CMS Football Keeps Rolling with a 43-0 Win at Whittier

WHITTIER, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps football team improved to 6-1 on the season and maintained its perfect SCIAC record as it rolled to a 43-0 road win over Whittier on Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium.

CMS now stands at 4-0 in SCIAC play, the only undefeated team in conference play, and is actually 6-0 against SCIAC opponents, after also earning non-conference wins over Whittier and Redlands in September. CMS opened the year with a 42-0 home win over Whittier on Sept. 10, and actually went one point better on Saturday.

The win sets up a dramatic final two weeks of the regular season, as the first-place Stags will face both teams tied for second. Redlands, which came back to defeat Pomona-Pitzer in overtime to hand the Sagehens their first loss, is first up at home next Saturday, and then CMS will face the Sagehens on the road on Nov. 12. 

Justin Edwards carried for 122 yards on 16 carries and two touchdowns to lead the CMS offense, while Alessandro Maiuolo was 3-3 on field goals, including one from 50 yards, his second field goal of 50 or more yards this season and third of his career. Michael Colangelo and Kevin White each had interceptions defensively. 

CMS got on the board on its second drive of the game, when Walter Kuhlenkamp threw a 29-yard pass to Bryce DesJardins to get the ball into Poets territory. Edwards had rushes of eight yards and 10 yards to get the ball into the red zone, and finished off the drive with a five-yard touchdown run. 

Maiuolo kicked his first field goal with 38 yards at the start of the second quarter, set up by a 34-yard run from Edwards, and then Colangelo picked off a Whittier pass at midfield to set up a 50-yard Edwards drive on six carries. He earned one yard on 4th-and-1 on the Poets' 31-yard line, and then ran for a 30-yard touchdown on the next play with 9:24 left in the half. 

Edwards now has 11 rushing touchdowns this season, after setting a program record with 16 as a first-year last fall. His total of 27 in less than two seasons already ranks him fifth on the career list, one shy of fourth. 

A sack from Joey Asta killed the next Whittier drive, and Maiuolo made a 35-yard field goal to push the lead to 20-0. After a three-and-out from the Poets, Zach Fogel completed two passes to Daniel Rosenberg, and Jacob Fenton rushed in from 16 yards out with just eight seconds left to give CMS a 27-0 lead at the break. 

On the first drive of the second half, Fogel found Desjardins for a 24-yard strike to the Whittier 22-yard line, but the drive stalled when Fogel was sacked for a loss of 14 yards. Maiuolo then came out for the third time in the game, and nailed a 50-yarder to make it a 30-0 CMS lead. He hit a 54-yarder in the last game for CMS, a 41-3 win over Cal Lutheran, and also had a 52-yarder against Redlands as a sophomore in 2019. 

Hank Harvego threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Fenton to push the lead to 37-0, and Calvin Miller capped off the scoring with an eight-yard touchdown run in the fourth. 

CMS faces essentially a must-win game against Redlands next weekend, as the Bulldogs can clinch the SCIAC automatic bid with a win in that contest, followed by a home win over Whittier in its finale. A Stag win would clinch at least a share of the regular season title, and set up a winner-take-all showdown with Pomona-Pitzer for the league title, unless the Sagehens were upset by Whittier next weekend.