Kevin Parada
Staff Writer
In dominant fashion, the football team cruised to a 52-7 victory over the Sagehens of Pomona-Pitzer on Saturday.
The win over the Sagehens marked the third victory of the season for La Verne and it is the first time since 2006 that they have won more than two games in a season.
“We came out to make a statement and to let everyone know that La Verne football is making big strides,” said senior linebacker Fillip Marcelin.
La Verne opened up the scoring halfway through the first quarter when the always dangerous senior wide-out Cedric Ho caught a nine-yard pass from veteran senior quarterback Thomas Arguello.
Ho linked up with Arguello three more times and finished with 63 reception yards and two touchdowns.
Adding another dimension of attack to the dangerous duo of Arguello and Ho was sophomore running back Matthew Biggers, who rushed for a career-high 235 yards.
Biggers opened up his scoring account for the day just before the first quarter came to an end when he ran 37 yards to bring the score to 14-0.
“We came out really physical and our run game was unstoppable,” freshman running back Felipe Valdez said.
La Verne scored twice in the second quarter.
“We came out fired up and ready to play,” Valdez said.
The first score of the quarter was another big running play by Biggers, who ran for a 28-yard touchdown and the second was a field goal from the reliable sophomore kicker, Alex Miller.
Coming into the second half with a 24-0 lead, the Leopards refused to take their foot off the gas and added another score at the 11:41 mark of the third quarter when senior receiver Matt Griffin caught a nine yard pass from Arguello.
Three minutes later junior tight end Christian Winnewisser, who led the team with seven receptions and 112 yards on the night, scored his only touchdown of the contest when he caught an 11 yard pass from Arguello, who threw for a total of four touchdowns and 232 yards.
“They really looked better than I’ve ever seen them,” senior psychology major Monica Delgado said.
Ho added another touchdown when he caught a pass from Arguello from six yards out to make the score 45-0.
Having such a dominant lead did not incline the Leopards to stop the beating and they showed that when they handed the ball off to Valdez from three yards out to score their final touchdown.
La Verne was near finishing off the game with a clean sheet but at the 10 minute mark in the fourth quarter, Pomona-Pitzer managed to score on a two-yard run from Luke Sweeney.
Going into their final game of the season, the Leopards currently stand at a record of 3-5.
The season finishes with senior day at 1 p.m. tomorrow against Whittier at Ortmayer Stadium.
Kevin Parada can be reached at kevin.parada@laverne.edu.
