Gragnano to Start for Chapman

Quarterback Curtis Robinson may have had the most impressive performance in Chapman football history last Saturday, but he won’t get the start tonight in the Panthers’ home opener against Claremont-Mudd.

Robinson, who accounted for more than half of Chapman’s total offense and all of its touchdowns in a 30-13 victory over Whittier, suffered a mildly separated shoulder on the second play of the game. He practiced sparingly this week and his status is day to day, Chapman Coach Ken Visser said.

That means Todd Gragnano will start. Gragnano played in three series during the Whittier game, completing six of 13 passes for 87 yards.

He led the Panthers on a short drive that ended with a 27-yard field goal by Bill Hamlin in the second quarter and moved the ball from the Panther 20 to the Whittier two-yard line before the drive stalled.

On second and goal from the five, Dave Poltl caught Gragnano’s pass but was knocked out of the end zone. Hamlin’s 22-yard field goal attempt was blocked.

Most of the night, Gragnano, a former Los Alamitos standout who played at Nebraska, was relegated to watching Robinson. Robinson passed for 171 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 101 yards and two more scores.

“Robinson was hot and you don’t want to mess that up,” Visser said. “When someone’s on a roll, you let him keep going.”

Whoever is playing quarterback figures to test Claremont-Mudd, which gave up 453 yards in total offense in a 37-34 loss to Cal Lutheran on Saturday. The Stags, however, are much improved over last season when they went 1-6-1 and ended 22-game losing and 25-game winless streaks.

Quarterback John Shipp, a former Westminster High and Golden West College player, gained 428 yards in total offense against Cal Lutheran. He passed for 377 yards and four touchdowns and rushed for 51 yards, including a one-yard touchdown that gave the Stags a 34-30 lead late in the game.

Notes

An overflow crowd is expected for the 7 p.m. game against Claremont-Mudd. The stadium holds about 2,500 and all the tickets were sold by noon Friday. . . . President Jim Doti, Trustees George Argyros and Ernie Chapman, who played for the last Panther football team in 1932, are scheduled to perform the ceremonial coin toss before the game.