The Sagehens came up short, falling to the University of Redlands 38-28 Saturday night in Claremont. The Bulldogs (3-1, 1-1) didn’t put the game away until late as the Sagehens (0-4, 0-1) stuck with them with quarterback Jacob Caron and his favorite wide receiver R. J. Maki doing pretty much all the work. Luke Sweeney had some nice runs, including a 9-yarder for a touchdown. 

The Bulldogs had 14-point leads twice, 14-0 and 21-7. But the Sagehens were within two at 28-26 in the second half, the difference being two missed PAT kicks.

Redlands remained poised when the Sagehens challenged. Each time Pitzer got in striking distance, the Bulldogs answered with a drive of their own engineered by Dan Selway.

The Bulldogs made some personnel changes after last week’s 24-22 loss to Cal Lutheran. Connor Cook took over the kicking duties. Brad Crisanty got the majority of the playing time at running back in the second have and looked good. Some receivers saw more playing time with Taylor Irwin among those that had stellar games.

The Bulldogs didn’t go for two on their old swinging gate plays. They took the more conventional PAT kicks; 

Selway threw for 323 yards while Caron threw for 207, 158 on 17 throws to Maki. Selway has a lot of help around him and the Bulldogs dress 100 players. Caron and Maki play hard and do it with little help around them. They are a fun duo to watch.

In other SCIAC games, just down the street Claremont-Mudd-Scripps beat non-conference Chapman 31-21 behind 116 yards rushing from Peter Kimmey and 98 by Spencer Clark, The Bulldogs play CMS next week and will need a better showing to get by that one.

The University of La Verne was blanked by Occidental 30-0. It was the 15th straight loss for the Leopards dating back to 2008.

In JuCo play San Bernardino Valley lost at Southwestern 45-42. The Wolverines have plenty of offense. If only they had a defense!