WHITTIER, Calif. - The Whittier College defense
forced four turnovers, which includes three interceptions, and held
Pomona-Pitzer to just 4-of-13 conversions on third down but it
wasn't enough as the Sagehens escaped Memorial Stadium with a 15-7
win in front of a homecoming crowd of 1441.
The Poets (2-4, 0-3 SCIAC) had five chances in the redzone to
put points on the board but missed two field goals and turned the
ball over three times. On two separate occasions, sacks pushed the
offense back and led to the redzone miscues.
On Whittier's first possession, Douglas
Lawson's fourth and 16-yard pass was intercepted in the
endzone. The Poets got as close as the 19-yardline but a sack on
second and 11 pushed the Poets out of field goal range.
In the second quarter Whittier faced a second and one from the
Pomona 14-yardline but back-to-back sacks forced a fourth and long
from the 30. Lawson's pass found Giovanni Stanley
who had the ball jarred lose well short of the first down marker.
On Whittier's final drive of the first half it reached the
Pomona 16-yardline but a missed 42-yard field goal which ended the
possession. Pomona, once again, was aided by a sack on second down.
The Poets trailed 13-7 at halftime.
The Sagehens (4-2, 2-1 SCIAC) took the opening possession 60
yards on nine plays to go up 7-0. Quarterback Jacob Caron found
Luke Sweeney for the eight-yard scoring strike.
The Poets were on the brink of going down by two scores but
Tyson Schilling forced a fumble at the one-yard
line that was recovered by Giovanni Salinas in the
endzone. Whittier needed only 11 seconds to tie the score as
Lawson hooked up with Stanley for an 80-yard scoring strike with
1:26 to play in the first quarter.
Pomona used a 65-yard pass, late in the second quarter, to set
up its second score. Whittier forced Pomona to a fourth and goal at
the one-yard line but Caron dove into the endzone on a sneak to
give Pomona the halftime lead.
Travis Driskell blocked the extra point.
Both offenses were shutout in the second half. Pomona added a
safety just 1:04 into the fourth quarter en route to the
eight-point win.
Eddy Newton led the defensive attack for
Whittier with 10 tackles, 1.5 for loss, and one interception.
Brandon Johnson and Josh Lomeli
each picked off Caron.
Whittier ran 59 plays and gained 243 yard of offense. Pomona
totaled 403 yards of offense on 70 plays. Penalties plagued the
Poets as it had 10 for 119 yards.
The Poets return to action next weekend as they travel to face
La Verne at 1 pm.
Photo by: Tony Leon/Action West Photography
