The Pioneer football team fell 55-7 (box score) to the
Linfield Wildcats Saturday afternoon at Fred Wilson Field. Joevonte
Mayes had his third 100+ yard rushing performance of the season.
Linfield took their first posession 71 yards down field, scoring
on a three-yard rush by Reggie Ford, the first of his three rushing
touchdowns in the first quarter. Ford also capped a five-play,
42-yard drive with an 8-yard TD run, followed by a five-yard run
that ended a six-play, 55-yard drive to give the Wildcats a 21-0
lead at the end of the first quarter.
The Wildcats did not find the end zone again until the end of
the first half. Quarterback Cole Bixenman, getting the start for
the Wildcats, hit Simon Lamson for a 20-yard completion, followed
by back-to-back long tosses to Gunn Cederberg, one for 36 and one
for 20, to give the Wildcats a first and goal with 41 seconds left
in the half. Ash Gibson punched the ball in from two-yards out to
put the Wildcats up 28-0 at the half.
In the second half, kicker Scott Birkhofer put on a kicking
clinic. After missing a pair of long field goals in the first half,
Birkholfer was dead on in the second half, hitting a 52-yarder
followed by a booming 56-yarder to put the Wildcats up 51-0.
The Wildcats scored another TD in the fourth, with a pass from
the second QB of the day, Andy Hunthausen to wide receiver Davd
Hurn for 14 yards for the score, giving the Wildcats a 48-0 lead.
The Pioneers' lone touchdown came on their next possession. The
Pioneers twice fumbled during the drive, but had one fumble erased
on a penalty and lineman Curtis Smith (junior, Santa Margarita,
Calif.) recovering the other to keep the drive alive. The Pioneers
went to the legs of Joevonte Mayes (sophomore, Milwaukie, Ore.) for
their sucess, with Mayes carrying the ball six times on the drive,
picking up 72 rushing yards including an 11-yard run into the end
zone for his third tocuhdown of the season.
Linfield's final score was a six-yard pass from their third QB
of the day, Ryan Cook to Joey Catania for the 55-7 final.
Linfield had 509 yards of total offense in the game, with their
quarterbacks going 16-24 with two touchdowns and no
interceptions.Cole Bixenman was 8-13 for 169 yards. The Wildcats
had a balanced attack with 239 rushing yards and 270 passing, with
no single player eclipsing the 100-yard mark. Simon Lamson led the
Wildcats in rushing with 10 carries for 81 yards. Reggie Ford had
eight carries, three for touchdowns, for 67 yards. Gunn Cederbeg
had five catches for 77 yards.
For the Pioneers, quarterback AJ Brown (senior, Vancouver,
Wash.) was just 6-22 passing for 37 yards. Joevonte Mayes had his
third 100+ rushing yard performance of the season, netting 118
yards on 20 carries.
The Wildcats' tackles were distributed among 31 defenders with
no one amassing more than four tackles. Chris Cassell had their
only sack.
For the Pioneers, Eddie Pallett (junior, Honolulu, Hawaii) led
the team with ten tackles (two solo, eight assisted). The Pioneers
had two sacks of Linfield quarterbacks in the game, with Jared
Berglund (senior, Gresham, Ore.) and Disan Suarez (sophomore,
Calipatria, Calif.) each with an emphatic takedown. Berglund had
three additiong tackles-for-a-loss in addition to the sack as well
as a forced fumble.
With the victory, Linfield improves to 4-1 on the season and 3-0
in the NWC. The Pioneers fall to 1-5 and 0-3 in Conference play.
The Pioneers have a bye week next week. They play their home
finale on Saturday, November 1 when they take on the Menlo Oaks at
Fred Wilson Field. Kickoff is at 1 pm.
