Sunday, December 29, 2013

This is Wildcatville!

Thanks to Linfielder John Prutsman for recording "This is Wildcatville!" during the 2013 season. 

Video: 11/9/2013 UPS at Linfield football game. 

Photos: John wearing 1956 Linfield football player jacket (10/5/2013 PLU game). John & Evelyn Prutsman, Classes of 1957 and 1959 respectively, (11/9/2013  game). Evelyn (11/30/2013 Hampden-Sydney game). 

Jacket represents start of Linfield's famous "The Streak." Since the 1956 season, every Linfield football team has had a winning record, something no other college football program on any level can boast. Coached by Paul Durham, the 1956 Wildcats won the Northwest Conference title and had a 6-1-2 season win-loss-tie record.

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Linfield Wildcats connection to the Kingsmen’s classic ‘Louie Louie’

Linfielder Jerry Dennon of 'Louie, Louie' by the Kingsmen fame died Jan. 30, 2017. Read his obituary:


Originally posted 8/11/2012. Reposted 12/28/2013. Updated 12/23/2017.


Rolling Stone Magazine (Sept. 7, 1988) calls the Kingsmen’s 1963 recording of “Louie Louie” the “undisputed garage-band anthem of the rock & roll generation.”

Many Baby Boomers have lost track of how many times they’ve heard the song.


You may know the Kingsmen hailed from Portland. You may know how high the recording made it up the Billboard and Cashbox charts.

You may know many things about the Kingsmen and “Louie Louie,” but did you know the band and the song have a Linfield College Wildcats connection?

That connection is through Gerald “Jerry” Dennon, who attended Linfield 1955-1956.

Dennon is "one of the legendary personalities of early Northwest rock – not as a musician, but as a record promoter who played a key role in making the Kingsmen’s version of “Louie Louie” a huge success," according to Gene Stout, former pop music critic for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.


He received a “No. 1” record award in 1964 from Billboard Magazine for promoting “Louie Louie” after releasing it on his Jerden label. Later, Dennon produced other records by the Kingsmen, and for the Brothers Four, Paul Revere and the Raiders, the Sonics, Ian Whitcomb, Springfield Rifle and more.

Born in Astoria, he grew up in Cannon Beach and Seaside. He was always busy. Throughout his time at Seaside High School, he was a paid sports correspondent for the Oregonian, Astoria Budget, Seaside Signal and other newspapers and had a weekly radio show “Seaside Hi-Lites” on KAST-AM Radio in Astoria. Seaside High’s 1954-1955 student body president, he graduated from the school in 1955.

Dennon received a scholarship to attend Linfield in recognition of his writing ability. Credit the scholarship in part to Paul Durham, then Linfield’s athletic director and football coach, who was sports editor of the McMinnville News-Register. “He was aware of my sports writing skills and friends connected us,” Dennon told Wildcatville in July 2012.

Because he was to cover Linfield football pre-season practices for the Oregonian, in August 1955, 16-year-old Dennon moved from Seaside to McMinnville.

That put him on the Linfield campus before the Wildcats’ first football game of the season Sept. 17 in Ashland versus Southern Oregon, before his 17th birthday on Sept. 18, and before Linfield fall semester classes started Sept. 22.

Thus, before classes began, Dennon and Linfield football players, including Howard Morris, moved into Memorial Hall.The college describes the then men-only dormitory as “uniquely designed” and “tucked within the stands of the Linfield football stadium.”

Dennon’s Memorial Hall roommate was Morris. It was on “on the second floor of the stadium in an end room with entry to the fire escape,” Morris told Wildcatville in July 2012. “Those who wanted to avoid the house mom chose to enter via our room. We would be invaded at all hours. One time it was to smuggle a girl into a guy’s room.”

Dennon can’t remember if he and football players ate in the Linfield cafeteria, then located in Pioneer Hall. But, he does recall he “hated the cafeteria food.” And, he recalls being able to buy five hamburgers at “some drive-up spot for $1. I think we all lived there.”

