Looking at the statistics from Saturday’s football game versus La Verne, it would be easy to think that this was one hell of a game, one that might have come down to a final hail mary or a last-second field goal.

Visiting La Verne only outgained Pomona-Pitzer 286 yards to 228. They only had four more first downs than the Hens, and the Leopards had possession of the ball for only one minute and 46 seconds more than the home team. In fact, Pomona-Pitzer completed more passes than the Leopards and had a higher percentage of third down conversions.

In reality, however, the Sagehens were blown out by La Verne, 33-7, dropping their record to 1-4 on the season.

Sitting in the press box after the game, I simply could not figure out what went so wrong with the Orange and Blue. Then, I crunched some stats from the opening half.

In the first 30 minutes, Pomona-Pitzer had gained 199 yards, while La Verne had only amassed 150. Yet, at halftime, the Leopards led 17-7.

The discrepancy between yardage and points was a result of P-P’s mistakes and poor field position.

One costly miscue came in a scoreless game, 6:10 into the first quarter. Quarterback Matt LaCoss ’02 took the snap from his own 26 yard line on third-and-nine. He dropped back and looked to his right for receiver James Nachtwey ’02, but the ball was picked off by the Leopards on the P-P 37 yard line.

Despite two interceptions on the afternoon, LaCoss finished the game a solid 6 of 13 for 104 yards.

Four plays later, La Verne took a 7-0 lead on a one-yard touchdown by running back Aaron Karmann.

La Verne also took advantage of a strong kicking game. Punter Randy McGillivry and place kicker Flynn Turner consistently pinned Pomona-Pitzer in their own territory with huge kicks. Amazingly, in 11 total possessions, P-P never started a drive outside of their own 27 yard line.

This potent kicking game also put points on the board for the Leopards. With 12:40 left in the first half, La Verne took a 10-0 lead on a beautiful 42-yard field goal by Turner that cleared the cross bar by at least 10 yards.

After falling behind 17-0, Pomona-Pitzer put together an impressive 12-play, 80-yard drive for its lone score of the ball game.

Capping off the 6:17 drive was running back Jon Samples ’03, who went in the endzone untouched on a 1-yard run.

On the day, Samples ran 12 times for 62 yards. He was complemented in the back field by Arthur Pryzbyl ’05 (9 carries for 45 yards) and Jeremy Lim ’03 (10 carries for 30 yards).

"I had a nice game with a couple of good runs. The line did a great job in opening up holes for us," said Samples. Samples was also the leading receiver with four catches for 71 yards, including a 50-yard reception from LaCoss in the first quarter.

After halftime, however, the Sagehens were out of sync.

"We really killed ourselves with penalties. We just lost focus at the end," said Samples.

In the game, Pomona-Pitzer was flagged eight times for 80 yards. Several of those penalties negated huge plays and important first downs.

According to head coach Roger Caron, these mistakes "took the wind out of (Pomona-Pitzer’s) sails."

In the second half, the Hens had no kind of offensive rhythm and never moved the ball into La Verne territory. LV closed out the scoring with two rushing touchdowns and a safety.

Defensively, the Sagehens were led by lineman Bobby Boeche ’03 (19 tackles and 1 sack) and defensive back Joseph Cappola ’05 (12 tackles).

The 6’2", 225-pound Boeche has been solid for the Hens all season long, leading the team in both sacks and tackles.

"I’ve been having a good season, but it just goes by the wayside when the team doesn’t win," said Boeche.

According to the players, the major problems for the team have been their execution, consistency, and lack of size.

However, with three games remaining in the season, the young P-P squad is still optimistic about the remainder of the season, as well as the prospects for next year.

"If we win the rest of our games we can end with a .500 season, which would be impressive for having such a young team," said Boeche.

The team features only seven seniors, giving underclassmen high hopes for the seasons to come.

"We have a lot of young starters this year, and we will have a big senior class next season. I’m hoping we can get a good recruiting class next year. We need more size," said Samples.

Pomona-Pitzer hosts the University of Puget Sound Saturday, October 13 at 12:30 p.m.