Season Review: Tough '09 builds Poets for '10

Photo by: Laurence Martinez/lrmphotos.com

WHITTIER, Calif. - A year of injuries and heartbreak saw the Whittier College football team fall a mere 16 points shy of completing the program's first winning season since it captured the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship in 1998. Despite the difficult season the Poets still placed five on the all-conference team and took another step towards being a contender in the SCIAC.

The Poets had the conference's second ranked rush offense with a 165.7 yards per game average. Whittier broke the 200-yard threshold four times throughout the 2009 year which includes a season-high 310 yard rushing against Sul Ross State (Texas) University in the opening week of the season.

The purple and gold had five players carry the ball over 30 times on the season led by senior Paul Schilling who ran for a team-high 404 yards on 84 carries. Schilling was named the SCIAC Male Athlete of the Week for his three touchdown, 100-yard, performance against SRSU on September 12.

Sophomore Rodrigo Muratalla averaged 5.1 yards per carry and finished the season with 362 yards on the ground.

Of the five ball carries than ran over 30 times on the year all ran for at least 100 yards on the season as they combined for 12 of the team's 13 rushing touchdowns.

When the season began, sophomore Alesana Sausau earned the starting quarterback position but only made five starts because of injury. The San Joaquin Delta transfer led the team in passing yards (869), completions (65), attempts (113) and touchdowns (6) and also added 181 rushing yards and three scores on the ground.

Sophomore Pete Mitchell, freshman Kelly Maguire and junior Douglas Lawson combined to start the four games in absence of Sausau.

One of the more consistent weapons offensively was tight end Chris Delgado who was the lone Poet to be named to the all-conference first-team. Delgado ranked third on the team with 12 catches for 158 yards but was instrumental in the team's rushing success.

Whittier ran the ball over 67 percent of the time and netted 1491 yards. Junior offensive lineman Cody McDermott returned to the all-conference team for the second consecutive season as a second-team selection.

When WC went to the air it was no secret that the main target was junior Josh Ollison. Ollison led the team in receptions (25), yards (568) and touchdowns (7) and was a second-team selection on the all-conference squad.

The defense also saw a pair of players land on the all-conference team. Senior Brandon Boehm was named to the second-team for the second straight season and he was joined by junior Tyson Schilling.

Boehm finished the year with 37 tackles despite being injured throughout the latter part of the season. Of his 37 tackles, 3.0 were sacks, and he also added five pass breakups. Schilling totaled 39 tackles and led the team with four quarterback hurries.

Boehm also became the first Poet to be recognized by D3football.com. The senior linebacker was named to the Team of the Week following his 14-tackle effort against Menlo on September 26.

As a unit the defense forced 16 turnovers, blocked two kicks, recorded 18 sacks for a loss of 131 yards and had 50 tackles for loss for a loss of 237 yards.

Junior defensive back Josh Lomeli led the team in total tackles (52) and solo tackles (34), senior Eddy Newton, who began the season as a wide out, led the team in interceptions (3) and junior defensive back  Brandon Johnson was tops on the team in pass break ups (8).

The defensive unit clinched Whittier's win over Sul Ross State with an interception in the waning moments of the game on the Aggies' final drive. Whittier scored the winning touchdown with 11:02 left in the fourth quarter and held on for the program's second consecutive opening week win.

WC controlled the game with an unheralded 40+ minutes of time of possession.

Two weeks later, when Whittier returned from its bye week, the Poets tasted defeat for the first time of the season. Menlo held off 450 yards of offense from WC by converting three fourth downs which includes a fourth and three with less than two minutes to play in the game to preserve the win. The four-point loss was the first of three defeats that would come by a single possession.

WC returned to the win column two weeks later with a dominating 21-6 win over Chapman. Once again it was the defense that iced the win with a late interception of the Panthers to allow the Poets to run out the clock.

Heartbreak returned to Memorial Stadium 14 days later as Pomona-Pitzer spoiled homecoming for Whittier. The purple and gold forced three Sagehen interceptions and one fumble but only managed 243 yards of offense and seven points. A late safety by Pomona gave them a 15-7 win.

The Poets erased the sour taste from homecoming with a 34-21 win over La Verne one week later. Whittier totaled 412 yards which includes 290 on the ground and averaged 6.2 yards per play to pick up its third win of the season. The defense picked off the Leopards three times in the win.

The first Saturday of November took the Poets from high to low in a matter of 39 seconds. Down seven, with the ball and under three minutes to play the Poets began their final drive to try and earn the win over Claremont-M-S. Whittier converted a fourth and three on the fifth play from scrimmage and with 34 seconds left in the game converted the second fourth down of the drive which turned into seven points and a 17-14 lead.

WC faced fourth and 10 from the Stags' 14-yardline but Sausau found Ollison in the back of the endzone for the apparent game winning score. The lead would be short lived as CMS needed only two plays after the kickoff to steal the win from the Poets.

Outlook to 2010

The Poets have the pieces in place to improve in 2010. A healthy Alesana Sausau should return under center to lead the offense. He will be joined by his top three receivers, three of five returning offensive linemen and a backfield that might be the deepest position on the roster.

On the defensive side of the ball four of the top five tacklers will return led by Josh Lomeli, Jared Cato and Brandon Johnson.