As a Linfield student, a journalism major with a speech minor, Dennon joined Alpha Tau Omega fraternity.

Sports editor of the Linfield Review, he wrote a sports column, “Cat Tracks.” In addition, Dennon covered football and men’s basketball for Linfield and the other Northwest Conference schools for the Oregonian. At Durham’s behest, the News-Register hired Dennon part-time, working primarily on weekends covering local high school sports.

But, he started to “burn out” with sports writing. “My interests had shifted to broadcasting and my goal was to become a disc jockey,” Dennon said. “At Linfield, I had hoped to immediately get involved with the student radio station.” Ken Holmes, dean of men/history professor/swim team coach said no. He told Dennon working at the station would have to wait until he was an upperclassman.

Holmes’ edict “did not settle well with me,” Dennon said. After spring semester 1956, Dennon left Linfield and enrolled at Northwest School of Broadcasting in Portland. Concurrently, he started looking for work, submitted a job application to Portland’s KOIN-TV and was “hired within 24 hours, working days and attending broadcast school at night.”

Initially working in KOIN-TV’s continuity department, after six months, he was moved to promotions and became assistant promotion manager for KOIN-TV and AM and FM radio. “It was my college education,” Dennon said.

While with KOIN, Dennon was moonlighting for TV Prevue Magazine, a magazine similar to TV Guide which was distributed through the Sunday Oregonian. He wrote a column on music happenings called "On The Recordbeat." It focused on recording artists and newly released records. “That was the embryo that eventually took me into the record business.  I moved from Portland to Seattle in 1959 and the rest is history,” he said.

Read some of that history:
  • “Louie Louie and the History of Northwest Rock & Radio” Page 1 and Page 2

POSTSCRIPT – Dennon:
  • lives on Bainbridge Island, Wash., just a quick Puget Sound ferry ride from downtown Seattle. He operates two businesses from the island, SoundWorks which produces and markets spoken word and music products and Montcalm, a boutique media brokerage and investment banking firm.
  • has only returned to McMinnville and Linfield once since 1956. About 20 years ago he visited Memorial Stadium/Hall.
  • is author of “The Salmon Cookbook,” (1978, Pacific Search Press). There’s a copy in Linfield’s Nicholson Library.
  • and the Brothers Four (American folk singing group, founded in 1957 in Seattle) were business partners when they co-owned KSWB-AM radio in Seaside.
………….

Photos with this story show Jerry Dennon in 1963 and part of a Jerry Dennon bylined story from the Sept. 30, 1955, Oregonian.

.....................
Story below by Jerry Dennon and Pat Frizzell is titled “Big Leagues.” About Linfielders Bob Martyn (Twin Falls, Idaho) and Del Coursey (Elmira, Ore.), it appeared in Northwest Rotogravure Magazine of Sunday (April 15, 1956) Oregonian. Note that Linfielder Roy Helser is also mentioned.


Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Sign we'd like to see at Linfield softball, baseball venues



Larger sign is what we'd like to see. Smaller sign as it is now at/near Linfield softball, baseball venues.

Sunday, December 22, 2013

At Linfield in the late 1970s, at one time 24 players on Wildcat football team from Hawaii





 























Mike Riley, Oregon State University head football coach, is a former assistant coach of the same sport at Linfield. 

His OSU coaching bio says, "Riley’s first full-time appointment came at NAIA powerhouse Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore.  From 1977-82 he served as the program’s defensive coordinator and secondary coach, as well as assistant athletic director. Riley assisted head coach Ad Rutschman’s Wildcats to a six-year record of 52-7-1, which included five conference titles and the 1982 undefeated NAIA" national championship.  


Photos: OSU coach from university's athletics website.  Linfield coach by photographer Rusty Rae. 
..................................

Hawaii Bowl: Beavers and Mike Riley have long history of  recruiting in Hawaii

By Lindsay Schnell, Oregonian
2013: Dec. 21 online, Dec. 22 print

HONOLULU — Long before he ever took the head coaching job at Oregon State, Mike Riley liked to recruit in Hawaii.

