All Over the Place

CLU-La Verne football followup No. 1

2009-11-08T08:40:24Z

A prior commitment Saturday night kept me from researching a number of questions I plan to examine in the wake of the CLU football team's 45-3 win at La Verne, but here are a couple facts to hold you over:
-- This year's 7-1 record, on the heels of last year's 7-2 campaign, marks the first time since 1981-82 that CLU has had consecutive seasons with seven or more wins. The 1981 Kings were 8-2; the 1982 team -- the last to make the playoffs -- was 9-2.
-- CLU has now had seven straight winning seasons, a streak unmatched since posting nine straight winning years from 1973 to 1982. In the 20 years between the end of that nine-year streak and the start of the current one, the Kingmen never had more than two consecutive winning years.

The game story in Sunday's paper noted the large number of CLU players who were involved in the offense, but it is also worth noting that just about everyone saw action on defense, too. Twenty-nine players were credited with at least one tackle, which means almost three full units' worth of defensive players were involved in a stop.
Notable among the reserves was sophomore linebacker Michael Ashocar, who had a interception, broke up a pass and had two tackles.
The official "game participation" statistic lists 65 CLU players as seeing action (although, since one of those listed is defensive back Victor Edwards, out for the season with an injury, that number may not be exact.) Regardless of the details, head coach Ben McEnroe said it was "awesome" to have the chance to play so many of his reserves.
"I think we got everyone in the game, or pretty close to it," said McEnroe. "It was great to get some of those young guys out there. They work as hard as anybody else, if not harder, and it was great to get that reward, and have a chance to get out there when it mattered."

More to come. Check back Sunday afternoon.

CLU wins 45-3, clinches share of title*

2009-11-07T23:55:39Z

Running its win streak to seven games, the Cal Lutheran football team clinched at least a share of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title with a 45-3 win at La Verne Saturday. CLU (7-1, 5-0) can claim the title outright, and earn its first NCAA Division III playoff berth, with a win next Saturday against Redlands.
On a day when the Kingsmen were able to clear their bench, Antoine Adams ran for three touchdowns, Bobby Rodrigues had one, and Jericho Toilolo -- the first of five CLU quarterbacks -- threw for a score. But the biggest play was Derek Wilson's 89-yard kickoff return, erasing a short-lived 3-0 La Verne lead.
The Leopards are now 0-8, 0-6.

*--Corrects to three touchdowns for Adams, per official stats (I had credited one to Derek Martinez.)

Halftime: CLU leads 24-3 at La Verne

2009-11-07T22:21:59Z

The CLU football team is halfway to clinching no worse than a share of the SCIAC title, leading winless La Verne 24-3 at halftime. La Verne drove for a field goal on its opening possession, but Derek Wilson returned the ensuing kickoff 89 yards for a touchdown. The Kingsmen have since added a 25-yard touchdown pass from Jericho Toilolo to Eric Rogers, a 35-yard Jackson Damron field goal, and a 2-yard run by Antoine Adams.

Hockey night No. 2: Kings-Pittsburgh postgame

2009-11-06T08:02:21Z

A few postgame commentsfrom the Kings' 5-2 win over Pittsburgh on Thursday:

Kings coach Terry Murray, asked if the outcome was more significant because it was against the Penguins: "I'm going to say no. They're a premier team -- they're the Stanley Cup champions -- and you need your top players to respond and play well against the premier teams in the game. But I'd like to think we respect every team and give our best effort."
Murray, on goalie Jonathan Quick, who stopped 21 of 23 shots: "He made some tremendous saves. One in the first, one in the second, they were as good as you could possibly ask, on lateral plays. The one on Guerin, I think it was, in the first period, it was just a skilled play, a reaction play on his part, and I think it just shows the talent that he has."
Quick, on the team's confidence level: "Pretty confident after a game like that, but we can't get ahead of ourselves here. We've got to realize we've got a long season ahead of us. ...
"Obviously, they're a great team, and the team battled really hard to get that win. You've got feel good about yourself, but tomorrow, you've got to refocus and get ready for Saturday."
Pittsburgh forward Sidney Crosby: "I think we would have liked to have been a little better. We didn't play great, and sometimes you get away with that. It's a good lesson for us. We have gotten away with bad periods in the past, but tonight we didn't."
Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury: "It's never a fun one to lose and it's just very frustrating to give up so many goals tonight. This team (L.A.) was ready and they have good players ... Tonight, the Kings played a full 60-minute game and were able to come back and win."

