CMS Football Clinches Share of SCIAC Title with Dominant 42-0 win over Redlands
CLAREMONT, Calif. - Justin Edwards and Ben Rosen each had two touchdowns and the CMS defense held Redlands to only 96 yards of total offense, while adding a touchdown of its own on a 70-yard interception return from Jacob Yep, as the Stags clinched at least a share of the SCIAC Championship with a 42-0 win over Redlands on Saturday afternoon at Zinda Field.
With the win, CMS now stands at 7-1 overall, and 5-0 in the SCIAC, with only the Sixth Street Trophy game left to play at Pomona-Pitzer on Saturday. If Pomona-Pitzer defeats winless Whittier tonight at home, it will set up a winner-take-all battle with the Sagehens for the SCIAC's bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament on Saturday, in addition to the SCIAC trophy. The 42-0 win was also the largest margin of victory over Redlands (3-6, 3-2 SCIAC) in the history of the series, surpassing a 35-0 win in 1970.
Yep was one of 20 seniors playing in their final home game, and ended up with an impressive Senior Day memory when he caught a pass that was deflected by fellow senior Stiles Satterlee at the CMS 30-yard line, and turned and ran 70 yards down the left sideline to put the Stags ahead 21-0. CMS had started the game looking dominant, with three straight three-and-outs on defense and two straight touchdown drives on defense, but Redlands was able to stop the Stags on their third drive and was able to string a couple first downs together to start to swing the momentum a little. Yep, though, was able to make the play that kept the momentum on the CMS side for good.
Joey Asta led the CMS defensive effort with three sacks and a fumble recovery, giving him five sacks in two meetings with Redlands this season. He ended the first Redlands drive with a sack, which set up a 30-yard touchdown run from Edwards, which gave CMS a 7-0 lead at the 10:12 mark.
Another three-and-out gave CMS the ball right back, and the Stags went 76 yards in 12 plays to make it 14-0. Walter Kuhlenkamp completed two straight passes to Anderson Cynkar to get CMS out of a 2nd-and-15 hole, and Edwards had a three-yard carry on 4th-and-2 to get the ball to the one-yard line. The Stags went backwards five yards in the first two plays, but two seniors connected on a touchdown pass, with Zach Fogel finding Rosen out of the backfield to make it a 14-0 game.
CMS forced another three-and-out after Yep's touchdown return, and added one more touchdown before the half, with Kuhlenkamp finding Mason Cotton for an 18-yard touchdown strike. The Stags then began the second half by keeping the momentum on its side, with Fogel rushing for 33 yards to help set up Edwards' second rushing touchdown of the game, a six-yarder, to give CMS a 35-0 lead. Michael Houk then had a sack that resulted in a fumble recovered by Joey Asta and two drives later, Rosen plunged in from a yard out to close out the scoring.
The only question left in the fourth quarter was if CMS would keep its shutout, as the Bulldogs had its deepest drive of the game down to the the Stags' 23-yard line. Asta, though, had his third sack of the game on second down, and Christopher Wicke, another of the team's seniors, followed with a sack on third down. and Kirby Baines made a fourth-down tackle nine yards short of the sticks.
Kuhlenkamp was 11-13 passing for 132 yards and a touchdown, and Fogel was 2-2, as the two CMS quarterbacks combined to complete 13 of 15 on the day. Defensively, CMS allowed just 47 yards rushing, 49 yards passing and yielded just 2.0 yards per play to the Bulldogs. Asta had six sackles (three of which were sacks), Wicke added six, and Satterlee and Ben Cooney each had five. As a team, CMS did not allow a touchdown for the fourth game in a row, yielding just two field goals to Chapman in a 28-6 win, and one to Cal Lutheran in a 41-3 win during that span.
CMS will face Pomona-Pitzer on Saturday at 1 p.m., knowing a win would wrap up its first undefeated and untied season in SCIAC history, and earn the program's second NCAA bid, after it made its first appearance ever in 2018.
