Occidental 28, Willamette 14
Nov 20, 2004
LOS ANGELES — First, the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference was given its first home playoff game in two decades. Then we found out it deserved it.Nov 20, 2004
By Keith McMillan, D3football.com
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Willamette
Andy Collins threw four touchdown passes and the Occidental defense gave up just one score as the Tigers defeated Willamette 28-14 to give the SCIAC its first NCAA playoff victory since 1985.
“I think it’s great not just for us, but for the SCIAC in general,” Occidental receiver Zac Sakowski said. “People think we’re just liberal arts schools with a bunch of smart kids who happen to play football.”
The Tigers, who earned the last SCIAC playoff victory with a home win over St. John’s, will travel to Concordia-Moorhead next week in the second round of the playoffs, skipping the Thanksgiving weekend at home and balmy November days in Southern California.
“It’ll be fun for our kids to see another part of the country,” said Occidental coach Dale Widolff, who was at the helm during the Tigers’ playoff appearances in the 1980s. “It’ll be interesting for them to play in 30-, 40-, 50-degree weather.”
With a blazing sun overhead on Saturday, Collins connected with Sakowski for a 71-yard catch-and-run one minute into the third quarter, and the defense came up with a goal-line stand in the fourth during the Tigers’ 14-0 second half.
“I give a ton of credit to Occidental,” said Willamette coach Mark Speckman, who brought his team south from the powerful Northwest Conference. “I think they played great, especially in the second half. We were just extremely sporadic.”
While the Tigers (10-1) were spreading the field for Collins to throw, Willamette had a hard time getting its touted Fly offense off the ground. Occidental put as many as nine players in the box, daring the Bearcats to pass, especially when starting quarterback Cameron Walton left with a shoulder injury.
Occidental didn’t pass efficiently, but they did make their best plays in the air.
On second-and-9 at the start of the third quarter, the 6-foot-2, 205-pound Collins checked out of a run play and zipped a pass to Sakowski in the left flat. Mike Winchell made a key block, and Sakowski broke the safety’s tackle and zoomed down the home sideline for a 21-14 lead with 13:59 to play in the quarter.
Collins said the audible was a halftime adjustment the Tigers wanted to use when the Bearcats’ outside linebackers showed blitz. On the touchdown, he caught them in one.
“That really set the tone of the second half,” he said.
On the second play of the fourth quarter, Willamette’s Michael Plank called for a fair catch on a punt deep into Bearcat territory. He fell to his knees and did not touch the ball, and no one chased it until Occidental downed it on the 15. After a brief delay, the officiating crew, from the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, ruled that it had touched a Bearcat and gave the Tigers a first down.
Three plays later, Collins hit Sakowski on a slant to give Occidental a two-touchdown lead.
Plank, Willamette’s punt returner and backup quarterback, threw a deep play-action pass on the Bearcats’ first play, but that was intercepted by Derek Turbin on the Tigers’ 8-yard line. Occidental followed with a fumble on its first play, and the Bearcats had four chances to cut the gap to one score.
Quentin Brock rumbled for four yards on the first play, and Plank fumbled the exchange on second down. Third down was an incompletion on a slant to Brett Meyer during which he and Turbin were tangled up but no penalty was called.
On fourth down, Occidental’s Norman Williams brought down Plank from behind to end the threat with 12:47 to play.
“Our guard missed a block, and No. 32 made a nice play,” Speckman said. “He kind of knifed through the line.”
Willamette got the ball back but once more, punting with 7:20 left and watching the Tigers run the clock out.
Occidental got on the board first, opening the game with an 11-play, 53-yard drive capped by Collins’ 13-yard TD pass to Josh Jones. Willamette tied the game later in the first quarter when Wesley Randall blocked an Occidental punt and Kevin Dean recovered in the end zone.
Jones hauled in a 38-yard TD pass from Collins six minutes before the half, and the Bearcats struck quickly just before the half, after Meyer caught a 20-yard pass from Walton on third-and-17. It took Willamette just three running plays to go 49 yards after that, but that appeared to be the only time the Fly worked effectively.
“Everyone all week was saying you can’t stop the Fly,” said Sakowski of Willamette’s motion and misdirection-based offense. “For the most part, our defense dominated the game.”
Widolff noted that Occidental had given up just 54 points in the first half all season. Most of the points scored against them had come late in blowouts.
Speckman, who felt his team was fortunate to make the playoff field, was very disappointed in their 10-penalty performance. Willamette (7-4) also had two turnovers, muffed a punt, fumbled exchanges and drew multiple facemask, illegal shift and pass interference calls.
“I don’t think we would’ve gotten here playing like that all year,” said Speckman, whose team played top-10 Mary Hardin-Baylor and Linfield in the regular season. “It’s a recipe for disaster when you don’t score in the red zone, all the calls don’t go your way and you shoot yourself in the foot. … We hurt ourselves, but Occidental hurt us too.”
Though they were banged up by a physical Willamette team, the Tigers won’t have to worry about hurt for at least another week. They earned Division III football in Southern California a little respect, and get another chance to do it next week.