Turnovers Prove Costly for Sagehen Football
By Ezekiel Pfeifer
Sports Associate

The Sagehens suffered a tough loss in their penultimate game of the season, dropping 9-7 to Redlands. The loss brings the Pomona-Pitzer football team to 5-3 overall for the season and 3-2 in SCIAC, while Redlands went to 5-2 overall and an undefeated 4-0 in SCIAC play. The Hens played extremely well defensively, keeping Redlands out of the end zone the entire game, but the P-P offense could never get rolling, despite a 235 yard rushing performance by running back Jonathan Samples ’04.

“The four offensive turnovers in scoring territory really hurt us in the game, as did some difficult and questionable calls by the referees,” remarked head coach Roger Caron, following the game. “But it went down to the wire and overall was an excellent college football game. We played as well as possible.”

The visiting Sagehens kept Redlands scoreless throughout the first quarter and only allowed two field goals in the second quarter, keeping the score at 6-0 Redlands going into halftime. The third quarter mirrored the first quarter in many respects, with both teams going scoreless. Both teams did score, however, in the fourth quarter. P-P got in the end zone for the first time with a one-yard touchdown scramble by quarterback Cody Peterson ’07 and Redlands tacked on their third field goal of the game. This made rounded out the game to 9-7, Redlands.

“We totally out-played them. We just had a few stupid mistakes, namely turnovers,” said defensive back Jordon Stone ’07. “We had four turnovers in the game, and those really hurt us. The defense played an extraordinary game though, and it was awesome to have the only senior on defense, Jon Chock, get an interception.”

The loss at Redlands marks the end of the Sagehens’ hopes for a place in post-season play, since they had to win this past week to have any chance of making the Division III playoffs. This week’s loss was also the second in a row for P-P, marking the first multiple-game losing streak of the season for the Hens and dropping them from an impressive 5-1 to a record of 5-3.

With the win, Redlands took the lead in SCIAC with a 4-0 record in the conference. They play lowly Whittier this weekend so, barring a remarkable upset, they will most likely wrap up SCIAC and make their way to the DIII playoff tournament.

The Sagehens are currently fourth place out of eight teams in the SCIAC, with a 3-2 conference record. P-P can improve their final placing if they win in their final game of the season, an away game against rivals Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. CMS has a 2-1 SCIAC record and a 4-2 record overall, currently putting them in third place in the SCIAC, right above the Hens.

The game against CMS will be a battle of intense rivalry and spirit, but neither team has a chance of making the playoffs at this point in the season. As a result, lack of meaningful motivation could be seen as a possible problem. Nevertheless, Caron is not concerned, saying, “No motivation from me is necessary. The game itself provides all needed motivation. The issue of playoffs is not important to me and of only relative importance to the team. Being competitive and playing hard each game is our goal at any given time.”

Stone agrees with his coach, saying, “It’s definitely motivation enough that we’re playing CMS on our last game. The rivalry has been built up enough, even for me as a freshman, that I’m very pumped for the game. Playoffs would have been nice, but we tried our hardest, and this game is still important to us.”

The CMS game will finish the season for the Hens who have already had an impressive season for such a young a squad of players. Caron coached the passionate players to victory over nationally-ranked opponents such as Trinity College and fought back after being down in a hard-fought game against Occidental.

The game against CMS will be played at CMC at 1:00 pm on Saturday; it promises to be an exciting match-up.