FOREST GROVE, Ore. — The Pacific Boxers blew out to an early lead, watched Willamette rally past them, and then pulled a rabbit out of a hat for a nail biting 29-24 win in front of 2,260 drained fans at Hanson Stadium.
The victory means Pacific is now 3-1 in Northwest Conference play and 5-2 overall. The Bearcats fell to 1-3 in the NWC and to 1-5 on the season.
Pacific raced out to a 23-3 halftime lead, only to see Willamette score 21 unanswered points in the first 16 minutes after the break to take a 24-23 lead. That margin held over a number of anxious minutes for Boxer fans until a circus catch by Boxer wide receiver Nathan Suyematsu turned the tide.
With just under eight minutes to play, still trailing by a single digit, and with momentum having shifted to the Bearcat sideline, the Boxers started with the ball on its own 11-yard line. On third down and 10, quarterback Warner Shaw found Suyematsu for 23 yards to keep the drive alive.
But that was only the opening act.
Moments later, Shaw went deep towards Suyematsu, who was streaking down the middle of the field. Looking back into the sun, with the ball slightly behind him, the senior wideout used a burst of speed and a diving leap to pull in the ball at the 14-yard line.
It was a 49-yard grab that Willie Mays would have been proud of.
A few plays later, Shaw scrambled to the three-yard line, setting up Kamana Pimental for what would prove to be the winning touchdown.
"Suyematsu making that play flipped things back around for us," said a relieved Boxer head coachKeith Buckley afterwards. "He is a tremendous athlete who has spent his whole life chasing passes, ground balls and shooting baskets. I have seen him do a lot of amazing things, so that nothing he does surprises me anymore."
The Boxers needed those heroics after stalling in the second half, but in the first half it looked like Suyematsu and the other starters might be on the bench in the fourth quarter resting while the back-ups got playing time.
Pacific used a 32-yard field goal by Alex Beekman, a two-yard scoring run by Bronson Barretto and a Shaw to Pimental scoring pass of 12 yards to take a 16-0 lead midway through the second quarter. Willamette would get on the board with 6:23 to go before the break on a 37-yard three-pointer by Cameron Coe, but Pacific would answer on a Barretto three-yard hurdle into the end zone to take a 23-3 lead into the locker room.
The Boxers held a 260-87 yard advantage in total offense at halftime and had 13 first downs to Willamette's five. And just prior to the end of the half, Pacific's Jeff Bejema recovered a Bearcat fumble and ran it all the way down to the Willamette two-yard line—only to fumble himself, and the Bearcats recovered.
So the halftime margin could have been more.
But the tide quickly turned in the second half.
After Pacific punted away the ball after its first possession, the Bearcats used a combination of scrambles by quarterback Ryan Knowlton and the passing combination of Knowlton to Erik Baker to eat up yardage. Knowlton to Baker for 19 yards provided the first six points on the day for the visitors to make the count 23-10.
One play after a missed Boxer field goal, Willamette's Bryan Toles burst up the middle for 75 yards and a near score. Jacob Swilley rushed in from four yards out to pull the Bearcats to within six points (23-17) with just over two minutes left in the third quarter.
After the Bearcat defense held the Boxers again, Knowlton went back to work. He scrambled out of the pocket for 57 yards, all the way to the Pacific 16-yard line. Running in motion, Toles took the handoff from Knowlton and sprinted 16 yards for the tying score. Coe's extra point gave the Bearcats the 24-23 lead.
Both teams exchanged punts before Pacific's nine-play, 89-yard drive and Suyematsu's over-the-shoulder diving grab. Pimental's score with 4:03 remaining still left plenty of time on the clock for the Bearcats.
But at that point, the visitors imploded. On its next possession, two unsportsmanlike penalties, a holding call and a sack gave the ball back to the Boxers. Willamette would get another chance with just over a minute left to play and 85 yards to travel. A 20-yard pass from Knowlton to Austin Jones would get them closer, but four straight incompletions followed to end the game, including the final toss of the day which was broken up by Jacquari People.
It was only then that Buckley and Boxer fans could breath a sigh of relief.
"Some day I will figure us out," Buckley said. "When we are who I think we should be, we are pretty good. But there is this other side to us, that when that team shows, we aren't very good at all.
"What I do like is our resiliency, " he added. "When all is said and done, we made some big plays when we needed to and stopped them when we had to."
Suyematsu, all 5-foot-10 and 165 pounds of him, had a number of those big plays. He finished with 10 catches for 175 yards. That's the fifth time in seven games that he has had over 100 receiving yards, and that is also the third time this season that he has had ten catches in a game.
The Boxers rushed for 210 yards with Barretto leading the way with 73 on 17 carries. Pimental added 57 yards (12 carries) and Greg Alip had 56 yards on three rushes. Shaw connected on 15 passes in 25 attempts for 218 yards.
Trey Kodama led the defense with eight tackles, a quarterback sack and a forced fumble.
Toles finished with 103 yards rushing (75 on that one dash) and Knowlton added 63 yards on the ground. The quarterback completed 13 of 28 passes for 147 yards.
Pacific finished with a slight lead in total yardage (428-372) and in first downs (22-15), but Willamette hurt themselves in the penalty box with 10 for 99 yards.
The Boxers will need to be better next week according to Buckley, when they travel to Spokane to take on once-beaten Whitworth.
"We will have to shore up some things," he assessed. "Whitworth is a great football team, they will be a great test. We had some chances today early to blow this game wide open. When you leave the door open like that, bad things can happen."
The Boxer-Pirate match-up is set for the Pine Bowl on Oct. 31 at 1 p.m.
Boxers hang on for 29-24 win
/seasons/2015/boxscores/20151024_mgk1.xml
2015
Willamette
24
Pacific
29
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Willamette (1-5) | 0 | 3 | 14 | 7 | 24 |
| Pacific (5-2) | 3 | 20 | 0 | 6 | 29 |
Oct 24, 2015