Reigning SCIAC Champs Look to Defend Crown, CMS Football Opens 2019 Season at Puget Sound on Sep. 7
CLAREMONT, Calif. -- The 2018 CMS Football team succeeded in making history. The goal of this year's team is to repeat it.
The CMS Football team won the 2018 SCIAC Championship finishing with a 6-1 conference record and a 7-4 overall record to earn the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance and opens play on Sept. 7 against Puget Sound. The Stags have a tough stretch of games to begin the season with four of their first five games on the road as they travel to Northwestern (Minn.) on Sept. 14 and then return for the home opener against Pacific Lutheran on Sept. 21.
Last season, the Stags made history by earning an NCAA Tournament appearance for the first time in program history and this season they look to repeat as conference champions. After falling at Whitworth in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, there was nothing but hugs and smiles for a football team that had just accomplished something that no other CMS football team had accomplished - winning the SCIAC by a head-to-head tiebreaker with Redlands (6-1) and qualifying for the big dance, the 2018 CMS football team had etched its name in the history books and look to do it again in 2019.
The 2019 Stags are headlined by some experienced leaders that return with the goal of winning the SCIAC title. Quarterback Jake Norville (Jr.) returns to pilot a squad that set the tone on the ground and played physical up front to grind out victories and control the clock. Norville threw for 909 yards along with nine touchdowns and two interceptions last season. Joining the right-handed QB in the backfield and expected to get a portion of the snaps in live-action is Zach Fogel (So.), who is a solid complement to Norville with the ability to spread out the defense and engage in an air-raid style offense to keep the opposing defense off balance. Fogel, in seven games played, threw for 553 yards with three touchdowns.
Norville spoke about the offense during fall camp. "The team looks really good, I am really impressed with the incoming freshman we have, they are picking up the stuff really well. The offensive line looks great, returning some great starters for us. They make up the backbone of our team that dominated the line of scrimmage last season and I expect us to do that again this year. I think everyone is really excited to be back, everyone is really motivated to repeat this year. We're ready for the first game already and we're only six days into camp."
The junior quarterback added about his offensive line, "They look great, there's no learning curve because everyone has starting experience. The o-line is big strong and powerful and they're awesome. Running backs are just picking right up where we left off and the wide receivers are showing a lot of promise, they have a couple more weeks to get everything down but they're showing a lot of potential." Norville completed 52.8 percent of his passes a season ago and identified a couple of areas where he was looking to improve during fall camp. "I am looking to improve my completion percentage and getting the balls to our playmakers faster."
The Stags will feature a deep tailback rotation in support of starting running back Garrett Cheadle (Sr.) who ran for 1305 yards (118.6 yards/game, 1st in SCIAC), which ranked second on the CMS single-season all-time rushing list. Cheadle was named SCIAC Offensive Player of the Year, First-Team All SCIAC, and D3football.com Second-Team All-West Region after his historical performance. Not only did he rush for a school-record 274 yards on 22 carries with three touchdowns against Whittier on Oct. 27, but he also scampered for 173 yards on 41 carries and one touchdown to help the Stags defeat Chapman and clinch the SCIAC regular-season title.
Jordan Leonard (Jr.) rushed for 351 yards on 76 rushing attempts and five touchdowns and Christian Curcio (Sr.) tacked on 218 yards on 57 carries with one touchdown as the Stags powered their way through opponents on the ground to the tune of 4.1 yards per carry and a total of 2,093 rushing yards on the year. Norville also adds a dash of versatility from the quarterback position after rushing for 133 yards last season, a 2.7 yards per attempt average. The Stags feature a three-headed monster in the backfield that looks to dominate the SCIAC on the ground once again after Cheadle paced the circuit with 118.6 yards per game and Leonard finished 13th in the conference in rushing. Curcio received less than half of the touches that Cheadle received but is expected an uptick in chances due to the multiple set look and opportunities to keep players healthy against strong competition early in the year.
The wide receivers will be fairly youthful entering the 2019 season with five first-year Stags highlighting a young core that is joined by senior Dylan Byrd, junior Carter Henderson and sophomore Jack Grasberger. Tight end, though, will be a position of experience and strength once again for the Stags this season as Theo Chamberlain (Jr.), Nick Parise (Jr.) and William Smith (So.) make up an experienced core. Smith led all returning tight ends with 118 total yards on six receptions and one touchdown, Chamberlain finished with 84 total yards on seven receptions and two touchdowns, and Parise caught two touchdowns and racked up 79 yards on five receptions.
