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."