Football Comes From Behind to Beat Oxy
By Ezekiel Pfiefer
Sports Associate

The Pomona-Pitzer football team came back from a 14-6 deficit on Saturday to defeat the previously unbeaten Occidental Tigers, 28-14. Quarterback Cody Peterson ’07 made his debut on Saturday, playing most of the second quarter and the entire second half to lead the Hens to victory. The surging Sagehens moved to 4-1 overall and 3-0 in SCIAC play with the win, landing them in the first place in the conference.

The home game against regional, conference, and historical rival Occidental started out as a low-scoring affair characterized by numerous punts and failed drives for both teams. After a touchdown on the third play of the game for Occidental, and an answering score by the Sagehens to make it 7-6, Oxy, there were seven straight possessions without any scoring. The missed extra point by kicker Andrew Floyd ’07 made this scoring drought seem all the more acute, leaving Sagehen fans to worry that 7-6 would be the final score.

The situation appeared worse for P-P when Occidental, due to a Pomona-Pitzer penalty, drove on a short field and got in the end zone for the second time that day, making the score 14-6 with a little under three minutes remaining in the first half. At this point, Peterson came in at quarterback and ran a trick play, a double reverse and then a pass, to take the Sagehens 40 yards downfield, giving the team hope of putting up more points before the half.

“I had no idea I was going to go in when I did,” said Peterson. “It was a spur of the moment thing; nothing planned. And once I got in there and completed a pass, that got my confidence up a little bit.”

This drive was thwarted, however, when Peterson threw an interception, finishing P-P’s last attempt to score again before halftime.

The third quarter began slowly, with each team making long drives downfield, but coming up with nothing to show for their efforts. Finally, with less than twenty seconds remaining in the quarter, running back Jonathon Samples ’04 punched through the Oxy defense for a one-yard touchdown. To top this off, the Sagehens ran an extra-point-attempt-fake, throwing to get the two-point conversion and tie the score at 14-14.

From this point, the momentum swung in the Sagehens direction for the rest of the game. With less than six minutes to play, Samples ran for an incredible 55-yard touchdown to put the Hens up 21-14. Shortly thereafter, defensive back Joseph Cappola ’05 intercepted an Occidental pass and the Sagehens drove for a decisive fourth touchdown, reaching the final score of 28-14.

After the game, head coach Roger Caron commented on the comeback victory and how the team plays when coming from behind, saying, “We’ve been behind every game this year, so for whatever reason, we feel more comfortable playing from behind. Nobody on the team panics and it doesn’t seem to be a problem. We need to stop giving up the third-play-touchdown, which we did this game, but we’re working on that.”

Saturday’s game marked the emergence of a future star for the Pomona-Pitzer football team, Peterson, and contained an outstanding performance by a senior member of the team, Samples, melding the untried with the experienced to form a potent offensive force.

Peterson played for the first time this year and, with the exception of the first drive jitters, shined. He led the offense in the second half like a pro, completing 9 of 14 pass attempts for 107 yards and running for 27 yards, including a 17 yard scramble near the goal line.

Coach Caron discussed Peterson’s place on the Pomona-Pitzer squad: “Cody’s a good football player,” he said. “He’s an excellent athlete. Justin’s been great for out team, but we needed a spark and Cody was that spark this game. Justin’s still the starter and Cody is still young and learning, but it worked out well this game.”

Peterson stayed modest about his performance, giving most of the credit to his teammate, running back Samples. “I didn’t really lead the team to victory; Jon did. I just handed the ball off to him and the offensive line opened up huge holes for him.”

When the offensive line opened big holes for Samples, he took advantage of them in a big way. The senior running back ran for 191 yards on 32 carries, rushing for touchdowns three of those times. Samples rushed practically the entire first scoring drive of the game for the Sagehens; later, he broke the Occidental defense to run 55 yards downfield and score the Hens’ third touchdown of the game, giving them the lead, 21-14.

Pomona-Pitzer is in an ideal position for their final four games of the regular season, with a 4-1 overall record and a SCIAC leading 3-0 conference record. The Hens take on the non-conference opponent University of Chicago next weekend, setting up a final three game run of conference games against Cal Lutheran, Redlands, and bitter rival Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.