Written by Student Assistant Christian Bond
TACOMA, Wash. - The Pacific Lutheran University football team heads to Texas this weekend looking to remain unbeaten as they square off against Trinity University in San Antonio at 4 p.m.
PLU (1-0) heads to the Lone Star State fresh off a 17-14 victory over California Lutheran University last weekend at Sparks Stadium, scoring the final 10 points of the game.
The Lutes are 2-1 all-time against Trinity. Last year, PLU fell 23-13 to the Tigers. PLU gained 417 yards of offense, all of which coming through the air. PLU turned the ball over five times, three interceptions and two fumbles. The Lutes also had 15 penalties called against them for 84 yards.
"We have to play clean, not just against Trinity but against everybody," PLU head coach Scott Westering said. "We had 11 procedure penalties (last season). Half of the eleven were called on our receivers. It is tough to overcome things like that. We were younger and inexperienced then."
Quarterback Jon Schaub had success against Trinity last year going 32-53 for 378 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions. Juston Lind was effective receiving the ball with seven catches for 127 yards and a touchdown. After two games, the Tigers (1-1) have given up 283 passing yards per game. Schaub and the PLU receivers are looking for success through the air against the Trinity defense.
PLU needs to be more effective running the ball against Trinity. In 2015, the team ran for zero yards against the Tigers. Marc Gallant and Deren Hardgrove had success against Cal Lutheran last week, barreling their way through CLU defenders and combining for 96 yards on 21 carries, averaging 4.5 yards per carry.
"That was the intent against Cal Lu," Westering said. "We were very content with how we ran the ball against Cal Lu. We are farther along with our offensive line than we were last year. That's going to be a part of the game plan not only this week, but in weeks to come."
Coach Westering expected a group effort from his defense, and he got it in the season opener. Travis McMillion led the group with eight solo tackles, including three tackles for loss. Casey Ruether had seven solo tackles. Cooper Murphy had four tackles. Maurice Rodriguez, Kort Skoda and Wyatt Shelley had three tackles a piece. Six different PLU players had two tackles.
"At times they played extremely well," Westering said. "Other times we gave up chunk plays. It's always about the next play. All it takes is one play to change, or stop or shift the momentum of a game. We had a combination of guys making plays towards the end of our game last week and that was really exciting."
Through two games, the Tigers have rushed for an average of 98.5 yards per game. Trinity has passed for 213.5 yards per game and average 27 points per game.
Trinity quarterback Austin Grauer has been effective thus far for the Tigers. Grauer has thrown for 427 yards, three touchdowns and has yet to turn the ball over. Junior running back Even McDowell has 179 yards and three touchdowns while Cody Sandman is the leading receiver for Trinity in terms of yards, with 143 over seven catches along with a touchdown. Kicker Colby Doyal has converted six of his seven extra point attempts, and has made both field goals he has attempted.
Defensively, linemen Luke Packard has 25 total tackles including 3.5 sacks and averages 12.5 tacklers per game. Linebacker Julian Turner has 21 tackles. Joshua Cook and Mitchell Globe each have an interception for the Tigers.
"We can't turn the ball over." Westering said. "We will be building off of the execution from last week. We are excited to get better against live bullets. So many of our mistakes are fixable. We also want to see the learning curve spike from game one to game two. We are going to go down to Texas and give it our best shot. We don't want to beat ourselves."
Saturday's clash is the Tigers' third game of the season, opening 2016 with a 34-27 win over Redlands University before falling 24-20 to Millsaps College last weekend.
