Senior punter Cade Johannsen booted five punts for an average of 47.4 yards in a 32-19 win over the reigning conference champion Whitworth Pirates, earning himself Northwest Conference Special Teams Athlete of the Week honors.

The Eugene, Oregon, native leads all of NCAA Division III in average punt yardage, averaging just over 48 yards per punt through five games this season. His 3.2 punts per game narrowly doesn't meet the minimum punt requirement to be the official national leader for the time being. A Computer Science major, Johannsen entered his senior campaign as a D3Football.com First Team All-American punter, and recently set a new career long of 61 yards this season. He improved on his average of 44.8 yards per punt in 2025, to now over 48 yards on each boot. In his career, he has sent over one third of his punts past 50 yards, pinning opponents inside the twenty-yard line 21 times.

Johannsen and the Linfield football team (4-1, 3-0 NWC) are set to host their second home game of the season inside the CatDome this Saturday, hosting Pacific Lutheran at 1 p.m. for Fall Family Weekend. The 'Cats recently moved up in the D3Football.comTop-25 Poll this week, returning to No. 22, where they sat following the season-opening win at UW-Oshkosh. 

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