At Linfield, it's Lemons' limelight
|
|
On Saturday, he stepped back, stood on the sidelines and let his son and four grandsons bask in the glory of college football history.
“This is their day,” Lemon said. “I’m here to support them and be a part of it.”
Lemon’s son, Meadow Lemon (known as George on campus), is defensive backs coach and assistant director of security at Linfield. He knew his sons were destined for the limelight when he named them after the likes of Detroit Tigers outfielder Chet Lemon (no relation) and Mychal Thompson of the Los Angeles Lakers.
“I just liked those guys.” said Lemon.
A six-person crew from ESPN followed the Lemons everywhere for three days this past weekend. From the house, out to dinner and in the locker room they were there getting quotes and enough B roll to put together a five-minute piece to run on the network’s College Gameday broadcast.
As George stood on the sidelines during warmups, the crew tended to him wiring a microphone through his jacket for in-game sound bytes.
“You know I’m shutting this off when I use the bathroom.” Lemon said laughing. “I’m not going out like that.”
As Mychal practiced long snaps on the CatDome turf, the crew shot footage -- camera man on his stomach shooting up for just the right shot. It may be the most media coverage a Division III long snapper has ever received.
“It was a little weird,” said Mychal. “But I was almost used to it by then.”
 The Lemons huddle up after Linfield's win against Pacific Lutheran on Saturday. |
Grandfather Meadowlark, stood quietly on the sidelines, at times smiling that grandfather smile of approval. His black baseball cap with the Linfield “L” on the front made him possibly the most legendary Wildcats fan in history.
The four brothers occasionally play together on punt team which could be considered the Lemon-Raid punt team. The Cats only gave up 5.5 return yards on 2 punt returns.
The Cats spent the day blanking the Lutes -- a team that had averaged more than 38 points per game on the season.
Afterward, the cameras kept rolling. Three generations of Lemons posed, goofed around and pretended like it was just another family gathering in the Lemon living room.
“Here momma, hold this,” Bubba said as he tossed his mouth guard to his mother, Barbara.
“Ew, Bubba,” Barbara exclaimed as she tucked it in the side pocket of a bag. Mouth guards don’t show well on national TV.
The boys danced, posed, laughed and even did a short rendition of their grandfather’s Globetrotter routine tossing the ball back and forth between legs, behind backs and over their shoulders.
Grandpa joined in with one backward toss as the small crowd that gathered around the group cheered.
It was a special, if not historical day in McMinnville, and the Lemons took it all in stride.
“We’re just blessed to have this opportunity,” Lemon said.
Where will the Lemons watch their fifteen minutes of fame?
“We’ll likely watch it together,” said Bubba. “And you know I’ll be the best looking Lemon on there.”
Theisen takes the lead
St. Thomas has little to cheer about this season limping their way to a 2-5 record. Saturday’s 51-28 homecoming loss was just another disappointing notch in the loss column. Individual highlights are now the focal point of the season and wide receiver P.J. Theisen reached a special spot in the Tommie record book. Theisen caught three touchdown passes (54, 23, 20 yards) and broke the school record for career receiving yards. He broke the St. Thomas record for career catches last week and Saturday moved past Ryan Davis' career total of 2,652 yards. Theisen had five catches for 123 yards and now has 182 catches for 2,693 yards and 18 touchdowns in 38 career games.
Rewriting the Cobber record book
A year after the Concordia offense was so abysmal that they threw their first touchdown of the season in the last game, the Cobbers are set to rewrite the record book in 2007. Running back Adam Swingdorf plowed his way to a pair of touchdowns in the game and now has 14 for the season. He needs only four more to break the single-season mark of 17 set by Mike Jousma in 1992. He is also four rushing TDs away from breaking the season record of 16 set by Kevin Williamson in 2005. Running back Cory Johnson ran for a game-high 152 yards in pursuit of the Cobber career rushing record. He carried the ball 17 times and averaged 8.9 yards per carry. Johnson now has 2,242 career rushing yards and is 152 yards away from breaking the school's all-time rushing yardage mark of 2,393 set by Jousma. The Cobbers have scored 51 points in three of their last four games and have 15 passing touchdowns on the season compared to one in 2006.
Connell climbs to top spot
Through four quarters and three overtimes, Central quarterback Tim Connell led the Dutch to big play after big play. When the dust settled, the Dutch had once again come from behind to squeak out another last minute victory to remain undefeated at 8-0. He completed 22 of 44 passes without an interception, throwing for 277 yards and three touchdowns. He broke the school career completions record of 392 set by Shad Flynn (1990-93) and now has 410. Connell also shattered the school passing yardage mark with 5,008, topping Flynn’s mark of 4,984. And he now tops the career total offense charts with 6,076 yards, bettering the mark of 5,858 yards of Mark Kacmarynski (1992-96).
