PORTLAND, Ore. -- A week after dropping its 2021 opener, the Lewis & Clark Pioneers (1-1) returned home to defeat the Whittier Poets (0-3) behind four rushing touchdowns from Dyontae Navarrete, 66-14. 

The Pios wasted little time scoring as Navarrete punched the ball in three times in the first quarter and led the Pios to a 21-7 lead by the end. Cruz Montana connected with Elijah McGee with 7:39 left in the first half to extend the lead to 28-7 before a late field goal by Huxley Richardson made it 31-7 at the break. Montana would finish 11-22 with one touchdown pass.

The second half featured the same scoring deluge as the first as Navarrete scored twice more, Tony Rangel added a rushing touchdown and Marcelo Lopez caught a touchdown from Thairen Sivongsa.

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Key Moments 

In all, Navarrete's four rushing touchdowns were the most in a game for the Pioneers since 2013 when Keith Welch ran for four scores on October 5 in a 60-30 win over Puget Sound. While Navarrete was responsible for the 21-7 Lewis & Clark lead after the first quarter, the third saw the biggest offensive team effort when the Pioneers put 28 points on the board. Navarrete started the quarter with a one-yard run to the endzone just shy of two minutes into play. Veteran wide receiver Aidan Verba-Hamilton built momentum in a big way when he ran a punt-return 53-yards to score and was followed up just shy of a minute later by a 36-yard interception return by Josef Gonzalez. Rangel closed out the quarter for the Pioneers on a one-yard run with :57 on the clock. 

The Pio defense flexed its muscles all game as nine players recorded at least three tackles en route to allowing only 53 rushing yards. The defense also intercepted two passes and broke up eight.

Deeper Look 

• Saturday's 66 points were the third-most points scored in school history for the Pioneers
• Navarrete made his debut with the Pioneers against Claremont on Sept. 11 where he rushed for 26 yards and tops the leaderboard in rushing yards with 94.5 per game
• Anakin Mares set a new career-high with seven tackles per game 
• The Pioneers played all their quarterbacks in the span of the game
• The Pioneers earned 10 points off of turnovers and had 29 first downs to the Poets' eight
• McGee caught his career first touchdown
• Gonzalez's scoring play was also his career-first interception
• Ari Blemur logged his first career sack
• Mares and Tanner Ono lead the team in tackles with eight each

Looking Ahead

The Pioneers hit the road for their next game to play Whitworth on Sat., Oct. 2.