Hockey Night No. 1: Pittsburgh at Ducks

2009-11-04T07:42:34Z

ANAHEIM -- The season's a month old, but finally, this week, I'm getting a chance to see Southern California's hockey teams. The Ducks were up first on Tuesday; the Kings' turn comes Thursday, both against reigning champion Pittsburgh.
Not having seen either team, my main interest in this first look is to see if either team can possibly be what they've shown to date. It's hard to imagine the Ducks are bad enough to enter Tuesday play tied for 14th (and last) in the Western Conference, and equally difficult to believe the Kings are the third-best team in the conference. So ... when in doubt, take a look. One game certainly can't tell the whole story, but it's a start.
In the case of the Ducks, that one game -- Tuesday's extremely entertaining 4-3 loss to the Penguins -- pretty much affirmed the gut feeling: there's no way this team is as bad as its record.
Certainly, it has flaws. The departure of Chris Pronger clearly means this is no longer the defensive juggernaut of the last few seasons. The secondary-scoring question looms large, particularly because Saku Koivu has not been productive. And the goaltending is a bit unsettled; with Jean-Sebastien Giguere currently sidelined, the job is wholly in the hands of Jonas Hiller, and the night-in, night-out observers basically say the same thing: He hasn't been bad, but he hasn't been stealing any games, either.
Tuesday's loss suggested, though, that the Ducks are on the verge of digging out from under some of those problems. Consistent effort, a big issue earlier, was certainly there. And trailing late, they mounted an impressive, if ultimately unsuccessful, push to tie, maintaining a good three-plus minutes of sustained attack.
"We had a pretty good shift, and a last push for the last four minutes," said Corey Perry, who scored twice, including his 100th career goal. "(Sidney) Crosby had to slide across to make a save, and one went off Scotty (Niedermayer) and just wide. There were some good chances. But we have to play well for a full 60 minutes and that's what we're trying to do."

Koivu scored one goal, was robbed by Marc-Andre Fluery on a potential game-tying chance late, and -- with a modest three-game point streak (one goal, two assists), looks like he might be on the verge of finding the score sheet, which would make him a pretty complete contributor. (The general opinion seems to be that he's playing well despite the lack of scoring.)
"At this point, we know we can be more consistent," said Koivu, who left Montreal after 13 seasons and signed with Anaheim as a free agent this summer. "There's a lot of things we have to improve, but at the same time the last couple of games, there've been a lot of positive things we can build on.
"it seems we're better on our defensive game. ... We have to start winning soon, but we can't feel sorry for ourselves and have to dig out."
On this particular night, you'd have to point to goaltending as the difference. Pittsburgh's first goal, by Mike Rupp, went off Hiller and into the net; when a goalie gets as much of the puck as Hiller did in that case, he really should stop the shot. The Penguins' third and fourth goals, midway through the third period, were from far enough out that most goalies would believe they should have been stopped, although Alex Goligoski's was an absolute blast and Pasqual Dupuis' may have been through a screen.
"I think I have to do a better job finding the puck," said Hiller. "I lost it on its way. ... Definitely I have to do a better job finding the puck on those goals."
If the Ducks can carry Tuesday's effort into games with less talented teams than Pittsburgh -- which is most of them -- they'll certainly win. But the other side of that is that they need to start fairly soon, particularly at home. They're now 2-6 on home ice, meaning they've already squandered about 20 percent of their home schedule.
"It's very frustrating for everybody," said coach Randy Carlyle, "and that's what brings everybody down. We've been hanging our heads here for the better part of two weeks, and it's not a lot of fun. And that's where we have to find a way to change our attitude, and go to the rink and have fun ... and build on the positives. As we always talk about, it's as important what you're doing and how you're doing it as the result."
That may be true, and the Ducks do indeed look better than their results so far.
But to prove it, they really need to start getting some results. Especially at home.

CLU-Oxy: The followup

2009-11-01T06:19:04Z

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."

CLU beats Occidental 24-14

2009-11-01T05:36:29Z

A 74-yard touchdown pass from Jericho Toilolo to Eric Rogers -- on the first play from scrimmage after Occidental had scored on an 87-yard punt return -- proved to be decisive as Cal Lutheran beat the defending conference champions 24-14 on Saturday to take over sole possession of first place in the SCIAC and gain the inside track on the conference's NCAA playoff berth.
Brian Stuart ran for 164 yards and two touchdowns, and CLU's defense was dominant, as the Kingsmen improved to 6-1, 4-0 in the SCIAC.
More to come.

