That’s a wrap. Linfield give L&C an atomic monkey stomp*

With the ‘Cats playoff hopes dashed with last week’s lost to Whitworth (10-6) the ‘Cats wrapped up our 2007 campaign with a 66-0 rolling of Lewis and Clark at Linfield’s Maxwell Field. It was a picture perfect late fall day at the ‘Catdome and it was great to see just about everyone in a Linfield uniform get between the lines and for our 24 seniors to go out in style.

I feel for the Pios in their early stages of trying to rebuild their program. The NWC needs L&C to get back to respectability and they have a long way to get there. Linfield tried their best to take the foot off the gas because the ‘Cats could have easily hung triple digits on L&C.

This is a scary time for the Pios. The NWC wasn’t easy on our Portland neighbors this season and I’m sure some in the L&C community are shaking their heads saying “Why are we even bothering?” These people need to keep in mind that it will not be easy to get their program back to a competitive level. The NWC is a tough road to hoe…just ask Puget Sound and Menlo. My wish is that the administration at L&C continues to support the program and see to it that other departments in the L&C community promote a positive relationship with the program (i.e. admissions).

For the ‘Cat there was some real mixed emotions for me during the game. We were “this close” to being 8-1 and headed to post-season play but fell short with the Willamette debacle and not being able to covert all those chances vs Whitworth. That part of the year was just downright painful. On the flipside I’m so proud of the way the team and seniors responded after Willamette. There were two ways the players could have gone. They could have either said “forget it” and just mailed in the rest of the year or they could have step up the level of play and move on. To rebound and play with a great amount of effort and pride does speak volumes about the character of this group.

I’m not ready yet to start talking 2008 because I’d still like to reflect on the season and talk about some of the great performances of 2007. Over the next couple of weeks we’ll name “Catdomealumni.com’s players of the year” along with some other talk about the 2007 ‘Cats and NWC, the conference’s playoff snub, and some other items about 2007.


* A “monkey stomp” is a term coined by the Liberty League post pattern community members of the D3football.com posting board. A “monkey stomp” is a victory of 21-points or more, and the higher the victory total the different degrees of a “stomp”. I would think a 66-point win would equate an “atomic monkey stomp”