The offensive line has a couple of spots to fill going into the 2019 season with the departure of senior captain Jackson Tate and senior Brian Wahl. Tate was captain for the second season with the football team and started all 11 games at one guard spot, while Wahl earned Second-Team All-America from the AFCA and First-Team All-SCIAC at the other guard. Senior center Jett Zeimantz was a first-team All-SCIAC selection last year, while junior left tackle Jacob Lyle started all 11 games a season ago and helped pave the way for a ground game that gained 2,093 total yards.
Lyle spoke about the state of the offensive line. "I think we're a really young group. It's really great that we have some veterans and some young guys. The young guys are picking everything up really quick and they are flexible and that helps them pick up the things we are teaching them fast. I think back to when I was a freshman and those senior guys reached out to me, brought me in and talked about technique and it's really important that us experienced guys do the same thing for this year's new guys."
Lyle also spoke about the unit's energy level. "I think it has been good, guys are working hard and the camp has been tough and grueling but we're pushing through. I've been working on my consistency and the more consistent we are as an offensive lineman the better we'll be."
Defensively the Stags will have some big shoes to fill with the departure of linebacker and leading tackler Mitchell Allen, but junior linebacker Camrion Davis knows that the young guys will get the job done. "The guys are excited. We worked hard over the offseason to get back and repeat as champions because it's a big thing for us to continue the excellence that Stags' football has shown over the last few years to continue to get better and improve. We have a lot of young guys that we expect to play the first game and they need to be ready and they've come and they have improved as the days have gone on and we're really excited for the first week."
Davis continued. "The biggest focus is the details, the technique and the details. We have to take it one play at a time, one game at a time. We can't get too ahead of ourselves and think we're the champions and it's going to come easy to us. We have to take everything seriously and really focus."
The 2019 Stags have over 20 first-year players that are going to be expected to contribute early and often. Davis could not stress their preparation and importance enough. "All of us captains have taken them under our wings because we're going to need them later in the season. We need the depth and some of them are going to start so we have really made a focus that they know what they are doing and it can help the whole team come along."
Davis finished second on the team with 58 total tackles and is ready to get the season going. "We're excited. We are ready. We have been waiting for this for so long, I know everyone was excited with the camp coming up and now I am ready to see another color across the way because the scrimmage is in a couple of weeks and we're ready for it. It's going to be aggressive and really physical."
The defensive side of the ball has played physical and fast so far through fall camp and with ample amounts of returning experience, it has helped set the tone during scrimmage drills. Junior defensive lineman David Chen spoke about the mindset of the defense in preparation for the 2019 season. "The defensive side is very exciting we have a lot of new faces and quite a few returners. Our biggest focus has been playing fast and getting our hats to the ball. We're really fast and physical and hopefully, we'll be able to force some turnovers. We call ourselves the 'Zoo', the 'Zoo' always sticks together and the defensive line is a bunch of big guys and we hang out together all of the time."
Also in the 'Zoo' are Luke Livingston (Sr.) and Mason Hernandez (So.), who both earned second-team All-SCIAC honors last season. Lukas Svitek (Sr.), Connor Sinclair (Sr.), Jack Cavellier (Jr.), and Torben Deese (So.) were all regulars in the rotation last year as well and make the defensive line a deep and experienced unit.
In the secondary, Cade Moffatt (Jr.), Sachi Mindich (Jr.), Stiles Satterlee (So.), Benjamin Cooney (So.) all return to try to create a no-fly zone for opponents this season. Cooney, Satterlee, and Moffatt each played 11 games a season ago with Cooney and Moffatt earning second-team All-SCIAC honors. The Stags also have one returning senior in the defensive backfield, Alex Plunk, who appeared in nine games last season and had 21 total tackles (15 solo) and a forced fumble in the NCAA Tournament game against Whitworth.
Cooney led the Stags with three interceptions and was tops among defensive backs on the team with 56.0 total tackles an average of 5.1 tackles per game. He will take on a role of even more importance as a leader in the secondary after the graduation of his brother Mackenzie Cooney.
The Stags open the 2019 season at Puget Sound on Sept. 7 after the Loggers enter the year on the heels of a 5-5 performance a season ago. CMS looks to avenge one of its two early-season losses in 2018. In Week 2, the CMS football team travels to Northwestern (Minn.) on Sept. 14, who were picked second in the Upper Midwest Conference after a 5-5 record and fourth-place conference finish a season ago. The Stags then return home to host Pacific Lutheran of the Northwest Athletic Conference for their home opener on Sept. 21. CMS football has just four home games this season including the Sixth Street Rivalry matchup with Pomona-Pitzer on Nov. 16.
Check out the full football schedule here.
Video highlights from fall camp can be found here.