Before Riley, the Beavers’ 13-year head coach, got familiar with big-time recruiting, the former Linfield assistant was already known around the islands, because he used to travel there to talk up the Wildcats’ Division-III program.

“When I was coaching at Linfield in the late 70s, at one time we had 24 guys on our team from Hawaii,” Riley recalled. “And that was just one team, one year. If I remember … 10 of them were starters, seven were all conference and one of them was an All-American. That’s when I started learning about football in Hawaii.”

It’s remarkable to think that the Linfield athletic department had the budget to send Riley all the way to Hawaii — getting here isn’t cheap — but when a reporter pointed this out Riley laughed and said he used to travel with people from the Linfield admissions office.

The guess here is that they all squeezed into one hotel room.

Currently, there are five players from Hawaii on the Beavers roster: defensive tackles Ali’i Robins and Mana Rosa (who Riley said is playing the best football of his life after an eligibility scare in the offseason), defensive ends Titus Failauga and Devon Kell (who has a very cool story), and linebacker Manase Hungalu. Sixth-year senior cornerback Steven Christian calls Sacramento, Calif., home but used to play at Hawaii before transferring to Oregon State.

Already, the Beavers have commitments from two Hawaiian natives: Fitou Fisiiahi is a 6-foot-2, 240-pound athlete from Honolulu, and Kalani Vakemeilalo is a 6-foot-4, 300-pound defensive tackle from Kapolei. Both are expected to make their commitments official on national signing day in early February. Per NCAA rules, coaches cannot comment on verbal commitments; because it is a no contact period, neither 

Vakameilalo or Fisiiahi can come to practice. They could go to the Hawaii Bowl game on Dec. 24 at Aloha Stadium, but cannot receive tickets from Oregon State coaches.

“We’ve always liked to recruit Hawaii for multiple reasons. Many of our coaches have backgrounds here,” said Riley, pointing to the fact that offensive line coach Mike Cavanaugh, defensive line coach Joe Seumalo, receivers coach Brent Brennan and defensive coordinator Mark Banker all previously coached at Hawaii. A few OSU graduate assistants also have Hawaii ties.

“I like to recruit here because kids are well coached. Football is very important here. They play with a passion that is special, and they bring to us a sense of family. They’re very loyal to wherever they are and they’ve added to our program in numerous ways.”

Friday, December 20, 2013

Monday, December 16, 2013

Now there are three

Now there are three head football coaches in the Northwest Conference who have been assistant coaches of the sport at Linfield.

On 12/16/2014 Jay Locey was announced by Lewis & Clark as the Pioneers new head football coach.
In the NWC, Locey joins Linfielders (grads, former Linfield football players, former Linfield assistant football coaches) Joe Smith and Chris Casey, head football coaches respectively of Linfield (Wildcats) and George Fox (Bruins).

Locey’s resume includes being head football coach at Linfield – Smith succeeded Locey -- and leading the Wildcats to their NCAAD3 football championship. He left Linfield to join Oregon State football and left Oregon State for  L&C.

Postscript: In the NAIA Frontier Conference, SOU football head coach is Craig Howard,  Linfield grad, who played Wildcat football.



Saturday, December 14, 2013

Memorial service in Carlton honors Linfielder Dorothy Helser

Linfielder Dorothy Helser, who died at age 98 on Nov. 20, 2013, honored during an inspiring memorial service Dec. 14, 2013, at Carlton, Ore., First Baptist Church. Wildcatville photos.













Friday, December 13, 2013

Name it for PAUL DURHAM!


Petition to name Linfield's Health and P.E. building on McMinnville campus for Paul Durham

POSTED AT LINFIELD BWC FACEBOOK PAGE THE FOLLOWING FROM STEVE LATHROP

"For those of you who may not know, there is a drive among alums to name the Health and P.E. Building on campus after Paul Durham. We think its a pretty good idea. Pete Dengenis has drafted a note to the Board of Trustees and is looking to get support. His message is below. Please like this or post your name in support and we will get it to Pete who will in turn present to the board." The message follows.

