Coaching for Pizza: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship Game Saturday

Saturday, November 11, 2023

First and foremost, a heartfelt THANK YOU on this Veterans Day to all who have served in our Armed Forces over the past 247 years in defense of our country, especially our good friend and Vietnam War era, U.S. Navy veteran Paul Sabolić.

Our son Michael joined me yet again for another football game experience, this time in Orange, California for an NCAA DIII game.

But not just any DIII game . . .

It was to witness the first ever

Southern California Intercollegiate

Athleteic Conference (SCIAC)

Championship Game

Why the "first ever" you ask?

Simply and deplorably because of conference compression not expansion as is so often the case in college sports these days.

Until a couple of years ago, the SCIAC was an eight team circuit with each school playing a full, seven game SCIAC schedule plus two non-conference contests.

Those eight colleges were California Lutheran, Chapman,

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, La Verne, Occidental, Pomona-Pitzer, Redlands and Whittier.

Then in 2020, Occidental College made the painful decision to drop their football program that had been an integral part of their college experience since 1895 due to economic concerns. The Tigers had won 17 SCIAC football championships in their storied history.

At the end of the 2022 season, Whittier College followed suit, again for economic and now health concerns. The Poets had fielded football teams since 1907 and owned 19 SCIAC football crowns.

Only Redlands, with 28 SCIAC football titles, had more championships than Occidental and Whittier.

This year, with only six colleges fielding football teams, the SCIAC needed to get creative with their scheduling.

So they did.

Hence, a first ever SCIAC two division set up that looks like this:

SUN DIVISION

La Verne Leopards

Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens

Redlands Bulldogs

SURF DIVISION

California Lutheran Kingsmen

Chapman Panthers

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags

Under this plan, everyone can still schedule two non-league contests. Then they get to SCIAC play.

The 2023 season would see each college play their two division rivals twice, home and away, for a total of four games.

Then each club would play all three schools in the other division once, for a total of three more SCIAC games.

That would give each school a grand total of seven SCIAC games.

Then, today on November 11th, with the regular season over, there would be one final round of SCIAC games.

The two division third place teams would play each other. La Verne (2-8) beat Cal Lutheran (3-7), 31-24, in this game.

The two division second place colleges would also play each other today. This contest saw Claremont-Mudd-Scrtipps (8-2) defeat Redlands (5-5), 21-6.

These two games were all well and good, but we wanted to see the best two teams in the SCIAC fight for the championship and the one automatic bid to the 2023 NCAA DIII Playoffs that goes to the SCIAC crown winner.

Let's take a look at the two combatants . . .

Pomona-Pitzer Colleges Sagehens

6 Wins - 3 Losses overall

5 Wins - 2 Losses in SCIAC games

First Place in the SCIAC Sun Division

Chapman University Panthers

5 Wins - 3 Losses overall

5 Wins - 2 Losses in SCIAC games

First Place in the SCIAC Surf Division

Chapman and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps were tied atop the Surf Division standings, both with identical 5-2 SCIAC records.

Chapman won the tie-breaker based on their two victories against the Stags by scores of 20-7 at home and 14-10 on the road.

As for the Panthers vs. Sagehens regular season game, it was all Chapman on October 14th, 21-0. This win ensured Chapman of the home field advantage on this day.

Did I fail to mention that it was a BEAUTIFUL day for American football?

Well, it was.

We found ourselves a nice, free parking spot on a street about four blocks from the Ernie Chapman Stadium/Wilson Field sports complex where the championship was to be hotly contested.

Our first ever walk through the Chapman campus proved interesting.

The old Quad area

President Abraham Lincoln

was in attendance

Nice fountain in front of Chapman's

Leatherby Library

We arrived at Chapman Stadium and

were greeted by a nice surprise . . .

Gavin, Jack, Ryan, Michael and I

were part of the crowd of about

2,000 fans in attendance today

Ryan and Jack Brucker were IN THE HOUSE along with Jack's friend Gavin.

We had no idea that they were coming to the game and randomly ran into them as we all approached the ticket booth.

We all sat together and had a splendid time together for the second consecutive college football Saturday.

Life is better some days than others.

Our first view of the visiting stands

What is that Panther doing on the field?

Chapman players petting the Panther

on their way to Wilson Field

Pomona-Pitzer Kicking Off the game

The Panthers took charge Offensively

on their first drive of the game

Read Option, HERE WE COME!

