Oct. 25, 2006

FOOTBALL: Lutes Face Winless Lewis & Clark on the Road

THIS WEEK: Pacific Lutheran at Lewis & Clark, Saturday, 1 p.m.

RECORDS: Pacific Lutheran is 2-5 overall and 2-2 in the Northwest Conference. The Lutes opened the season with non-conference losses at home to Cal Lutheran (17-14) and Wisconsin-River Falls (24-17) and on the road to Chapman (42-25). In Northwest Conference games they have won twice on the road (32-28 against Puget Sound and 34-10 against Menlo) and lost twice at home (19-7 against Whitworth and 44-21 against Linfield). Lewis & Clark comes into the game with a 0-6 overall record and a 0-3 mark in the Northwest Conference. The Pioneers have non-conference losses to Occidental (49-7), Pomona-Pitzer (38-20) and Colorado College (46-3) and conference losses to Menlo (38-28), Whitworth (70-3) and Puget Sound (70-14).

SERIES HISTORY: This Saturday’s game marks the 41st meeting between the Lutes and Pioneers. PLU holds a 30-9-1 series advantage and has won the last 11 straight games between the schools. The series started with a 0-0 tie in 1947. PLU’s 62-6 win in Portland in 2000 marks the largest victory margin in PLU football history. The last Lewis & Clark win in the series came by a 36-35 score in 1989.

THE COACHES: Scott Westering is in his third season as PLU’s head coach and has an 11-14 overall record. He previously was an assistant coach for 23 years – 21 as the offensive coordinator – under his father, Frosty Westering. Scott Westering was a three-year letterman and an All-America tight end at PLU after transferring from UCLA, and he was a member of the 1980 NAIA Division II national championship team. Chris Sulages is in his first season as head coach at Lewis & Clark after servicing as an assistant coach for three seasons.

LAST MEETING: The teams did not play in 2005 because Lewis & Clark cancelled the Northwest Conference portion of its schedule. In 2004, the Lutes defeated the Pioneers, 42-0, at Griswold Stadium on the Lewis & Clark College campus. The Lutes scored three rushing touchdowns in the first quarter and cruised from there. PLU had 484 yards of offense to just 142 for the Pioneers. Halfback Anthony Canger, then a freshman, gained 99 rushing yards on 12 carries for the Lutes.

LUTES LAST WEEK: Trevor Scharer passed for 291 yards and four touchdowns and Scott Birkhofer tied a Linfield school record with five field goals as the visiting Wildcats defeated the Pacific Lutheran Lutes, 44-21, in a Northwest Conference football game at Sparks Stadium. Scharer, a junior quarterback, connected with Tyler Kaluza on three of his scoring passes. Scharer’s other touchdown pass may have been the proverbial nail in the coffin. Following a big Linfield defensive stand deep in their own end of the field, Scharer found Travis Masters behind the secondary, the play going for 87 yards and a score with just 58 seconds left before halftime. That score gave the Wildcats a 28-7 lead at the intermission. Birkhofer’s big day tied him with Andy Ward and Ryan Cruz for most field goals in a game by a Linfield kicker. Ward set the record on Nov. 15, 1997 against Eastern Oregon, and Cruz tied it Nov. 3, 2001 against Whitworth. The game was a sloppy affair with the Lutes turned the ball over seven times and Linfield giving the ball away five times. Both teams threw four interceptions. The Lutes took a 7-3 lead in the first quarter after PLU defensive end Andrew Eisentrout (Olympia, Wash. / Olympia HS) made a spectacular diving interception to give the Lutes the ball at the Linfield 42-yard line. Junior receiver Chase Reed (Orting, Wash. / Orting HS) ran left, broke a tackle, then cut back to right and raced into the end zone to put the Lutes on top. Linfield then scored 41 unanswered points, 20 coming directly as a result of three PLU fumbles and an interception. Trailing 44-7, the Lutes added a pair of big-play fourth quarter touchdowns. The first came on a 75-yard pas from senior quarterback Chris Maine (Lynnwood, Wash. / Edmonds-Woodway HS) to junior receiver Craig Chiado (Albuquerque, NM / St. Pius X HS), and the other on a 38-yard interception return by junior defensive end Robert Thomsen (Olympia, Wash. / Timberline HS). Linfield finished the game with 453 yards of total offense, including 328 through the air. Kaluza had six catches for 97 yards and three touchdowns and Josh Vierra added four catches for 66 yards. Drew Ragan led Linfield’s running game with 64 yards on eight carries. The Wildcats had 7 ½ minutes more possession time than the Lutes. For the Lutes, Maine came off the bench to complete 6-of-13 passes for 147 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. Reed had 47 rushing yards and 34 receiving yards on three catches, while Chiado had five catches for 130 yards. Defensively for PLU, senior rlinebacker Jon Hergert (Seattle, Wash. / Evergreen HS) finished with 13 tackles, while Eisentrout had four tackles for loss and a quarterback sack among his 11 tackles.

PIONEERS LAST WEEK: Lewis & Clark gave up a school-record 70 points for the second straight Saturday as the Puget Sound Loggers established their own school single-game scoring record in a 70-14 victory. Quarterback AJ Brown threw touchdown passes of six yards to wide receiver Michael Anchustegui and 35 yards to receiver Mike Wennerlind for Lewis & Clark.

PLU BY THE NUMBERS: PLU comes into the game averaging 21.5 points and 307.3 yards – including 242.1 passing – per game while giving up an average of 26.3 points and 330.4 yards per contest. While the PLU offense has turned the ball over 27 times, nearly four times a game, the Lutes defense has been opportunistic with 23 takeaways. Individually, quarterback Brett Gordon has completed 101-of-184 passes 1,317 yards with 10 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Craig Chiado is the leading receiver with 51 catches for 807 yards and six touchdowns. Chase Reed has 30 catches for 410 yards and three scores, and he leads the running attack with 64 carries for 246 yards and four touchdowns. Defensively, linebacker Chad Blau (Puyallup, Wash. / Puyallup HS) leads the Lutes with 58 tackles and 13 tackles for loss. Jon Hergert has 56 tackles, and Andrew Eisentrout has 55 tackles, 16 tackles for loss (73 yards), nine quarterback sacks (57 yards), two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery and one interception.

LEWIS & CLARK BY THE NUMBERS: The Pioneers average 12.5 points and 262.2 total yards – 226.7 yards passing – per game. They allow an average of 51.8 points and 470 yards per contest. Sophomore quarterback AJ Brown has completed 115-of-226 passes for 1,178 yards with six touchdowns and four interceptions. Senior receiver Brandon Zerr-Smith has 51 receptions for 443 yards and junior receiver Mike Wennerlind had 17 catches for 277 yards and five touchdowns. Senior running back Ryan Osborne leads the ground game with 175 yards on 53 carries. Defensively, sophomore linebacker Kevin Takeno has 51 tackles and junior defensive end Erik Gerwick has three quarterback sacks.

SCORING STREAK: Going all the way back to the 1979 postseason, Pacific Lutheran has scored in 296 consecutive games. The last time a PLU football team did not score in a game was 1979 when the Lutes dropped a 9-0 decision at Findlay (Ohio) during the second round of the NAIA Division II national playoffs. You’d have to go all the way back to 1969 to discover the last time that the Lutes did not score in a regular season game. That season, they dropped a 20-0 decision to Puget Sound in the fifth game.

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