yard touchdown dash, putting CLU out in front 38-14 and that was the score heading into the fourth quarter.
Chambers is the first back to reach the 100-yard mark on the ground against the Stags defense this season. Entering play Saturday, CMS had held its opponents to 73.5 yards per game on the ground and 83 yards is the most they had allowed to any individual.
Rian Younker forced a fumble and recovered it in the fourth quarter for the lone Kingsmen turnover of the game. Younker finished with five tackles for the game.
Jacob Norlock led all players with 14 tackles including six solo stops. Loren Powers made 12 tackles and Jordan Barta had nine. Jeff Miller was responsible for the only CLU sack on the day and he made eight tackles.
CLU was able to play its second unit and work on the clock for the fourth consecutive week and added a field goal in the middle of the fourth quarter to account for the 41-14 final.
With at least a share of the SCIAC crown clinched, CLU has now earned back-to-back conference championships for the first time in program history and has three in the last four years.
Cal Lutheran (6-1, 5-0 SCIAC) will host non-conference opponent Chapman on Saturday, Nov. 6 at 1 p.m. The regular season finale for the Kingsmen is set for Nov. 13 at home against Occidental, the final game played at Mt. Clef Stadium.
