USD Loses Its Highest-Scoring Game Ever

If it’s points and statistics you want in a college football game, you had to look west and north of San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium on Saturday.

There, in a quaint region called Alcala Park, Occidental and the University of San Diego combined for 83 points and 924 yards in a thrill-a-minute contest played in front of 2,102 at Torero Stadium.

The final: Occidental 48, USD 35.

It was the most points scored in 30 years of Torero football, and the most points scored against USD since 1989.

“That doesn’t surprise me,” USD Coach Brian Fogarty said. “It must have been a hell of a game to watch, huh?”

Indeed, it was, but the Toreros’ first loss in five games, for all intents and purposes, eliminated any playoff hopes they might have had. USD is now 5-2-1 with games remaining against Pomona Pitzer and Menlo College.

Saturday’s combined scoring record broke the mark set last week when USD beat Azusa Pacific, 42-35, in a game USD senior fullback Scott Sporrer broke the school career rushing record.

In his final home game, Sporrer rushed for 128 yards and two touchdowns in 29 carries.

Senior quarterback Michael Bennett and sophomore running back Michael Henry also had outstanding numbers.

Bennett completed 15 of 26 passes for 220 yards and three touchdowns without an interception. He’s thrown only three all year.

Henry caught seven of those passes for 135 yards. In seven previous games, Henry had three receptions for 34 yards.

El Camino graduate Brian Madlangbayan led the Tigers (4-2) with 111 rushing yards and two touchdowns in 11 attempts, and seven other carriers combined to give the Tigers’ 403 rushing yards.

USD has failed to hold an opponent to fewer than 13 points in every game this season.

After falling behind 41-21 early in the fourth quarter, USD scored two touchdowns to make it 41-35 with 5:31 left. For a moment, it appeared USD would take its third come-from-behind victory this season, but the Toreros couldn’t keep Occidental out of the end zone.

LaRonce Henderson’s seven-yard touchdown with 39 seconds left sealed the victory for Occidental.

“We got stopped on a couple of possessions when we shouldn’t have,” Bennett said. “That hurt. You can’t blame the defense for this one. We gave up the ball and put them in bad positions a couple of times.”

Said Fogarty: “We made more mistakes in this game than we’ve made in probably four weeks. We gave them the ball way too many times.”

Both sides proved early they could run on one another, each scoring a touchdown in the first six minutes and putting up 34 points by halftime.

There were only 11 pass attempts in the first half, but three of those went for touchdowns.

Occidental drove 74 yards in its first nine plays and took a 7-0 lead on an eight-yard pass from Erik Messal to Gary Little.

USD tied it on an eight-yard pass from Bennett to Sporrer two minutes later, after a fumble by Messal on the Tiger nine-yard line. USD’s Daniel Furleigh recovered the fumble, one of two for him.

A pair of Madlangbayan two-yard touchdown runs gave Occidental a 20-7 lead, before USD capped a 59-yard, 12-play, 6:09 drive with a 16-yard touchdown pass from Bennett to Scott Steingrebe.