CLU Sports

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Trailing 7-3 midway through the first quarter the Cal Lutheran football team scored 42 unanswered points over a 38-minute span and cruised to a 48-14 victory at Pomona-Pitzer Colleges on Saturday.

Box Score: CLU 48, P-P 14 - F

Senior quarterback Jericho Toilolo threw for three touchdowns and 282 yards while senior running back Brian Stuart ran for 99 yards and the go-ahead touchdown in the first quarter.

Cal Lutheran was ranked 39th among NCAA Division III teams in scoring offense at 35.67 points per game entering play Saturday and scored more than 44 points for the third consecutive game.

The Kingsmen put up 551 yards of total offense surpassing their previous season high of 419 yards last week against Whittier College while the CLU defense limited the Sagehens to just 135 total yards, with 104 coming through the air.

Toilolo continued on his success from last season against the Sagehens when he threw for three scores and ran for another.

His top target for the second consecutive week was senior wide out Chris Hammond, who hauled in six catches for 100 yards including a 46-yard reception on CLU's opening drive that led to a 36-yard field goal by Jackson Damron for a 3-0 lead.

The Sagehens took their only lead of the game with 6:58 remaining in the first when quarterback Jacob Caron ran in from two yards out. That score was set up when CLU's Derek Wilson fumbled a punt and P-P took over at the Kingsmen 23 yard line.

That fumble was one of three CLU turnovers as Toilolo threw a pair of interceptions. The Kingsmen forced two turnovers on the day.

On the ensuing kickoff, Wilson took CLU into P-P territory at the 49 yard line. Toilolo ran for 21 yards then hit Matt O'Brien on a nine-yard pass and Stuart did the rest rushing for 16 yards on the next three plays to put CLU up 10-7.

Stuart now has seven rushing touchdowns on the season. Last season Kingsmen running backs scored eight touchdowns all year. With a two-yard touchdown run from senior Antoine Adams and a one-yard score by sophomore Darryl Carter on Saturday, CLU eclipsed last year's total with their ninth rushing touchdown by their backs four games into the season.

On Pomona's first possession of the second quarter Caron was intercepted by CLU's Garrett Redd on a deep pass at the CLU 10 and the senior safety returned it 56 yards to the Saghens 34. After a pair of first downs freshman wide receiver Eric Rogers caught a two-yard touchdown pass from Toilolo giving CLU a 17-7 lead.

The interception by Redd was a team-leading third on the season and the sixth of his career. The 56-yard return surpassed his previous career-long of 39-yards that he set on a defensive touchdown against Pacific Lutheran University earlier this season.

Toilolo threw touchdown passes of 16-yards and 26-yards to junior Christian Edwards and sophomore Matt Valley, respectively, in the second quarter.

The scoring strike to Valley came with 14 seconds to play and was setup by the Kingsmen defense. Senior defensive end Sawyer Merrilll sacked Caron on fourth-and-three giving the offense the ball back on the P-P 48 with 34 seconds left in the half.

From there it was a 10-yard pass to Christian Edwards, a 12-yard reception by freshman Matt O'Brien and then the touchdown grab by Valley.

Merrill had two sacks on the day for result of 19 yards lost for the Sagehens and is now leading the defense with four sacks. Senior defensive back Victor Edwards added a sack, his second of the year.

Freshman defensive lineman Rian Younker, who had an interception return for a touchdown one week ago, was CLU's leader in tackles with six.

P-P's Caron scored from one-yard out on another rush with 10:33 left in the game and CLU's Damron completed the scoring for the game with a 46-yard field goal with less than three minutes remaining to account for the 48-14 final.

In the red zone the Kingsmen scored on six out of six trips while the Sagehens were only in the red zone twice but came away with a pair of touchdowns both times.

It was the fifth consecutive win over Pomona-Pitzer for CLU, with its last loss to the Sagehens coming in 2004.

Cal Lutheran (3-1, 2-0 SCIAC) will host Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges on homecoming weekend on Oct. 17 with kickoff slated for 1 p.m.