Linfield Board of Trustees

Dear Trustees:

We, the undersigned, support naming the Health and P.E. Building in honor of Paul Durham, the teacher, coach, administrator, and mentor of Linfield athletes and the architect of the foundation of our nationally renowned and recognized athletic programs. This is the right time to recognize his leadership contributions to Linfield College.

Your “All In” response will add your name to this “call to arms” to be delivered to the Board Of Trustees. It will not be necessary to have your signature just permission to add your name will be sufficient. Your support is critical. When Linfield “rings the bell” we answer the call. Now we are “ringing the bell” and await the call.

ACCESS THE FACEBOOK-POSTED PETITION HERE

https://www.facebook.com/groups/287879847630/permalink/10152067191782631/

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Linfield football sideline parkas thanks to former Wildcat players

This is a story about sideline parkas for the Linfield football team.

But, to get to the story’s conclusion takes mention of three Linfield football teams, three different Wildcat head coaches, three games, three states and three different seasons.





We start with the final game of 1981. Ad Rutchman was coach. Held Thanksgiving Thursday, Nov. 26, in Klamath Falls, Ore. "Kyle Tarpening connected on a 34-yard, third quarter field goal to push Linfield College to a 10-7 win over host Oregon Tech on (Thanksgiving) Thursday in (the NAIA District2) Oregon Bowl III," reported the Nov. 27, 1981, Oregonian.

It was Ad’s “100th collegiate triumph for Linfield … in 132 games over 14 seasons…,” says the Nov. 27 Eugene Register-Guard.

One of Linfield's players was Jon Girod, father of current Linfield footballer Jeremy Girod. Jon recalls the cold. The Oregonian says the game was played after "two inches of snow deposited on the field in a Wednesday night storm."

Jon says Linfield players "woke up to unexpected snow on the ground—we all froze our tails off" during the game. Weather Underground records Klamath Falls’s low temperature that day as 29 degrees.

Next, the final game of the 2003 season. Held Saturday, Dec. 6, it was in Collegeville, Minn. Linfield, coached by Jay Locey, lost 31-25 to host St. John's in the NCAAD3 football national playoff quarterfinals. Weather Underground says it was about 28 degrees there that day. Linfield players on the sidelines wore red football parkas borrowed from McMinnville High School. See Wildcatville photo.

And, finally, to Whitewater, Wisc., for a 2013 NCAAD3 football quarterfinal game. On Saturday, Dec. 7, Linfield, coached by Joe Smith, lost to host University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, 28-17. Temperature is recorded in game statistics as 6 degrees. One of the Wildcat fans at the game was Jon Girod. See Wildcatville photo.

Jon says, "I attended the St. John's game with Steve Hoge and Gary McGarvie, both former Linfield football players and friends of mine. We all were underdressed much like the Wildcats might have been if they didn't have the McMinnville jackets.

"I thought we as alumni should help. Steve and I worked together to get parkas for the team (several years ago). We had some funding help from Gary, Steve Lopes and Tim Nacrelli. Other than Gary, we all played in the 1982 game in Klamath Falls with snow on the ground. That was the inspiration to outfit our Wildcats properly on the sidelines in cold weather games."

Jon attended the 2013 Whitewater game and saw first-hand the Wildcats using parkas funded through work he helped spearhead.

That a wrap on this story.
....................................................
Thanks to Linfield Sports Info for scanning cover of 1981 "Oregon Bowl III" football game printed program. See same cover scan as well as scan of an inside page (starting lineups) here.







Linfield Football/Parker Moore story 11/11/2014



D-III Linfield unites for fallen teammate

By Anne M. Peterson, Associated Press/AP
11/11/2014 7:12 p.m. Eastern Standard Time

With a record 59 straight winning seasons, Linfield has played in the postseason many times before. Yet this season is heartbreakingly singular.

The Division III Wildcats are playing for teammate Parker Moore.

