Taking it one blog at a time

I don’t know exactly what California Lutheran University football coach Ben McEnroe told his team during the halftime of the Kingsmen game against the University of Redlands Saturday. Don’t know, for sure, the precise wording he used to address his players in the locker room.

But whatever McEnroe said, I wish he could bottle it, seal it and send it to corporate America. The man knows something about comebacks.

The Kingsmen went into the game ranked 20^th among NCAA Division III schools. They played host to the 13^th-ranked Bulldogs, CLU’s arch rivals. The game was the first ever held at the new William Rolland Stadium on campus at CLU. Fans jammed the place (including a good number of spirited Redlands fans who made the trip to see the game).

Big crowd for a big game in a new stadium between two ranked teams that are rivals to begin with: Wow, what atmosphere.

And it opened with a thud. Redlands raced to a 17-0 lead and then, in the final minute of the second quarter, scored a touchdown to make the score 24-0.

I had the play-by-play on CLU’s online coverage (www.clutube.com), working with CLU students David Brown (color) and Nikki Fay (sideline). Other CLU students worked the cameras.

Fay interviewed McEnroe as he came on the field to start the second half. The coach talked about winning one play at a time, a standard thing to say.

Are you reading, corporate America? One play at a time. Work out how this applies to you.

And, building on the theme of one play at a time, the Kingsmen came back and won, 28-24. They scored the winning touchdown with 16 seconds remaining and had to intercept a Hail Mary pass in the end zone on the last play to wrap the win up.

One play at a time. CLU finished the first half with 87 total yards of offense and finished the game with 434. Redlands had 307 yards in their explosive first half, but CLU’s defense allowed just 63 total yards in the second half.

One play at a time. CLU managed just three first downs in the first half and finished with 23. Redlands’ offense, led by an outstanding quarterback named Chad Hurst, compiled 13 first downs in the first half but finished the game with 17.

Win this thing one play at a time: CLU quarterback Jake Laudenslayer is not known as a running quarterback, but he had a big run for a first down on the final drive and scored the go-ahead touchdown on a quarterback sneak.

The final CLU drive started at the Kingsmen 3-yard line. I remember calling it “First and 97,” which was not in keeping with the one-play-at-a-time mantra, but it summed up the situation pretty well.

After the final play, the CLU students rushed onto the field (possibly thinking they’d take it one celebration at a time, I’m not sure) as I stood at my announcing position. I tried to make sense of it all for the viewers but I’m not sure I did so.

Guess I should have taken it one sentence at a time. I’ll work on that.

CLU hosts Whittier next Saturday at 1 p.m. You can catch the game on CLUtube.com. Until then, I hope you have a good week, taking it one day at a time.

Thanks for reading.