WHITTIER, Calif. - The Cal Lutheran football team kicked off Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) competition on a positive note, defeating Whittier 34-24 on the road on Saturday night.
Nick Isham led the way with his arm and with his legs for the Kingsmen, completing 12-of-19 passes for 153 yards and one touchdown, while rushing for a team-high 127 yards and a score. Running back Ricky Johnson was instrumental in the win as well, rushing for two touchdowns and adding 55 yards on the ground.
The Kingsmen did not waste any time as they reached the endzone on their opening drive. Isham led the offensive attack straight through the Poet defense with a 7-play 70-yard drive. Sean Bellotti had a 25-yard reception to put the ball in scoring range, and a Whittier penalty brought CLU within the 10-yard line. From there, Isham rushed eight yards for the touchdown and the 6-0 lead.
Defensive end Anthony Monroe shut down the Poets on their opening drive forcing a three-and-out, as he recorded back-to-back tackles including a sack on the quarterback. The Poets would just manage a field goal later in the quarter to bring the score to narrow the CLU lead 6-3.
At the start of the second quarter, David Rico stepped in behind center and led the Kingsmen down the field. He completed a 10-yard pass to Bellotti to start the drive, and then CLU ran 11 straight rushing plays to advance the ball down the field. Jordan De Leon, Ronny Camacho, Rico and Johnson all had carries on the drive and Johnson eventually punched the ball in for a 1-yard touchdown rush.
After a successful field goal from the Poets to bring the score to 13-6, Johnson returned the kickoff 62 yards to put the Kingsmen in the redzone. Taking his turn as quarterback, Isham completed a 15-yard pass to Andrew Worthley on the second play of the drive for the touchdown.
Cal Lutheran would hold Whittier to just three field goals in the first half and head in to the locker room with a 20-9 lead.
In the second half, the momentum shifted towards the way of the Poets as they used a 6-play 63-yard drive to score a touchdown in the 3rd quarter, and would hold the Kingsmen scoreless throughout the quarter.
Whittier scored early in the 4th quarter on a 65-yard passing play to give them the lead 24-20. There was enough time, however, for CLU to start a comeback.
With 7:39 left in the game, Isham willed his way down the field breaking off a huge 25-yard run from the CLU 31 yard-line into Whittier territory. Isham carried the ball three more times on the drive, including a clutch 11-yard run on 3rd down with nine yards to go. At the goal line, Johnson ran the ball in for his second touchdown of the game and gave the Kingsmen the 27-24 lead.
With 4:00 minutes on the clock, the Violet and Gold forced the Poets to punt behind a strong defensive effort from Steven David, who sacked the quarterback on 3rd down.
For good measure, with 53 seconds left in the game De Leon broke off on a 16-yard rush to give Cal Lutheran a 34-24 advantage which they would hold on to for the win.
CLU held the edge in total yards for the game 461-448 and out rushed the Poets 280-129. The Kingsmen also went 8-of-17 on third downs while Whittier was 7-of-18. Bellotti led Cal Lutheran with 92 receiving yards and Jojo Curiel added three catches for 42 yards.
Defensively, Trevor Roe and Robert Foy led the way with eight tackles apiece, while Lucas Quinn had seven. Roe added 1.5 tackles to force a loss and Foy had two to force a loss to lead the team.
Cal Lutheran (1-2, 1-0 SCIAC) squares off in a big game next Saturday Oct. 11 at 7:00 p.m. against Redlands on the road.
Box Score: CLU 34 WC 24
CLU Twitter: https://twitter.com/clusports
Follow Coach McEnroe: @CLUCoachMac
CLU Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clusports
CLU Instagram: http://instagram.com/clusports#
CLU Football Tumblr: http://clufootball.tumblr.com