The sophomore linebacker was fatally stabbed in a random attack at an off-campus convenience store on Nov. 15. The killing stunned close-knit Linfield College and the town of McMinnville, nestled in Oregon's bucolic wine country about 40 miles southwest of Portland. The Wildcats were devastated.

"If you've got a clear sky tonight ... look up and find the brightest star you can, and you'll know right where Parker is." sophomore linebacker Kyle Chandler, one of Moore's close friends, posted to Twitter a day after the tragedy.

On Saturday, the 10th-ranked Wildcats (11-1) will play at undefeated defending champion Wisconsin-Whitewater in the semifinals. Should they win, they'll play for the NCAA Division III championship on Dec. 19 in Salem, Virginia.

The Wildcats clinched their share of a sixth straight Northwest Conference title and a spot in the playoffs with a 59-0 rout of Pacific. Sophomore quarterback Sam Riddle ran for two touchdowns and threw for another.

But later that night, Moore — a business management major who played mostly on special teams — was attacked by 33-year-old Joventino Bermudez-Arenas at a local 7-11, authorities said. Later, Bermudez-Arenas returned to the store — his family said he wanted to surrender — and was fatally shot by police.

No one knows why Bermudez-Arenas targeted Moore, a cheerful 20-year old who served as a resident adviser. The two did not know each other.

"Just as they're at the high point of their season to that point, beating Pacific and winning the conference title, it happened. Everything came crashing down," said defensive coordinator Jackson Vaughan. "Parker was a guy that everyone loved, and he was a great teammate. It was so hard on everybody.

"At the same time you had to get everybody regrouped and ready to play a playoff game that weekend. It was the hardest thing our coaching staff has ever had to do, and it was so hard on the guys."

The weekend following Moore's death, the Wildcats hosted Chapman (California) to a packed house of fans wearing shirts bearing Moore's No. 35 and phrases like "Play for Parker" and "Linfield Family." Moore's helmet was on the sidelines.

On the team's first offensive play, only 10 players took the field in a missing man formation as a tribute.

"It's hard to talk about it. It still hasn't really fully hit me, or probably some of the other kids or coaches on our team yet because we've focused on football. That's kind of what we did to help deal with it," senior linebacker Mike Nardoni said. "It's nice to have that release, but at the same time, sometimes when you're out there on the field, it reminds you of things, too."

The Wildcats spilled their grief on the field, romping to a 55-24 victory. The victory advanced Linfield to the second round against undefeated and perennial playoff contender Mary Hardin-Baylor, where the Wildcats won 31-28.

Then Linfield crushed undefeated Widener 45-7 in Chester, Pennsylvania, last weekend, with Riddle throwing five touchdown passes. That victory set up this weekend's semifinals against top-ranked Wisconsin-Whitewater.

"We've been trying to put one foot in front of the other, day by day. And it's been really hard, with the grief and the angst, if you will, within the team. But being together has really helped," head coach Joseph Smith said.

Linfield's streak of 59 winning seasons is a record at any level. And while the Wildcats have been to the playoffs for six straight seasons, this is the first time they've reached the semifinals since 2009.
Smith, a former defensive back for the Wildcats who has been at the school for 25 years, has been named Northwest Conference Coach of the Year for the past six seasons.

His voice cracks when he speaks about Parker's death, saying nothing ever prepares one for coaching through something like this.

For now, the team has to be focused on honoring Moore the best way it can, by playing and creating another legacy, he said.

"What we're trying to do is honor Parker with how we're living every day, how we're practicing every day, and how we're playing every play of every game," he said. "So that's been very helpful."
___

The Parker Archie Moore Memorial Fund at the National Christian Foundation Seattle has been established by his family to provide a scholarship to a Linfield student who most exemplifies Parker's character and qualities. Contributions can be made at www.linfield.edu/parkermoore .

Photos
-Three photos with this story posted at Wildcatville taken by Wildcatville on or prior to the 11/22/2014 Chapman at Linfield NCAAD3 football playoff game. Note that these three photos are not those which appeared with the AP story. See below for info about those photos.

