PORTLAND, Ore. –
Connor McNabb rushed for a career-high 182 yards and scored two touchdowns, and Linfield rolled up 452 yards on the ground on the way to a dominating 77-7 rout of Northwest Conference foe Lewis & Clark in the regular-season finalé for both clubs Saturday afternoon at Griswold Stadium.
Ranked fourth nationally in both the AFCA and D3football.com Top 25 polls, the victory capped off the program's 21st unbeaten regular season.
Linfield (9-0, 6-0 NWC) now awaits the NCAA's full 32-team playoff field announcement set for Sunday at 2 p.m. PST on NCAA.com. The Wildcats will be making the program's 12th NCAA playoff appearance in the last 13 seasons.
McNabb opened the scoring with a 60-yard touchdown jaunt just three minutes into the game before the Pioneers evened the score at 7. L&C quarterback Cruz Montana hooked up with Devon Guest for an eight-yard aerial score just two minutes later.
It was all Linfield after that. Eaton fired three TD strikes over the next nine minutes, first to
Devon Murray, then to
Joel Valadez and
Franco Keplinger. McNabb's second TD dash from 3 yards out midway thorugh the second period made the score 35-7.
McNabb ran for 109 first-half yards and averaged 15.2 yards per carry on the day. Backups
Tyler Larson contributed 71 yards on just seven carries and
Aaron Martinez added another 63 yards and a touchdown on just two carries.
Playing just 2½ quarters, Eaton finished the day with 173 yards passing, completing 19 of 25 throws with one interception. His replacement,
Dawson Lieurance, connected on all three of his pass attempts, including one for a touchdown to
Connor Wolfe late in the third quarter.
Valadez and
Colton Smith both finished with six receptions.
Logan Carr and
Nick Severson led the defensive effort with six tackles each.
Colby Kalaukoa and
Tye Vargas both chipped in with five stops. Backup rover
Johnny Miller pulled in his first career interception, returning it for a touchdown to push Linfield's lead to 56-7 with 9:01 left in the third quarter.
As a team, Linfield rolled up a season-high 669 yards of offense, the fourth-highest single-game total in program history. The Wildcats' 455 yards rushing marked the second-highest rushing output in recorded history, coming within 40 yards of the program record of 493 rushing yards set in a NAIA semifinal playoff game against Minot State in 1992.
The victory marked Linfield's 44th consecutive series victory over Lewis & Clark. The Pioneers last defeated the Wildcats in 1973.
