Darnell Gilbert
Staff Writer

The La Verne football team’s third quarter let down led to their demise last Saturday in a 57-36 loss to Occidental in Los Angeles.

La Verne came into the game looking for an upset victory over fifth-ranked Occidental. The Leopards immediately came out swinging when Phillip Craig ran 51 yards for a touchdown that put the Leopards up early in the game.

“Our offensive line played well,” junior receiver Matt Griffin said. “They gave Brian Guerrero and Phillip a lot of time to make things happen.”

La Verne was at the driver’s seat for the majority of the first half. Brian Guerrero ran for his second touchdown of the season helping La Verne’s rushing attack. Craig ran for another touchdown that put the Leopards up, 23-10. This was clearly Craig’s best performance of the year, finishing the game with 171 yards on the ground.

“We were determined,” senior center Mike Myers said. “We came out strong and fired up.”

Occidental quickly responded, showing why they are the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champions by scoring 28 points in the third quarter.

Andy Collins threw two touchdowns in the third quarter to Mike Winchell and Ryan Gonzales.

Running back Matt Anderson also rushed for two touchdowns in the third quarter and finished the game with 142 yards.

“Every game we come out flat in the third quarter,” senior outside linebacker Adrian Medrano said. “We play like we already have won the game.”

Occidental’s defense got on track in the second half allowing La Verne only 11 points and sacking Guerrero seven times for a loss of 42 yards.

Once again, La Verne’s defense failed to hold up their end of the bargain by letting Occidental use them as a doormat.

La Verne won the battle on offense but anyone who keeps up with football knows that defense wins games and championships.

The Leopards had more passing yards, controlled the ball five minutes longer and had fewer turnovers, but they could not find a way to win.

If ULV plans on challenging for the SCIAC title next year they will need to make some drastic changes on defense.

“We could not capitalize on any of their mistakes,” Griffin said.

In the second half, La Verne only gave Craig the ball twice and veered away from the run.

Poor offensive decisions in the second half put the defense in rough
situations and cost La Verne the game.

If they chose to run the ball more in the second half, they could have limited Occidental possessions and possibly won the game.

The loss dropped the Leopards to 4-4 overall and 2-3 in SCIAC.
Occidental’s victory put them at 8-0 overall and 5-0 in SCIAC.

ULV wraps up the season at 1 p.m. tomorrow against Whittier at Ortmayer Stadium in La Verne.

Darnell Gilbert can be reached at flawlessgee@yahoo.com.