Sept. 18, 2007

FOOTBALL: 2-0 Lutes Face Chapman Saturday in 2007 Home Opener

THIS WEEK: Pacific Lutheran University vs. Chapman University at Sparks Stadium in Puyallup, Wash. at 1:30 p.m.

MATCHUP: Saturday’s game marks the sixth football meeting between the two teams. They first met in 2002, when PLU defeated Chapman 35-10 in Orange, Calif. The Lutes are 4-1 overall against Chapman, with the one loss coming last season.

Chapman is 1-0 this season, beating Menlo 24-7 at home on Sept. 8. The Panthers limited the Oaks to 130 total yards while gaining 346 yards on offense. Quarterback Luke Robinson had 278 passing yards, and Harrison Dull gained 98 yards on nine catches.

“Chapman’s a very good football team; they’re very athletic, they’re very explosive, they’re very aggressive. We’re really excited to open our home season against Chapman,” Head Coach Scott Westering said.

LAST YEAR: The Panthers scored on the first play from scrimmage when quarterback Eric Marty connected with Harrison Dull for a 71-yard touchdown pass. PLU got on the board for the first time in the second quarter when Chase Reed caught a 24-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Brett Gordon.

The Panthers outscored the Lutes in the second half 21-12, finishing with a 45-25 home victory over the Lutes. Dull finished with 327 receiving yards and two touchdowns for Chapman, while Gordon threw for 381 yards and three touchdowns in the losing effort. The loss dropped the Lutes to 0-3 for the season.

LAST WEEK: The Lutes scored 28 points in the first quarter, and then held off a Wisconsin-River Falls comeback to win 48-37 in River Falls, Wisc., improving to 2-0 for the season.

Reigning Northwest Conference Offensive Player of the Week quarterback Brett Gordon threw for over 300 yards on 16-28 passing with four touchdowns. He also led the team with 49 rushing yards on 11 carries.

The Lutes finished a 63-yard, eight-play drive with a Craig Chiado 18-yard end around for the touchdown. Two Gordon touchdown passes, one to Chiado and one to junior tight end Monroe Samifua, put the Lutes ahead 21-7. On the last play of the first quarter, senior defensive back Jeff Ebel returned an interception 39 yards for the Lutes’ fourth touchdown of the period.

Leading 34-16 at halftime, Gordon hit senior wide out Reed from 15 yards out for his third passing touchdown of the game, finishing a 61-yard drive. A couple Falcons touchdowns narrowed the gap to 41-30, but Gordon’s second touchdown pass to Reed, this one for 76 yards, put the game out of reach.

PLU totaled 467 offensive yards, with Reed gaining 123 receiving yards on six receptions. Chiado finished with 84 yards on five catches to go with 35 rushing yards on only two carries. Linebacker Chad Blau led the defense with 15 tackles, 1.5 sacks, one fumble recovery and two pass deflections.

“From a confidence standpoint, we came out and did things that we really were hoping and wanting to do. They’re a very difficult defense to play, because of their scheme and what they do, and they’re not an easy team to read on what they are going to do, so for our guys to make the plays we did in the first half was great,” Westering said.

FACTS:
• Pacific Lutheran, 2-0 this season after road wins over Cal Lutheran and Wisconsin-River Falls, plays its first home game of the 2007 season Saturday. The Lutes have four home games in their nine-game schedule, including next Saturday’s Northwest Conference opener against Puget Sound.
• PLU has shown plenty of offensive firepower in its first two games, racking up 48 points in both contests (48-17 vs. Cal Lutheran and 48-37 vs. UW-River Falls). The Lutes are averaging 482 offensive yards per game: 201 on the ground and 281 in the air.
• Last season, PLU had the most takeaways among all Division III programs. After two games this year, the Lutes’ defense ranks 12th in the country with 10 takeaways: five interceptions and five fumble recoveries. PLU forced seven turnovers against Cal. Lutheran and three last week against UW-River Falls. The Lutes are allowing 363.5 yards per game: 89.5 on the ground and 274 in the air.
• The last time the Lutes started a season 2-0 was in 2004, after defeating Cal. Lutheran and UW-River Falls, same as this year. With a win against Chapman, PLU would be 3-0 for the first time since 2000, when they were coming off a season in which they won the NCAA Division III national Championship.

- PLU -