It would be hard to understate how good the Cal Lutheran defense was in Saturday's 24-14 win at Occidental.
The numbers don't necessarily do the effort justice, and they aren't bad: CLU allowed just 216 yards (including 4 rushing), forced three turnovers, held Occidental to 5 of 15 on third-down conversions and 0 of 2 on fourth down, and had four sacks (that's a correction from the figure of three in Sunday's paper).
"We waited a year for that after last year," said Jordan Barta, who was in on nine tackles, with two sacks and a forced fumble, thinking back to CLU's 27-24 loss in 2008 on a last-second field goal.
Beyond the numbers, there was the early tone the Kingsmen set, sacking quarterback Scott Saunders three times in Occidental's first four possessions.
"That was the most important thing," said Barta. "We had to come out and play our defense -- and that's always our defense, smash-mouth. We had to not have that lull, like last week, and do what we do."
The only crack in the first-half performance was the late drive leading to Occidental's lone touchdown, a 12-yard pass from Saunders to Chris Washington with 47 seconds left. Before that 79-yard drive, Occidental had just 55 yards on its first five possessions.
But there were no such cracks in the second half. Occidental's only other touchdown was on special teams -- an 87-yard punt return by Jordan Washington. Three times in the second half, the defense forced Occidental into three-and-out possessions (and had an interception on the first play of another possession). Until they picked up 53 yards on their last-ditch drive to end the game, Occidental had not picked up more than 21 yards on six second-half possessions.
"Everyone gave it their all," said Barta. "That's the game we need to revolve around for the rest of the season, that kind of effort."
Quarterback Jericho Toilolo was more than happy to give the defense its due.
"I can't say enough about the guys on that side of the ball," he said. "We go against them three, four days in a week, so we're used to them like that. Watching them out there is exciting. They're so fast, so strong. They play as one unit out there.
"Our defense definitely won that game for us tonight."
No defensive series was arguably bigger than early in the second half, with the game tied at 7. After CLU committed its only turnover -- a Toilolo pass intercepted by Cory Seuss -- Occidental began at the Kingsmen 38. But after a 3-yard gain on a Saunders pass to Jason Haller, and a 5-yard Saunders run, the Kingsmen held Haller to no gain on third and two, and had a pass attempt well defended on fourth down, regaining the ball on downs.
The Kingsmen responded with a 70-yard nine-play drive to regain the lead -- for good, as it turned out -- on Brian Stuart's second touchdown of the night, a 4-yard run.
The Stuart saga (continued): Stuart, the senior transfer running back from Van Nuys and College of the Canyons, had another huge night, with 28 caries for 164 yards. He gave CLU a 7-0 lead in the second quarter on a 44-yard run, on the first play after a punt.
"Our line was on another level today," Stuart said, "and they created a hole for me that, for a minute, I kind of stopped because it was so big. So I ran through it, and all I had was green in front of me."
That was the case, in part, because the back turned what was supposed to be an inside run to the outside.
"I hit the hole," he said. "It was designed for me to hit it straight forward. I hit it, and nobody was there, so I just made it a track meet, get to the corner and gone."
It was Stuart's first taste of the CLU-Occidental series, but he understood that it was something special coming in.
"This whole week, that's all I've been hearing: 'We've got to get them, because of that loss last year,' " Stuart said. "So a lot of players kind of had a chip on their shoulders going into this week. Practice was on a different level, and we came in here ready."
With his 164 yards on Saturday, Stuart now has 854 yards, putting him ninth on CLU's single-season rushing list, and giving him a very real chance at becoming just the fourth 1,000-yard rusher in Kingsmen history. The last CLU back to do it was Fredrik Nanhed, who had a school-record 1,380 yards in 1995. The others are Terrence Thomas (1,236 yards in 1994) and Hank Bauer (1,024 yards in 1975).
Stuart is in position to move rapidly up the single-season list. He needs just 34 yards to pass Bauer (865 yards in 1974) and Cassidy O'Sullivan (887 in 1992) for seventh place, and if he were to rush for his per-game average of 122 yards in next week's game at La Verne, he'd climb to fifth, a spot currently held by Dorian Stitt (969 yards in 2000).
Stuart has now had three straight games over 100 yards -- matching a feat last performed by Jose Rojas in October 2006 -- and four such games overall. In each of them, he has rushed for at least 140 yards.
Flaws: While it was a winning effort for the Kingsmen, it was not without its issues. Most notably, the Kingsmen repeatedly made things difficult for themselves with penalties -- 13 in all for 105 yards, compared to Occidental's six for 43 yards.
Coach Ben McEnroe wasn't about to worry about that on Saturday night.
"The scoreboard's all that counts in this one, and we'll take it."

It's getting necessary to dig deeper and deeper to put Brian Stuart's accomplishments into perspective.
