Chris Forrer – For the Review. On a blustery day in the Bay Area, Linfield football continued its dominant season with a strong 31-7 victory over the Menlo College Oaks on Oct. 3.
Senior quarterback Aaron Boehme paced the Wildcats with 205 yards passing and three total touchdowns — two passing, one rushing — but completed only 14 of his 36 passes.
“Unfortunately, our passing game wasn’t clicking as well as we hoped,” Boehme said. “I have to take responsibility for that.”
On an off night for the passing game, the defense stepped up yet again and stifled Menlo. The ’Cats’ defense finished with five sacks and 13 tackles for loss to take away 78 total yards. Junior defensive end Eric Hedin accounted for four of those plays.
On the Oaks’ first drive of the game, Hedin stopped running back Shaun Souza for no gain on second and 10. On the next play, sophomore defensive end Sparky Gonzales broke through the line and leveled Menlo quarterback Nick Ruhl four yards behind the line of scrimmage.
“This season, our defense has played better and better,” Hedin said. “We’re young, but we’re learning fast and playing with a lot of intensity.”
Boehme and the offense flexed their muscles on the following series by mounting a 72-yard drive. Junior running back Kevin Abbott, filling in for flu-stricken senior Aaron Williams, was a key component of the drive.
“I’ve always felt that we have a strong nucleus of running backs,” head coach Joe Smith said. “Whoever we plug in has found success.”
It was Boehme, however, who came up big for the score. On a broken play from the Menlo 38-yard line, Boehme deftly maneuvered his way through defenders all the way to the end zone to score the game’s first points.
Freshman kicker Maika Kunioka’s extra point attempt was true, making the score 7-0. Kunioka would struggle for the rest of the game, however, going just one of four on his field goal attempts. After several punts and turnovers, including a heartbreaking interception by Boehme at Menlo’s 14-yard line, killing a drive that began deep in the ’Cats’ territory, Kunioka missed his first attempt from 45 yards.
“As soon as I would kick the ball, the wind would catch it,” Kunioka said. “But it’s no excuse. I should have taken the wind more into account.”
To start the second quarter, Menlo quickly scored on a 30-yard sprint by running back Peyton Bell to tie the score at 7-7, but the Oaks wouldn’t score again for the remainder of the game.
Not to be outdone, the Wildcats’ offense immediately retaliated on the next drive. After a rare offensive pass-interference penalty put Linfield with 29 yards to go for a first down, Boehme fired a perfect 82-yard pass to Abbott for a touchdown.
Penalties plagued the Wildcats throughout the game; they finished with 105 yards in penalties, the most this season.
“I think our team could work on its consistency,” Boehme said. “We’ve done great things all around this season. Now it’s a matter of improving little things and bringing it every game.”
Close to the end of the third quarter, the Wildcats scored twice, once on a deep 21-yard pass by Boehme to senior wide receiver Trevor Patterson and once on a 12-yard run by junior running back Taylor Avritt. At the beginning of the final quarter of play, Kunioka found success from 29 yards to score the final points of the game, bringing up the final score to 31-7.
“The special teams have been doing fantastic this year,” Kunioka said. “They’ve been giving the offense good field position and setting up the defense to make big stops.”
This week, the ’Cats wrap up a four-game road trip with a game at Whitworth University in Spokane, Wash. Linfield moved up to No. 7 in this week’s d3football.com Top 25 poll and is one of only 16 unbeaten Division III teams.
Despite their national ranking and undefeated record, the Wildcats are taking this game seriously.
“There’s no love lost between Whitworth and Linfield,” Smith said. “Our last losses to them were big, big losses. We’ll come ready to play.”