In the most lopsided college football game of the week, fifth-ranked Division II powerhouse Linfield (Ore.) beat Puget Sound (Wash.) 73-7 on Saturday. Linfield was celebrating it’s homecoming for the record-breaking, one-sided blowout.
The Linfield Wildcats piled on 42 points in the second quarter alone.
It wasn’t even as close as the score looks, either. Linfield scored in every way possible. The Wildcats had an interception returned to the house, a blocked punt for a score and a 49-yard field goal.
Oh and eight touchdowns on offense, too.
The 73-point win was the second-most points scored in a Linfield football game. According to the Sports Information officials, it’s the most points scored since the resumption of football following World War II and only 10 points behind the 1927 Wildcats who scored 83 against Oregon Normal (now Western Oregon).
The second quarter explosion – according to the Linfield Athletics page – looked like this:
Feeding off the momentum, Linfield quarterback Mickey Inns (Jr., Gresham, Ore.) led the ‘Cats on an eight-play, 45-yard drive that ended with a 1-yard pass to tight end Jacob Priester (Soph., Patterson, Calif.). That made it 24-0 with 9:35 left before intermission and the rout was on.
Forrest intercepted Ka’ai on the following drive and Inns launched a 35-yard bomb to the endzone for Charlie Poppen (Soph., Oregon CIty, Ore.). But the play was called back on a holding penalty.
It mattered little. Backup tailback Stephen Nasca (Jr., Sammamish, Wash.) scampered 45 yards to the end zone on the very next play to put Linfield ahead 31-0.
Christian Hanna (Sr., Coeur d’Alene, Idaho) took his turn in the spotlight, intercepting backup QB James Korn and returning the ball 33 yards for another Wildcats touchdown. With 6:21 still to play in the half, Linfield found itself in front 38-0 .
To everyone’s amazement, the Wildcats were just getting started.
Korn tossed another errant pass that was intecepeted Taylor Skore (Sr., Enumclaw, Ore.) at the UPS 37. The next play, Inns hurled a 37-yard missle to Poppen that put Linfield up 45-0.
Taking advantage of a UPS fumble, Linfield drove 40 yards before Inns hooked up with Lucas Jepson (Jr., Aloha, Ore.) for a 25-yard touchdown pass that put the Wildcats up by 52 points with 3:05 still to play in the half.
Sophomore Colin Foreman put Linfield into the record books when he recovered a blocked punt by the ‘Cats’ special teams ran three yards in for the score.
For the record, that put the score at 52-0.
Linfield finished with 490 total yards of offense, including 227 on the ground. Wildcats quarterback Inns completed 14-of-23 passing for 214 yards and three touchdowns while Nasca finished as the game’s leading rusher with eight carries for 84 yards and a touchdown.
Puget Sound’s Braden Foley finished as the Loggers best passer. He went 5-of-7 passing for 127 yards and a touchdown.
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