Lots of Panthers bodies

on Sagehens bodies

The Pomona-Pitzer Defense stiffened

and held Chapman to these three points

The Panthers were impressive in jumping out to a commanding 17-0 lead at the end of the First Quarter.

The Sagehens trying to get back

into the game with little success in

the Second Quarter

This Pomona-Pitzer WR, #20, was

a BEAST no matter the score

The BEAST ran through tackles

at will all game

Regardless of this Sagehens efforts, Chapman had dominated the First Half, leading 24-0 at the intermission.

The two long-snappers sharing a

moment at mid-field before the start

of the Third Quarter

Chapman's long-snapper, #35, is an alum of Northwood H.S. where Jack and Gavin go to school. This young man still returns to their high school to help coach the team on a part time basis.

Both of these long-snappers were excellent at their difficult craft.

Speaking of the Kicking Game, the two Punters put on a clinic on punting the ball HIGH and far today.

The Chapman Punter averaged an eye-popping 48.0 yards on his five punts.

If you think that was awesome, which it was, wait until you see the Pomona-Pitzer Punter's stat line.

The Sagehens' Punter got to strut his stuff only three times today in averaging a whopping 51.3 yards per punt, incredible!

As Paul Sabolić likes to point out,

Halftime is when key adjustments

MUST be made

The Pomona-Pitzer coaches would have made Paul proud.

After being nowhere near being competitive in the first thirty minutes of the game, the Sagehens came out of their locker room with all guns blazing!

By the end of the Third Quarter, all of those Pomona-Pitzer adjustments cut the Chapman lead from 24 points at the Half to just seven points now, 27-20.

In the Fourth Quarter the Panthers

re-awakened and gave us a

stifling Defensive effort

Sagehens' QB surrounded and . . .

. . . DOWN!

Chapman was determined to take home both the 2023 SCIAC Championship and the automatic NCAA DIII Playoff bid that comes with it.

And they did.

FINAL SCORE

Chapman (6-3) - 41

Pomona-Pitzer (6-4) - 20

The differences in the game were easy to pinpoint. They were the usual suspects, turnovers and efficient QB play.

Both Chapman and Pomona-Pitzer had zero fumbles. That is a good stat line to be sure.

Chapman's excellent Passing Game stat line read thusly, 18 for 24, 75%, 307 yards, 4 TDs and 0 Interceptions.

Pomona-Pitzers' Passing Game had its moments, but you can draw your own conclusions. Their stat line was 26 for 45, 53%, 356 yards, 3 TDs and 6 Interceptions.

Winning the turnover battle 6-0 usually spells victory in my experience, and so it did for Chapman today.

On our walk back to our car, we perused more of the Chapman campus.

Another view of Leatherby Library

Beneath Wilson Field is a

multi-level parking garage

An efficient use of the limited space on the Chapman campus if you ask me.

Another Panther on campus

George Washington's bust is part

of outdoor Chapman University

Collection of Historical Figures

So is Benito Juarez

Fountains like this one bring

much needed peace to sometimes

chaotic college life

Alexander Hamilton sporting

a snazzy hat

I wonder where he got it?

An artsy sculpture of a ram's

skull with a broken horn

That reminded me that our Los Angeles Rams have a bye this weekend.

This decal on a Pomona-Pitzer fan's

truck could have led to serious issues

on the mean streets surrounding

the Chapman campus

But it didn't apparently.

It was only about 3:45 p.m. and we briefly toyed with the idea of stopping of at the Rose Bowl to watch the Arizona State-UCLA game that started at 6:00 p.m. but decided that we didn't want to battle the crowd at the historic Pasadena venue.

Our friend Mike D'Antuono was at the Rose Bowl and sent us the following First Quarter photo.

What crowd?

What an embarrassing crowd for a UCLA program heading to the 18 team, BIG-10 Conference next year. Yes, I know that American math skills are on the wane.

Another tough game today for

the 9-0 Washington Huskies as

they hosted the always physical

7-2 Utah Utes

Jacob was not with us as he was in

Hanford, California visiting relatives

on Vanessa's side of his family

He sent me this photo to show that he was still supporting the Huskies today.

The Huskies WON!

It was a struggle all game long made a tad more difficult for the UW when one of their DBs opted to celebrate about one yard too soon on a potential 50 yard Pick-Six. His boneheaded miscue was recovered by a hustling Utes player at the two yard line.

The Husky Defense came up with a Safety on Utah's subsequent play to make up for this gaffe but the Dawgs should have had seven points on the board not just two.

As a famous 1960s University of Alabama Running Back once said, "Stupid is as stupid does."