The senior running back's 165-yard game Saturday at Chapman is the biggest rushing game for the Kingsmen since Nov. 1, 2003 -- 54 games ago -- when Charlie Brown (Moorpark High) had a 27-carry, 193-yard game in a 31-20 win over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. And his four rushing touchdowns ties the CLU school record, set by Hank Bauer twice in 1974 and equaled by Dorian Stitt (2000) and Tyler Ruiz (2004).
With his 690 net yards this season, Stuart has already -- with three regular-season games remaining -- become the best single-season rusher the Kingsmen have had in at least nine years (which is as far back as season statistics are readily available on line.) Only three runners had surpassed the 600-yard mark in that span: Jose Rojas ran for 665 yards in 2006, and Brown had 622 yards in 2004 and 610 in 2005.
Like all successful runners, Stuart's success clearly comes through a combination of his own ability and that of the line blocking for him.
"Our o-line pushed them out all game," said quarterback Jericho Toilolo. "... They gave B-Stu some huge holes to run through all day. And he does not waste his opportunities. When he gets in the open field like that, one guy is not going to bring him down. And you saw that all day. He broke a lot of tackles on guys that got us extra yards."
Coach Ben McEnroe was certainly happy with the line play -- "We've got a pretty physical group up front," he said -- but felt Toilolo's contributions to the success of the running game should not be overlooked.
"The nice thing about Jericho is that he understands defenses well enough that he knows numbers and when to check us into the right plays," McEnroe said. "I was really proud of those guys up front, but I was really proud of Jericho, too.
"A great example was on our last (rushing) touchdown. We had a quarterback sneak called so he could score, and he checked out of it because there was a better play for somebody else to run. And that says a lot about that kid as a leader."
It is not unusual for Toilolo to make those checks and change plays at the line of scrimmage; McEnroe estimated he did it more than half time time Saturday.
"There are certain things we give him that if he sees those things, he knows what to get into. ... Clay (Richardson, the offensive coordinator) does a great job of giving him options. And Jericho really seems to understand the game well enough to put us in the right stuff."

To appreciate the impact Brian Stuart has had just three games into his Cal Lutheran career, you only need to look back at the final statistics from the 2008 season.
In a 7-2 season, the Kingsmen had just 11 rushing touchdowns. Antoine Adams, Derek Martinez and quarterback Jericho Toilolo led the team with three apiece; Adams, in an injury-shortened season, was the leading rusher with 475 yards.
After Saturday's 45-14 win over Whittier, Stuart -- a transfer from College of the Canyons -- already has six touchdowns, three in each of the last two games, along with 280 rushing yards.
"He's huge for us," said quarterback Jericho Toilolo. "That was a big transfer for us, to come in and make plays the way he does now. Him and our O-line just mesh really well right now, and if we have a running game like that, we'll be able to pass on anybody. They've got to respect our run game right now.
CLU coach Ben McEnroe noted, "Brian adds a pretty special element to our offense. He's got the breakaway (ability), but he also runs well inside and can pound it in there, and has a great knack for scoring when he gets in close."
Newcomers: Stuart and freshman nose guard Rian Younker, who scored the interception-return touchdown that put CLU in front for good, illustrate a point McEnroe has been making from the beginning of training camp, that a number of newcomers to this year's team -- whether freshmen or transfers -- were going to be impact players.
"We tell them, the best players are going to play," said McEnroe. "It doesn't matter how long you've been here, or where you came from."
Younker "is one of the best freshmen I've ever seen here," McEnroe said. "He's an excellent football player, comes from a great high-school program" -- St. Francis High of La Canada -- "so he's been well-coached. He's going to be an All-American here before it's over."
Senior defensive lineman Sawyer Merrill, who tipped the screen pass that was intercepted by Younker for his 7-yard TD, likes what he's seeing from the younger player.
"He's a good player, a good freshman, and he's playing well," said Merrill. "It's good to have him."
Younker, who had three tackles, is one of eight freshmen on the two-deep chart for Saturday's game. Also starting on defense was cornerback Patrick Knox (Thousand Oaks High), who was in on four tackles (three solo) and broke up a pass; on offense, wide receiver Matt O'Brien (Casa Grande High of Petaluma) started and had one catch for 18 yards.
Quick strike: The most impressive moment for the CLU offense came at the end of the second quarter. Starting after a punt at their own 27 with just 44 seconds later, the Kingsmen went 73 yards in just 28 seconds and three Toilolo passes -- a 28-yard throw to Stuart, and completions of 27 and 18 yards to Chris Hammond -- to score for a 28-7 halftime lead.
"That goes to our coaching staff, our coordinators, Scott (Beattie, defense) and Clay (Richardson, offense)," said McEnroe. "Every Thursday we have a live two-minute (drill) compete period where we're getting after each other.
"We learned this week that a certain personnel group was better for us. Our defense handed it to us in practice, and helped us make some adjustments we carried onto the field today -- switched our personnel, switched our blocking scheme, because of the pressure our first defense put on us.
"I told the kids, it comes back to a great couple of weeks of practice for us. And that series was just a great example of what hard practice and competition can do for you."