Small guys come up big
Occidental.
Ironically, it was the smallest players on the field who helped secure the 42-40 upset victory over Concordia-Moorhead.
“We expect to go to the playoffs but to beat a team like Concordia on the road, it’s surreal — it still hasn’t set in,” senior captain Zac Sakowski said.
Sakowski stands a mere five foot nine inches and 150 pounds. As a wide receiver he uses his speed to elude defenders knowing his size is as intimidating as a one-legged sprinter. His shiftiness on Saturday gave the Cobbers fits. He went right at defensive back Jordan Talge, a Gagliardi Trophy finalist, and continuously came down with the ball.
“I’m pushing 150 lbs with the pads on,” Sakowski said with a smile. “I wanted to put 145 pounds on the roster but my Dad said people would laugh at me.”
Nobody was laughing at Sakowski on Saturday as he seemed to be near the ball on every play. His 25-yard catch in the second quarter set up the Tigers’ fourth touchdown and a 28-7 lead. In the fourth quarter, he was on “the hands team” as Concordia attempted an onside kick and emerged from the pile with the ball firmly in his grasp.
“You have to look out for yourself,” Sakowski says about being one of the smallest players on the field week after week. “You just have to play at 100% and not play with any fear.”
Similar in stature, Occidental running back Ryan Gonzalez is no imposing threat from a size perspective. At 5-8, 190, he was four inches shorter and 25 pounds lighter than Concordia’s starting running back, Travis Christensen.
“He’s a die-hard,” Sakowski says about his teammate. “He does not look athletic at all but he just plays hard — he’s our workhorse.”
As they say, it’s not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog. Replace dogs with Tigers and Gonzalez is a vivid example of this. He scored the Tigers first touchdown of the game and their last two while finishing with four on the afternoon. Although his four touchdowns are more impressive than his 52 yards on 15 carries, he was able to punch in the scores after another “small” player continued to set him up.
Wide receiver Caleb Small, playing extensively in place of the injured Ric Fukushima, doubled his total of receptions for the season hauling in 10 balls for 124 yards and setting up several of Gonzalez’s touchdowns.
“When Ric went down I had to step up,” Small said about replacing Fukushima who broke his collarbone in the first round game against Willamette.
Small was a bit surprised himself at the size of his teammates when he visited Occidental as a recruit.
“These guys are kind of small,” Small said he thought to himself after his first visit to campus. “But, after you see them play you see they know how to play the game. They’ll throw their whole body into the play and make a move after the catch.”
It was those catches and big plays by the “small” guys that led to a huge upset over Concordia on the road. They now hold the only two wins by the SCIAC in Division III NCAA playoff history.
After disposing of No. 2 seed Concordia, the Tigers now travel to McMinnville to take on Linfield, the No. 1 seed in the West and national favorite to challenge Mount Union in the Stagg Bowl.
And while the Tigers players might be small, they’ll need to play the best game of their lives to pull off the biggest upset of the Division III football season.
Record-breaking playoff opener
Linfield used another five touchdowns from quarterback Brett Elliott and a 100-yard interception return from O.J. Gulley to easily dispose of UW-La Crosse, 52-14.
Elliott, with 49 touchdown passes in 10 games broke the Northwest small college single season record of 46 touchdowns set by Pacific Lutheran’s Marc Weekly in 1993.
Gulley, who returned an interception 100 yards for a touchdown, set a Linfield school record and tied the NCAA Division III playoff record.
The final game
Over 1,000 games in the West Region this season and we’re down to the final one. Speed has outraced power, underdogs have beaten favorites and now we’re down to our final two teams. Before our West Region representative goes off to battle the rest of the country, let’s break down this final match up.
Occidental at Linfield, Maxwell Field, 12:00pm, McMinnville, Ore.: Linfield was in this spot last year. Occidental has never been anywhere near the third round. Both teams have more speed than a Maserati to go with a Division I transfer quarterback. Occidental has been the Cinderella while Linfield has been the dominant favorite. On Saturday they’ll battle for a chance to represent the West Region in the final four. This is the first ever match up between these two schools. Common opponents are one of the only ways to compare the two teams.
Linfield defeated NWC opponents Lewis and Clark 62-7 and Willamette 48-14 during the regular season. Occidental topped Lewis and Clark 31-6 in a non conference regular season matchup and downed Willamette 28-14 to open the NCAA playoffs.
Both quarterback Brett Elliott and quarterback Ryan Collins have several speedster receivers with stick-em hands at their disposal. Elliott had three receivers with 100 yards on Saturday in Casey Allen, George Carter and Brad McKechnie. Collins has the speedy Sakowski and recently revived Small. Ryan Gonzalez is a force out of the backfield for the Tigers.
Both teams are full of speed, each has a solid quarterback and both can hurt the opponent on the ground or through the air.
However, with their playoff history and experience and the fact that annual playoff roadblock St. John's isn’t waiting for the Wildcats, I see Linfield putting up lots of points and heading on to face the winner of Delaware Valley versus Rowan.