-AP story included three photos from 11/22/2014.  One photo showed Parker Moore's football helmet on sidelines of the Chapman at Linfield NCAAD3 football game. Another photo showed Linfield football players bowing their heads to remember Parker following the Chapman game. Third photo showed Parker's memorial, on Lever Street auxiliary entrance to Memorial Stadium/Maxwell Field.

Bio of writer
http://www.collegebasketball.ap.org/author/anne-m-peterson
https://twitter.com/AnnieMPeterson/media
http://muckrack.com/AnnieMPeterson

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Paul Durham never coached bowling, but he had a defensive opinion related to the sport!

After Coach Paul Durham moved from Linfield to Hawaii in 1968, he had frequent visitors. Former Wildcat football players were among those who visited.

Linfield Hall of Famer Bob Ferguson, Class of 1965, remembers visiting with the coach in Honolulu, perhaps in about 2006. "There were 10 of us (there)," said Fergy. 

"I asked him, 'Is offense more important or defense?' Without hesitating, he boisterously responded in that way that only he could, 'Defense is the most important part of any sport...Even bowling!'  

"Of course, his comment brought the house down," Fergy said.

Show your Linfield colors!


Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Problematic live streaming of Linfield at UW-W football game

Get ready for a too long sentence.

Here it is: While Wildcatville was roaming the sidelines, camera in hand, during the Linfield at UW-W football game in Whitewater, Wisc. (Jefferson and Walworth counties) on 12/7/2013, it received reports from Linfielders that the live video stream of the game watched at Art Larrance's Raccoon Lodge in Raleigh Hills, Portland, Ore., was problematic.

One Linfielder at the lodge said:
  • Initially, "picture quite good."
  • Later, "video feed sporadic."
  • Finally, "video worthless."
But, wait, was the stream watchable in Costa Rica (CR)? A friend of a Linfield saw it -- albeit intermittently -- in that Central American country.

Friend of said, "got it down here … though it seemed to run for only 40 seconds at a crack and then I had to reload …  good picture, though."

In case you wonder, kickoff of game seen in CR was 10 a.m. Costa Rica Time, same as U.S. Central Time Zone (includes Wisconsin)



These three photos, taken and sent by a Linfielder,  from inside and outside the lodge.

Monday, December 09, 2013

Linfield clip



Sunday, December 08, 2013

Linfield at UWisconsin-Whitewater NCAAD3 football playoff game 12/7/2013; Wildcats' season ends with 28-17 loss

Read about game...
NCAA Division III football playoffs: Wild comeback sends UW-Whitewater past Linfield

Dec 7, 2013 


By RICK BRAUN For the Wisconsin State Journal, Madison, Wisc.

Box Score: Warhawks 28, Linfield 14
Linfield    -- 10-7- 0-0 = 17
UW-Whitewater-- 0- 14- 7- 7 = 28

Site:    Whitewater, Wis.
Perkins Stadium
Attendance:    862
Kickoff Time:    Noon
End of Game:    2:30 pm
Duration:    2:30
Temperature:    6F
Weather:    sunny, very cold

1st    13:21    LIN - Yoder, Josh 3 yd run (Repp, Josh kick), 5 plays, 66 yards, TOP 1:44  
1st    01:48    LIN - Repp, Josh 23 yd field goal 6 plays, 48 yards, TOP 2:05    


2nd    12:55    LIN - Peterson, E. 60 yd pass from Yoder, Josh (Repp, Josh kick) 5 plays, 86 yards, TOP 1:51  
2nd    11:06    UWW - Tyler Huber 19 yd pass from Matt Behrendt (Eric Kindler kick) 6 plays, 51 yards, TOP 1:42  
2nd    04:07    UWW - Jake Kumerow 12 yd pass from Matt Behrendt (Eric Kindler kick) 9 plays, 84 yards, TOP 2:10  
 

3rd    01:48    UWW - Jake Kumerow 25 yd pass from Matt Behrendt (Eric Kindler kick) 8 plays, 55 yards, TOP 2:28  
 

4th    12:15    UWW - Jake Kumerow 10 yd pass from Matt Behrendt (Eric Kindler kick) 7 plays, 61 yards, TOP 2:46  

Officials - Referee: Tom Barnette; Umpire: Tony Day; Linesman: Tom Schiller;
Line judge: Josh Thurow; Back judge: Tom Gillund; Field judge: Chris Rossini
Side judge: Ben Conley; Scorer: Not listed.

