REDLANDS – Cal Lutheran had not defeated the University of Redlands football team since 2012. The Bulldog players were pre-teens then.
SAN BERNARDINO – It was a perfect day for running Saturday, even if the results were not ideal for Redlands teams.
REDLANDS – Cal Lutheran had not defeated the University of Redlands football team since 2012. The Bulldog players were pre-teens then.
That made Saturday night’s Smudge Pot Game the ultimate trap game. And, boy, did the Bulldogs get trapped.
Cal Lutheran, aggressive and inspired, dominated Redlands in a 27-10 victory at Ted Runner Stadium. Then the Kingsmen (3-0 overall, 1-0 in conference) hoisted the smudge pot trophy to the delight of its whooping and hollering fans.
A smudge pot is an oil-burning device that was formerly used in this area to keep frost off citrus trees. Many Redlands residents have them on their porches – which could annoy Bulldog players at least until Oct. 25 when the teams meet again at Cal Lutheran.
This was the Southern California Collegiate Athletic Conference opener for both teams.
Redlands coach Jim Good was unhappy with his team’s turnovers and lack of execution.
“I don’t like losing,” Good angrily told his team after the game. “You need to figure it out.”
Said Good after addressing his team, “We talked a lot about being disciplined and being focused on our attitude and being focused on our assignments and our alignment and we weren’t tonight. A lot of that resulted in penalties. Taunting on the sideline – we talked about that. Missed assignments. Missed alignments. The offensive line having some issues with some assignments. The defensive line having some issues with assignments, and it created opportunities for the other team to make big plays. Do your job. It’s as simple as that.”
Asked if Cal Lu seemed more into the game, Good said, “Yes. But we talked about that too. There were two teams that played tonight and both of them were 2-0, but one had a serious cause because of an 11-season streak of losing. One had a confidence because of an 11-season streak; who’s going to be the most motivated?”
But neither did Good pin all the blame on the players.
“We need to do a better job as coaches,” he said. “It’s our job to prepare them and it’s my job to prepare everybody so I need to do a better job and look in the mirror and we’ll come back to work and make sure we’re better next week.”
Trailing 3-0, Cal Lutheran trekked 75 yards on 14 plays to score on a 1-yard touchdown run by Gabe Landless. A 25-yard pass from Joe Farley to Tyler Woodworth set up the score.
Cal Lu never trailed again.
Late in the first half, Redlands (2-1, 0-1) completed a pass but fumbled. Arthur Orta recovered for the Kingsmen, setting up Matthew Montegna’s 23-yard field goal. Cal Lu led 10-3 at the half.
Another Montegna 23-yard field boosted the Kingsmen lead to 13-3 with 3:38 left in the third quarter.
Redlands continued its error-prone ways. A strip sack by Cal Lu’s Jeremiah Alemayehu gave the Kingsmen the ball on the Bulldog 3. Cal Lu scored on a 3-yard JD Sumlin run and the Kingsmen now led 20-3 with 1:30 left in the third quarter.
A testament to Cal Lu’s dominance is that Redlands could not pick up a first down in the first three quarters.
Asked if a lack of discipline was the issue, Bulldog lineman Javier Sandoval from Aquinas High said, “I think that was one of the many issues. We need to execute better on both sides of the ball. We need to wrap up (on tackles) and everybody needs to do their own job. I don’t think motivation was a problem. We came into this game like the first two games – not cocky, but confident. I thought our practices went well. We just didn’t execute tonight.”
Hopes flickered for Redlands midway through the fourth quarter when the Bulldog offense started moving. Backup quarterback Tobey Schmidt led a 19-play drive that ended with an amazing fourth-and-goal TD pass to Scott Blankenship Jr. from the 19-yard line. That cut the Bulldogs’ deficit to 20-10 and had Redlands fans stirring.
But a Drew Nees interception and another TD run by Sumlin ballooned Cal Lu’s lead to 17 again and the Kingsmen would not be caught.
Cal Lu outgained Redlands 284 to 117. The Kingsmen rushing trio of Landless, Sumlin and Mehki Delouth ran for a combined 127 yards and three scores.
Nees led the Cal Lu defense with six tackles (3.5 tackles for loss), 1.5 sacks, a forced fumble, an interception, and three QB hurries.
Aaron Muniz paced Redlands with 2.5 tackles for loss and Jax Lee chipped in with two. Laurence Williams, Shepard Cope, Anthony Hall, Ben Fitchett, and Jaeden Thorn each had one TFL.
Redlands is at Chapman University of Orange at 7 p.m. on Saturday in another SCIAC game.
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