Analysis | Chapman football wins first homecoming game since 2019
Courtesy of Larry Newman
To be cliché: it was never going to be a walk in the park for Chapman football as they attempted to break their curse of three straight Homecoming Weekend game losses. California Lutheran University wasn’t going to allow “Celebration” by Kool & The Gang play over the loudspeakers at Ernie Chapman Stadium without a fight.
Frankly, though, the game was a lot closer and stressful for the Panthers than it should have been. The crowd of over 3,500 fans, full of parents and relatives who had made the trip to Orange for the Homecoming festivities, turned from cheerfully ecstatic to whisperingly nervous very quickly in the second half.
Chapman had amassed a healthy 21-7 lead by halftime, and were on track for an easy third win of the season. Quarterback Joey Yellen, a real estate graduate student, was throwing dimes in his first ever start for Chapman. The former Division I athlete, who played at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa most recently, had some shaky moments but started to find a rhythm which allowed the hosts to control the pace of play.
While the Cal Lutheran Kingsmen had taken a 7-0 lead in the first quarter, coming after great field position off of a Yellen interception, it lasted all of five minutes. Running backs Gio Ursino and Tyler Pacheco, a junior business finance major, found success on Chapman’s next drive. Yellen was still shaking off the rust, after only transferring in a few months ago. Ursino, a senior broadcast journalism and documentary major, found the endzone to tie the game up at 7-7. That drive ignited the team on both sides of the ball, which created a run of three touchdowns with no answers from Cal Lutheran.
The Kingsmen couldn’t get anything going for the remainder of the first half, and their next drive was shut down with three straight plays for no gain. When Chapman’s offense gave the ball away after a failed fourth down, the defense immediately got it back through an interception from sophomore business administration major Jacob Gaudi.
Chapman’s next offensive drive saw the emergence, finally, of Yellen. The first play after the interception was almost a disaster but it turned into a moment that could live in the memory of Chapman football fans for years to come.
The less than ideal start from Yellen was close to continuing when he fumbled the snap near midfield. However, he used his years of collegiate experience and calmness under pressure to quickly recover the ball and get a pass off before the defense got to him. The pass he got off was insane. It sailed through the wind and down to wide receiver Amir Adams with the precision of a hawk attacking its prey. It was a busted play. It was the kind of play where everybody is thinking, “no, no, no… YES!” Adams, a senior psychology major, hauled it in and the crowd truly erupted for the first time on the night.
Chapman found a healthy mixture on offense of the air attack and the ground assault, as Yellen found his rhythm. A touchdown catch from tight-end Quentin Biebel, a senior economics major, extended the lead to 21-7. A few more drives from both teams saw no points scored and Chapman was in the driver’s seat. Something must’ve happened in that 15-minute halftime break.
If you are a fan of any team in any sport, you know of the phrase “tale of two halves.” Commentators will often throw it out there when there is a complete momentum shift, and the dominant team is now on the back foot. It is infuriating to see if you are watching your team slowly lose a lead that you, personally, thought was safe.
The Panthers started the second half in the worst possible way. Their first offensive drive ended in a punt, and Cal Lutheran’s first offensive drive ended in a touchdown. But that’s alright, the first half started similarly and Chapman swung the momentum in their favor pretty quickly. Their next drive ended with an interception. After forcing a punt from the visitors, Chapman again could not capitalize as the game entered the fourth quarter. The energy on campus turned from pre-celebratory to nervous with just over 10 minutes left as the home team held onto a 21-14 lead.
Cal Lutheran started to drive down the field. Every run by junior Gabe Landless, and every completion by senior QB Jaden Casey brought them closer to tying the game for the first time since the first quarter. Multiple pass interference penalties on Chapman helped to stop the clock, and as the mistakes piled up so did the energy from the Keck Science Center section of the crowd.
With eight and a half minutes to go, Cal Lutheran found the end zone. Casey threw a bullet pace low towards senior wide receiver Cade Cadam, in the perfect spot away from the defender. Cadam made the catch and all the Kingsmen needed was an extra point. However, like any good tale, there was a twist. They missed it. A tie game seemed like a foregone conclusion, but Chapman still held the lead.
There were to be no second half touchdowns for the Panthers. There was to be one field goal, though. It was perhaps the most important field goal that junior kicker Jax Hudson, an integrated educational studies major, has had this season. With all the pressure on him, Hudson sank it and gave Chapman a 24-20 lead with just one minute and 39 seconds remaining. Talk about clutch. This made it so that Cal Lutheran would need a touchdown to win.
But we wouldn’t be here, talking about the ending of this game, if the visitors flamed out. What was once a nervous energy in the stadium became an anxiety that can only be described as heart-attack-inducing. Every good play for Cal Lutheran brought groans from the home end, and every negative play created the loudest cheers of the night.
With no timeouts remaining, Casey spiked the ball to stop the clock at 11 seconds. Cal Lutheran were 12 yards from the endzone and had, realistically, two chances to shock everybody. Their first look took a lot longer than they would have hoped for, and it ended in an incompletion. They had one second left, one play that would decide everything. As Casey scrambled away from pressure, he saw Cadam in the back of the endzone. He lifted the ball over three Chapman defenders and Cadam came down with it… but he was out of bounds.
All the king’s horses, and all the Kingsmen, couldn’t put the comeback together again.
When the game was finally over, Chapman’s benched rushed onto the field and the stands erupted with noise. They had been waiting for this win. Most players on the roster hadn’t gotten a Homecoming Weekend victory.
Ultimately, it wouldn’t have been as satisfying if they had blown out their opponents. It would’ve been unmemorable, and the Homecoming Weekend game deserves drama. Close games, where the crowd is holding their breath and on the edge of their seats, live longer in the annals of sporting history than any big win ever could. If you aren’t stressed as a fan, then you didn’t see a good game.