CLU-Oxy: The box score

2009-11-01T05:21:46Z

Since it won't be in the paper until Monday, I thought I'd post it here:

Cal Lutheran 24, Occidental 14
Southern California
Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Cal Lutheran 0 7 7 10--24
Occidental 0 7 0 7--14
Second quarter
CLU -- Stuart 44 run (Damron kick), 7:11.
OC -- C. Washington 12 pass from Saunders (Martin kick), 0:47.
Third quarter
CLU -- Stuart 4 run (Damron kick), 4:58.
Fourth quarter
CLU -- FG Damron 38, 10:34.
OC -- J. Washington 87 punt return (Martin kick), 7:26.
CLU -- Rogers 74 pass from Toilolo (Damron kick), 7:06.
CLU OC
First downs 16 13
Rushes-yards 38-199 21-4
Passing yards 154 212
Comp-Att-Int 11-23-1 23-39-1
Sacked-yards lost 1-6 4-23
Punts-avg. 7-38.4 8-39.9
Fumbles-lost 0-0 2-1
Penalties-yards 13-105 6-43
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING -- Cal Lutheran: Stuart 28-164, Toilolo 6-38, Rodrigues 1-0, team 3-(--3). Occidental: Haller 11-13, Saunders 10-(--9).
PASSING -- Cal Lutheran: Toilolo 11-23-1-154. Occidental: Saunders 23-39-2-212.
RECEIVING -- Cal Lutheran: Rogers 3-91, Hammond 3-22, O'Brien 2-18, Lara 1-12, Speckhard 1-6, D. Martinez 1-5. Occidental: C. Washington 7-38, Lehman 6-55, Inabnit 4-66, J. Washington 3-58, Deussen 1-5, Haller 1-3, Saunders 1-(--13).
MISSED FIELD GOALS -- None
TEAM RECORDS -- Cal Lutheran 6-1, 4-0; Occidental 5-2, 3-1.

CLU-Oxy 7-7 at halftime

2009-11-01T03:14:24Z

Defenses dominated the first half of the showdown for first place in the SCIAC before each team broke through late. CLU struck first on a 44-yard run by Brian Stuart with 7:11 left in the half, with Occidental answering with a 12-yard pass from Scott Saunders to Chris Washington with 47 seconds left in the half.
Stuart has 14 carries for 119 of CLU's 158 total yards; Occidental has 134 yards, with Saunders going 12 for 20 for 130 yards.
CLU has been plagued by penalties -- eight for 62 yards, compared to four for 30 yards for Occidental.

Lakers-Clippers postgame: The other locker room

2009-10-28T07:49:55Z

Tuesday's game -- Lakers 99, Clippers 92 -- from the Clippers' perspective:
Coach Mike Dunleavy: "We didn't do a good job tonight. I thought we were careless with the basketball. When we took care of the ball we did well and we kept ourselves in the game. There was a differential with the turnovers and the offensive boards." The Clippers committed 20 turnovers, leading to 24 Lakers points; the Lakers committed 16 turnovers, leading to 13 Clippers points. Offensive rebounds did favor the Lakers, but just 17-15, and the Clippers actually had a 23-18 edge in second-chance points.
"They are a long team and strong at their positions ... We didn't do a good job of going to their bodies and creating space for us to rebounds the ball. Had we taken care of one of those areas, we could have given ourselves a chance to win this one."
Baron Davis: "Last year we got blown out but I think this year it's a different team. We really felt we could've won this game. If you take away a lot of mistakes that we made at the end of the first quarter and all the turnovers we had tonight, it would've been a different ballgame."
Chris Kaman: "We did a good job of coming back strong when their second team fell back. Then a few mistakes happened, and you're down 10, and that's not a good place to be when you're playing the Lakers. In ths econd half we palyed better and didn't turn the ball over as much. But the Lakers capitalized on big plays and then we couldn't catch up."
Kaman, on losing Blake Griffin, out for six weeks with a stress fracture of his left kneecap: "You know, I don't really care aobut all that stuff you hear. You're dealt the cards and you play them. There's nothing you can do about it. Blake's a good player -- he plays hard, he's got great potential and I thought he had a great preseason. But all we can do is look forward and try to get some wins."

Lakers-Clippers: A bonus ceremony

2009-10-28T04:48:01Z

You didn't get to see it because TNT was away on commercial break, but it turns out the Lakers' ring ceremony wasn't just confined to pregame.
Between the third and fourth quarters, Tex Winter -- the longtime Phil Jackson assistant and special consultant who's recovering from a May stroke -- was escorted to center court by four Laker Girls and received his championship ring (No. 10, like Jackson) from David Stern, receiving an extended standing ovation from the sellout Staples Center crowd.
"I think everybody's going to be really happy to see him tonight that knows him," Jackson said beforehand, "to have an opportunity to wish him well. It's been a really difficult three, four months, five months, since early May when he was here for the first two games of the playoffs versus Utah. So we're really happy Tex could make it down."

