REDLANDS, Calif. – The University of Redlands Football team (6-4) battled the heavy rain and wind Saturday afternoon during the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Third Place game against Pomona-Pitzer where they fell 12-0 inside Ted Runner Stadium.
Neither team had done anything for 16 minutes until a high snap on fourth down went over the head of Bulldog punter Aidan Petruescu (La Habra, CA). He was forced to kick the ball out of bounds and due to illegal batting the ball was given to the Sagehens at the Redlands' six instead of taking the safety and getting the ball after the drop kick figuring a long drive was unlikely due to the weather.
On the ensuing drive Aleks Wojcik (San Diego, CA) had a quick stop before Laurence Williams (Corona, CA) added a tackle and a pass deflection, which forced P-P to take the 19-yard field goal.
The poor conditions struck again on the subsequent kickoff for the Bulldogs who muffed the kick seeing the Sagehens recover it at the Redlands 21. Three plays later Pomona-Pitzer made it 10-0 with just over 12 minutes remaining in the first half.
On their first full drive of the second quarter Redlands' Mark Mitchell III (Fontana, CA) ran for eight yards and quarterback Tobey Schmidt (Tustin, CA) added another 11, but a holding eliminated the gain.
The Bulldogs would then be forced to punt on 4th and 18. Petruescu then came back out and once again saw the snap go over his head forcing him to kick it out of the back of the endzone for a safety giving PP the 12-0 lead.
To begin the third the Bulldogs got all the way down to the Sagehen eight after 37 yards from Mitchell on the ground and another 26 from Schmidt. But on the 16th play of the drive the completed pass to Julian Walker (Fontana, CA) came up a yard short on 4th and 4 as the Maroon and Grey would turn it over on downs after a drive of almost ten minutes.
Over the final 3:23 of the game the Bulldogs drove down into the Sagehen red zone and had a 3rd and goal at the P-P six. But in the final seconds Schmidt threw a pass into the end zone in desperation, seeing it intercepted, which ended the game.
Mitchell III posted a career high 40 touches gathering 114 yards, averaging 2.4 yards per carry. He also added three receptions for 28 yards, and one punt returned taken back 12-yards. Defensively Redlands held the Sagehens to just 113 yards of total offense with 71 coming through the air and another 42 on the ground. Williams posted seven tackles, a pass break-up and a TFL, Jaeden Thorn (Seattle, WA) added four tackles, three of which were TFL's for a combined nine yards lost, and Wojcik finished with five tackles, a TFL, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.
The Bulldogs' six wins are the most since 2021 and a three-win improvement from 2024.
