FB: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Growler]

Congratulations OXY on a great season! Work hard and come back next year. WU, best of luck and bring it all home! Exciting game in which turnovers made a big difference. WU is a great team and I will be rooting for them. Beautiful day in Salem, hospitable fans and hard hitting football.

(OB, give us the breakdown)

[stealth]

Consolidated recap: 1 and out for the SCIAC again.

Recap of today's game on the Oxy website:

http://www.oxyathletics.com/sports/fball/2008-09/news/112208fb_WUpostseason

[Gray Fox]

In theory they should have ended up 2-1.  I hope this "history" doesn't hurt future Pool C selections.

[stealth]

No doubt that Oxy got jobbed on the first round game.  I think if it was a real close game then the loss wouldn't have hurt the SCIAC as much. Just to be clear with eveyone. I picked Oxy to win and had the highest hope that the Stealths would be headed to Eagle Rock and not Williamette with the Warhawks. By the end of the first half all hopes had been dashed. Williamette was bigger and stronger up front on both sides of the ball from what I heard the internet radio announcers were saying. Tough draw and tough loss but congrats to Oxy for what it's worth.

In theory they should have ended up 2-1.  I hope this "history" doesn't hurt future Pool C selections.

[Oxy Fan]

Congratulations Oxy on a great season!  Wish it could have continued.  You (especially the seniors) deserved it.  Here are some images from the game yesterday:  http://gallery.me.com/aybates#100115

[bbaddict]

Congratulations Oxy on a great season!  Wish it could have continued.  You (especially the seniors) deserved it.  Here are some images from the game yesterday:  http://gallery.me.com/aybates#100115

I can't get this link to work -- is there something missing?

[Oxy Fan]

I can't get this link to work -- is there something missing?

Try again:  http://gallery.me.com/aybates#100115

[bbaddict]

Nope, it says my browser isn't supported or something like that.  I have both Firefox & Internet Explorer -- should work, right?

[Growler]

Nope, it says my browser isn't supported or something like that.  I have both Firefox & Internet Explorer -- should work, right?

Same here, it has always worked before but not today.

[Gray Fox]

Mine worked.

[D O.C.]

Just a reminder....last hours for National OxyBob + karma week.

If he does not reappear again we can all get it back and move it into something safer like municipal bombs.

[coco]

Mine worked for the pictures, too.
Nice job!

[OxyBob]

Congratulations OXY on a great season!

I join with my fellow Oxy fans in extending congratulations to the Tigers on yet another great season. Redlands was the consensus and prohibitive favorite going in, but Oxy got it done in the SCIAC against the Bulldogs and Cal Lutheran and took care of everyone else. Of course I would have preferred a victory against Willamette, but it's difficult to complain when your team was 9-1 and is 44-7 overall the past 5 years with 4 conference championships.

As for Saturday's game, it eerily reminded me of the playoff game against Whitworth in 2006. In that game after Oxy took a 23-20 lead in the 3rd quarter, Whitworth tried to get cute and attempted a fake punt which Oxy stuffed at the Whitworth 36. But Oxy didn't take advantage of Whitworth's gift, and eventually the Pirates pulled the game out at the end in the last 20 seconds. This past Saturday after Oxy held the ball for 8 minutes and scored, Willamette was 4th-and-1 on its own 37. Surprisingly rather than punt the Bearcats went for it, and even more surprisingly tried to run it up the middle and Oxy stuffed the play. But, like the Whitworth game, Oxy didn't take advantage. After two short runs by Jason Haller and two incomplete passes by Justin Goltz, Willamette had the ball back at its 33. The Bearcats scored 8 plays later.

Willamette was way more efficient than Oxy (493 yards in only 48 plays to 426 yards in 85 plays) and didn't turn the ball over once. WU also scouted Oxy very well. The Bearcats were able to isolate Merben Woo and Scott Schoettgen on Oxy's corners and threw the ball away from Daniel Tromello. The 71-yard TD pass to Woo on 3rd-and-10 which made it 20-9 was a killer. WU head coach Speckman also took a gamble which paid off. After WU scored on the long pass play, Goltz was stopped short on 3rd-and-2. Oxy was called for holding on the play, but rather than decline the penalty and make Oxy punt, Willamette took the penalty. That paid off big time because on the next play Goltz tried to finesse one to Chris Washington but the pass was intercepted by Ryan Bettencourt and he returned it to the Oxy 23. WU immediately scored 2 plays later and it was 27-9. In the 3rd quarter Willamette stopped Oxy on 4th down after a 15-play, 8-minute 3rd quarter drive which yielded nothing. In the 4th quarter Oxy was unfortunate (or Willamette was fortunate, depending how you look at it) when Trace Wallace got great inside position on a pass to Woo. Wallace got his hands on the ball, but he bobbled it in the air and Woo grabbed it and went 56 yards untouched. Ouch.

The Willamette fans were friendly and welcoming. The WU campus is beautiful and the football stadium was first rate. The weather was perfect. All that was missing was a win. Willamette was the better team and congratulations to them. I hope they kick the crap out of Whitewater.

Again, great job by the Oxy players and coaches for a successful season. Thanks especially to all the graduating seniors. You will be dearly missed!

OxyBob

P.S. Thanks again to Growler and his family for their hospitality.

[BoBo]

I hope they kick the crap out of Whitewater.
OxyBob

I was really enjoying your re-cap OxyBob...

...until this line...ouch!!   

[Fear the Poet]

Congratulations to Oxy on a great season. The players,coaches and fans should be proud.

I'm opening a shoe shine business to supplement my income. Any potential customers out there?