ORANGE, Calif. – The University of Redlands Football team (2-2, 0-2 SCIAC) was never able to get their offense on track as their defense was given a tall task that led to a 27-0 loss at Chapman University Saturday night.
The challenge came from the first drive when the Panthers went 46 yards for a touchdown after a 54-yard kickoff return.
With the deficit at 7-0 at the beginning of the second quarter Jaeden Thorn (Seattle, WA) made a tackle on the Panther running back on 4th and 9 forcing a turnover on downs.
The subsequent drive went 25 yards thanks to a 23-yard completion from Luke Coleman (Sacramento, CA) to Jalani Duce Ellison (Reseda, CA). The momentum stalled, however, as the Bulldogs had three plays for negative four yards followed by an Aidan Petruescu (La Mirada, CA) punt.
Chapman took advantage with a touchdown followed by an interception that set up their third score of the half as they held a 20-0 lead on Redlands at the break.
Beginning the second half Jakai Torres (Baltimore, MD) ran for two yards and JT Solis (Sylmar, CA) caught a five-yard pass, but after a false start and an incomplete pass, Petruescu was again called upon to punt it away.
The first possession of the second half saw the Panthers score their fourth and final touchdown of the game.
In response Redlands' Julian Borrayo (Covina, CA) had an 11-yard reception followed by Coleman running it for 10 yard, but in each instance the Bulldogs were penalized, getting called for holding and an illegal block below the waist, which took them from being at the Chapman 37 to their own 30 as the drive stalled.
The defense found its footing on the final three drives of the third quarter as they went turnover on downs, interception by Enrique Ybanez (Ontario, CA), and forced a punt.
The fourth quarter saw five of the six possessions end in punts with the sixth wrapping up the game.
Punting and kickoff returns were the lone team statistics the Bulldogs led in. They had 11 punts for 444 yards for a 40.4 average. Petruescu had 10 punts, which is the third-most in program history. Their lone kickoff went 65 yards by Joey Newell.
Thorn had a game and career-high 12 tackles with a tackle for a loss (TFL). Adrian Silva (Bell Gardens, CA) led the way with a game-high three TFL's and had a sack and four tackles. Kam Abbasian (Bellevue, WA) forced a fumble along with recording four tackles.
Redlands stays on the road for a match-up in Claremont against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) on Saturday, October 11 beginning at 1:00 p.m.
