Boxscore

A stingy Linfield defense proved to be just as formidible as the triple-digit temperatures in Southern California's Inland Valley region.

On a Saturday afternoon that saw temperatures reach 105 degrees, the visiting Wildcats yielded just 78 offensive yards to La Verne en route to a 30-3 victory in the Leopards' home opener at Ortmayer Stadium. 

The Linfield defense registered four sacks and forced three Leopard turnovers.

Linfield, ranked #16 in the latest d3football.com Top 25 poll, opened the game strong as it needed only six offensive plays to score as Simon Lamson capped a 60-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown to give the Wildcats a 7-0 advantage with 13:02 left in the first quarter.

The La Verne defense held firm through the rest of the quarter without yielding another score.  The Wildcats however scored again to begin the second quarter when quarterback Aaron Boehme found Deidre Wiersma from 15 yards out to take a 14-0 lead. On the next series, Linfield intercepted a Leopard pass at the La Verne 32. Taylor Avritt carried the ball six times in a seven-play drive and finished the drive with a 1-yard run.

When a Linfield drive stalled at the Leopard four-yard line, Wildcat kicker Josh Kay booted a 20-yard field goal with 5:10 to go to propel the Wildcats to a 24-0 lead they would take into intermission.

Linfield (1-1) outgained La Verne 293-46 in the first half and held the Leopards to just two first downs in the opening 30 minutes. 

The Wildcats added to their lead early in the third quarter when Kalae' Parish recovered a fumble on the Leos' opening possession of the second half, setting up a 37-yard field goal by Kay to pad the Wildcat lead to 27-0.

Despite the deficit, La Verne continued to fight and finally forced a turnover when Donald Mull picked off a Boehme pass and returned it 13 yards to the Linfield 17.

The turnover was converted into the first Leopard points of the game when placekicker Alex Miller booted a 35-yard field goal with 2:05 remaining in the third quarter to close the margin to 27-3.

Both teams went nearly 15 minutes of action without a score until Kay provided the final margin with his third field goal of the afternoon, a 25-yarder with 2:32 remaining in the contest.

Slezak finished with eight catches for 139 yards. Lamson rushed for a game-high 82 yards on 18 carries.

Josh Ross and Thomas Arguello combined for 57 yards passing for the Leopards.  Defensively, Mull recorded eight solo tackles along with his interception.  Ryan Baranek had five stops while Filip Marcelin and Alex Barrios each collected four solo tackets.  Barrios finished with three tackles for losses.

La Verne (0-2) begins SCIAC play next week with a road game at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.  Kickoff is 7:00 pm.