Berg to Winford again and again and again and again …
Augsburg quarterback Jordan Berg was likely icing his throwing arm on Sunday after completing 39 passes on 65 attempts with five touchdowns and a school-record 415 yards. Berg set or tied four school records with his performance including his previous school record for pass attempts (64, last season), the old record for passing yardage set by Dave Fransen in a 2002 game (405 yards), Fransen's record for total offensive yardage with 422 yards (old record was 398), and his old record for total offensive plays (68, last season).
Berg found receiver Royce Winford early and often as the Auggies jumped to a 28-0 lead. Winford hauled in 20 receptions for 235 yards and three touchdowns. Winford's 20 receptions broke the school's single-game record, set by Scott Hvistendahl in a 1998 game, and the conference single-game mark, set by Hvistendahl, Adam Herbst of St. John's (1997) and Dick Donlin of Hamline (1955).
The beat goes on
Occidental has had to fight its way back in a number of games this year and Saturday was no different. The Tigers were battling Pomona-Pitzer for the 110th time and once again “The Drum” -- the traveling trophy marking one of the longest rivalries on the West Coast -- was on the line. Oxy rallied back from a 15-7 halftime deficit to walk away with a 31-15 victory and rights to retain the coveted "The Drum" for the 58th time in history and the fourth consecutive year.
Busy Beaver
Buena Vista quarterback Chris Hawkins became the program's all-time leading passer, while carrying the team to a comeback 30-24 victory over Loras College. Hawkins' eight-yard touchdown pass to senior Randy Kaufmann with 8:06 left in the fourth quarter moved him ahead of Mike Wilson as the program's all-time passing yardage leader with 5,701 yards.
News, notes and things you may have missed
• Crown's win on Saturday clinched its first ever winning season. The program started in 1984 as a club sport.
• Augsburg's defense claimed eight turnovers (seven interceptions and a fumble) and held Carleton to 296 yards of total offense -- 310 yards of passing and negative-14 rushing yards -- the first time Augsburg has held an opponent to negative rushing yardage since holding Carleton to negative-17 rushing yards in a 52-7 win on Oct. 30, 1999.
• UW-La Crosse recorded their first shutout of UW-Oshkosh since 1995 (44-0). The Eagles have now won 22 straight games over UW-Oshkosh.
• St. Olaf quarterback Matt Penz entered Saturday’s game with three interceptions on the season. Bethel’s swarming defense forced Penz to throw four interceptions including two by Brandon Carr.
• UW-Eau Claire committed four turnovers on Saturday but forced six UW-Platteville turnovers in a 40-33 victory.
• Linfield’s 24-0 victory marked the first time PLU had been shut out on the football field since 1979, ending the Lutes' streak of scoring games at 293. It also was the first blanking of a PLU team by Linfield since back-to-back shutouts in 1965 and 1966.
• St. Thomas is minus-16 in turnover ratio in its five losses and plus-7 in its two victories. The Tommies have lost five consecutive home games dating to last season.
• UW-Stout kicker Brandon Raciborski's 52-yard field goal attempt with no time left on the clock hit the left upright and ricocheted through the goal posts to give the Blue Devils a 28-27 win over UW-River Falls Saturday.
• Simpson quarterback Travis Dietz rushed for a career high 112 yards and threw for 169 yards and two touchdowns. Dietz is the first Simpson quarterback since Brett Heitland (1998 vs. Dubuque) to rush for at least 100 yards and throw for 100 yards in the same game.
He Said It
“It was a great comeback,” coach Jeff McMartin said. “You can probably put this up there with a lot of the great games in Central football history.”
“I didn’t want to fair catch it,” Neil Suckow said of his 66-yard punt return for a touchdown. “The rest of the guys did their job blocking, and that is all that matters. My job is easy then.”
Game to Watch
No. 2 Mary Hardin Baylor at No. 3 UW-Whitewater, 1:00pm
Does this game really need a writeup? These games rarely come along in Division III. The Warhawks grinded out a 7-3 win in Texas last year, when Whitewater was ranked No. 2 and Mary Hardin-Baylor No. 6. The Crusaders are coming off an incredibly impressive ground attack where two running backs accounted for 523 yards -- an NCAA record. The winner of this game should have the inside track on challenging Mount Union for the Stagg Bowl.