Kingsmen Good, Bad and Ugly in Defeating Claremont-Mudd

As Coach Scott Squires of Cal Lutheran said after the game, “a win’s a win.”

Despite committing 12 penalties, having two punts blocked in the fourth quarter and having three passes intercepted, the Kingsmen won their second consecutive game by defeating Claremont-Mudd on Saturday, 31-21.

Cal Lutheran (2-3, 2-0 in conference play) moved to within one-half game of first place La Verne in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Before a homecoming crowd of 1,916, the Kingsmen used a season-high 309 yards rushing and a defense that recorded five sacks, to defeat the Stags (4-2, 1-2).

It was Cal Lutheran’s sixth consecutive homecoming victory.

Squires realizes there still is room for improvement.

“The blocked punts, penalties, and turnovers have to be eliminated,” Squires said. “After our third game, we told the kids, ‘Christmas is over.’ We need to stop giving the ball away.”

The ground game was spearheaded by junior Dorian Stitt, who had 12 carries for 165 yards and two touchdowns, and senior George Keiaho, who rushed 21 times for 111 yards and a touchdown.

Stitt, who battled the flu during the game, gave the Kingsmen a 31-21 lead on a 65-yard touchdown run with 9:30 to play.

“The offensive line made some great blocks at the line, I side-stepped one guy and kept running,” said Stitt. “I thank God I had enough strength to make it to the end zone.”

Added Squires: “Dorian is a Kingsmen all the way through. He has a great character and has done more for this program in three years than I can tell you.”

The Kingsmen limited the Stags, who were averaging 337 yards per game, to 263 yards and forced quarterback Bryan Banta into his first pass interception of the season.

Junior linebacker Derrick Norris made one of the game’s biggest defensive plays, stuffing running back Ryan Mele for a three-yard loss on fourth and one from the Kingsmen 38 with 2:54 remaining in the game.

“We went over their short yardage plays in practice and we knew what they would do,” Norris said. “I was just hustling and trying to make plays.”

Chris Czernek’s 23-yard touchdown pass to freshman Kyle Hanson with 36 seconds left gave the Kingsmen a 17-13 halftime lead.

Keiaho ran eight times for 40 yards on the first possession of the second half and scored from the one to stretch the lead to 24-13.

The Stags’ first blocked punt set up Banta’s eight yard touchdown pass to Josh Walter with 12:35 left. The pair’s ensuing two-point conversion cut the lead to 24-21.

The Kingsmen responded with Stitt’s 65-yard touchdown on the next possession to up the lead to 10.