Playoff chance slips away from CLU
By Thomas Gase tgase@theacorn.com

Cal Lutheran University's football team was hoping to turn a new page last Saturday. Instead, the Kingsmen kept turning the ball over.

Trying to make the playoffs for the first time since 1982, the Kingsmen committed five turnovers that led to 28 points for Redlands and lost 38-17 at home. The loss, coupled with Whittier College's 67-61 upset over Occidental College, put CLU out of the playoffs once again.

The Kingsmen needed a victory to secure the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) title and automatic berth into the NCAA Division III playoffs. If Occidental would have beaten Whittier, the Kingsmen would've ended the regular season in a three-way tie for first, with CLU winning the conference due to the Rose Bowl tiebreaker rule, which sends the team with the longest playoff drought to the postseason.

Unfortunately for CLU, neither scenario took place.

"When the other team scores 28 points off your turnovers, you don't deserve to win," first-year head coach Ben McEnroe said. "I told my players that what we put out on the field today wasn't a championship performance."

Early on it looked as if Cal Lutheran would have no trouble with Redlands, as sophomore quarterback R.J. Benedict scurried into the end zone from 20 yards out to put CLU up 7-3 with 8:39 left in the first quarter.

The Kingsmen never got the lead back.

Redlands scored two touchdowns in 21 seconds to take a 17-7 lead off of a pair of CLU turnovers.

CLU tried to get back into the game after former Camarillo High standout defensive back Samuel Lyche recovered a fumble in the second quarter. The recovery led to a Kingsmen touchdown pass by Benedict to Danny Hernandez from 11 yards out and made the score 1714 at the half. Intermission would be the last time CLU would be in contention as Benedict had three passes intercepted in the second half.

Although the team is once again home for the postseason, McEnroe said he was proud of his squad.

"I look at this team and I still see champions," he said. "I appreciate how the team worked hard and dealt with adversity, especially concerning season-ending injuries to a lot of our guys. They always came out and played hard."