Lakers-Clippers pregame, Oct. 27: No Gasol (and no Griffin)

2009-10-28T01:53:15Z

Pau Gasol (strained right hamstring) will not play in tonight's Lakers season opener with the Clippers, having been placed on the inactive list because of his strained right hamstring.
"We hope Friday's possible," said coach Phil Jackson, referring to the Lakers' next game, against Dallas. He added that he didn't think Gasol would need a practice before returning to action.
"He's the kind of player that can fit right in," Jackson said. "The last practice ... he did very well. He was right on beat. He played well. He didn't show any real signs of any inadequacy at all. But he's still fearful about it, so he needs to rest it."
Curses? In the wake of the news that rookie Blake Griffin, the No. 1 overall pick in this year's draft, is out for an estimated six weeks with a stress fracture of the kneecap -- adding to a long-running list of Clippers injury woes -- Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy told reporters he doesn't believe in curses.
In this, at least, Dunleavy and Jackson are in agreement.
"I don't believe in that," Jackson said. "I believe you make your own luck, obviously. Things have to be done the correct way, yes, and organizations do win championships -- the Jerry Krause quote comes back -- but I don't think it follows particularly, teams, because of their bad luck."
(Krause was the Bulls GM whose infamous quote that organizations win championships, rather than players, rankled Michael Jordan during the Bulls' dynasty).
Jackson expressed sympathy for Griffin.
"It's disappointing," he said. "We all wish him well and a speedy recovery on that. They've got a veteran roster; they've got backup help. They're not in the situation they were last year where they were depleted. But still, when you've got the first pick ... you want that player to have an opportunity."

CLU football: Chapman followup

2009-10-25T19:44:23Z

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."

CLU-Chapman followup delayed

2009-10-25T08:45:13Z

For anyone who came here looking for a bit more on Saturday's CLU-Chapman football game, my apologies -- major computer problems struck after the game, and I've only now been able to access the blog ... and since it's just before 2 a.m., I'm not quite up to tackling any more writing at the moment.

One note: It appears running back Brian Stuart's rushing total has been corrected to 165 yards from the 171 yards originally provided by Chapman statisticians. Also, his four rushing touchdowns tied a CLU record set on several occasions.

More later. I'd suggest checking back at midday or early afternoon. Sorry for the delay.

ALCS Game 5: Postgame notes

2009-10-23T06:20:59Z

Jered Weaver didn't exactly expect to be pitching in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series, but he wasn't totally caught off guard by it, either.
In just the second relief appearance of his career -- both in the postseason -- Weaver needed just 11 pitchers to retire Melky Cabrera, Jorge Posada and Derek Jeter in the eighth inning of the Angels' 7-6 win over the Yankees on Thursday.
"Going in, it was just kind of a just-in-case thing," said Weaver. "And they told me after they started scoring some runs in the seventh, and gave me plenty of time to get loose. It was like a 45-minute inning, so it was definitely enough time to get loose.
"They told me I was up, and the nerves started to kick in, first of all, but once you get out there, it's just trying to locate, and trying to throw everything for strikes. And everything felt good coming out."
Manager Mike Scioscia was asked if there'd been consideration to leaving Weaver in for the ninth inning.
"Yeah, I think we talked about it," Scioscia said. "If it was a one-run game, especially with some of the matchups coming up with Johnny Damon and Tex (Mark Teixeira), we would go with (Brian) Fuentes. If we scored a couple more we were going to let Weav go until we got to the left-handed slot after Alex (Rodriguez).
The ninth: That ninth inning saw Scioscia order a two-out, none-on intentional walk by Fuentes to Alex Rodriguez -- the second such walk in the series.
"In that situation," said Scioscia, "you just want to keep Alex in the park."
While the move has worked out both times, it was a close call this time. Fuentes walked Hideki Matsui and hit Robinson Cano before finally retiring Nick Swisher -- on a full-count pop-up -- to end the game.
"Oviously, it got a little bit too congested at the end," said Scioscia, "but, you know, we just felt it was better to take our chances with some of the guys following him."
Lackey's reaction: Catcher Jeff Mathis was asked for some insight on what John Lackey said to Mike Scioscia as Lackey was replaced in the seventh inning -- a move that didn't work out too well, since the Yankees immediately scored six runs.
"I'm not going to repeat it," said Mathis, "but you know, it's just who he is. Any time he's getting taken out of the game, he doesn't want to come out. That's just him. That's how he is. And, you know, he's a bulldog."