WHITEWATER – Trailing by 17 points barely 17 minutes into Saturday's NCAA Division III quarterfinal, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater football team could have suffered a fatal case of ice-cold shock.

Instead, the Warhawks delivered one of their most satisfying victories in what they hope is becoming another special season.

Riding a defense that recorded seven second-half sacks, Whitewater scored the game’s final four touchdowns in 10-degree temperatures to pull out a 28-17 victory over Linfield College of McMinnville, Ore., and a spot in the semifinals of the Division III playoffs.

The Warhawks will play University of Mary Hardin-Baylor at noon Saturday for the chance to return to the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl in Salem, Va., for the seventh time in the last eight years. The site of Saturday's game is yet to be determined.

Early on, it appeared the Warhawks wouldn’t be worrying about next week at all.

“We uncharacteristically fumbled and turned it over, we gave up big, long pass plays and we got our backs to the wall,” said Whitewater coach Lance Leipold.

“I could not be more proud of the way we reacted to it.”

Before the Warhawks had even dented the scoreboard, Linfield had already posted a season-high point total for Whitewater opponents, taking a 17-0 lead with 12 minutes, 55 seconds left in the first half.

After stunning the Warhawks with a five-play drive for touchdown on the game’s opening possession, Marcus McLin fumbled away the ensuing kickoff.

Linfield reached the 1 and went for it on fourth down, but the play never got off the ground as Chad Coburn fumbled a snap from the wildcat formation and was stopped short.

Still, the field position helped Linfield make it 10-0 on a 22-yard field goal by Josh Repp with 1:48 left in the first quarter. The margin grew to 17-0 on a 60-yard pass from Josh Yoder to Evan Peterson with 12:55 in the half.

From there, the Warhawks went to work.

They covered 51 yards in six plays for their first score, with quarterback Matt Behrendt connecting with Tyler Huber for the final 19 yards. When the Warhawks got the ball back, they drove 84 yards in nine plays, with Behrendt finding Jake Kumerow for the final 12 yards.

Trimming the halftime margin to 17-14 was a huge relief, and the Warhawks cranked things up in the second half. Yoder had time to complete 17 of 19 first-half passes for 257 yards, but he had no time to do much of anything in the final 30 minutes.

Whitewater posted seven of its eight sacks in the second half, with two of them resulting in Yoder fumbles — the first of which turned the game around.

Linfield still led, 17-14, and was at the Whitewater 20 when freshman John Flood sacked Yoder at the 30. The ball  squirted loose to the 45, where Whitewater’s Kyle Wismer covered it. Eight plays later, Kumerow hauled in a 25-yard pass from Behrendt on third and 9, and the Warhawks were ahead for keeps with 1:48 left in the third.

“You’ve just got to keep your composure,” said Behrendt, who completed 26 of 36 passes for 275 yards and four touchdowns. “That’s all you can do. We knew the defense was going to get their stuff together and stop them. We just had to do our job and get in the end zone.”

The Warhawks did that one more time as Behrendt hit Kumerow for a 10-yard score with 12:15 left. Kumerow finished with seven catches for 149 yards and three scores.

From there, the Warhawks turned it over to the defense, which completed the day with five fourth-quarter sacks.

But defensive coordinator Brian Borland also credited the offense.

“We needed those guys today,” Borland said. “They put 17 points up in a hurry, and all of a sudden our offense got us right back into the game.

"It was just such a great team effort today. It makes everybody feel good because we could have folded up and we didn’t. That’s what makes me prouder than anything else.”