McMINNVILLE, Ore. - Wyatt Smith passed for six touchdowns and ran for another as the No. 25 Linfield Wildcats manhandled the Willamette Bearcats 77-0 in Northwest Conference football Saturday afternoon at Maxwell Field.
Smith completed 17 of 22 passes for 398 yards. He had a hand in six first-half scores as Linfield built a 42-0 halftime lead, then played just one possession in the third quarter and finished that with his final touchdown pass of the day.
Linfield (4-1, 3-0 NWC) rolled to 702 yards total offense, the fifth-highest mark in school history. The Wildcats' Colton Smith and Keegan Weiss both had over 100 receiving yards and two scores, Smith making four grabs for 127 yards and Weiss four catches for 115 yards.
By game's end, Linfield backup quarterbacks Clark Hazlett and Colby Iverson had thrown for touchdowns, 11 Wildcats had at least one carry and 10 'Cats had at least one catch.
Willamette (1-4, 0-3 NWC) quarterback Mathew Castaneda passed for 151 yards and rushed for 54 more. Miles Bryant ran for 39 yards and had five catches for 30 yards, while Jordan Jenkins had four catches for 56 yards.
Saturday's 77-point margin of victory tied for the second-biggest in Linfield's football history, matching an 84-7 win over Lewis & Clark in 2013. The 77 points scored tied for fifth-most in school history with two other occasions – most recently last week's 77-22 win over Puget Sound. The back-to-back 11-touchdown performances produced the highest point total ever for back-to-back games for the Wildcats.
This was the 92nd meeting in a rivalry dating back to 1902, with Linfield now leading the series 53-36-3. The Wildcats have won the last five meetings with the Bearcats and 17 of the last 20.
Linfield opened up a 21-0 lead in the first quarter. Wyatt Smith broke the ice with a 1-yard run on the Wildcats' first possession. The junior pivot then tossed two scoring strikes in the span of six minutes. He found younger brother Colton Smith for a 22-yard touchdown at the 7:21 mark, then hit Weiss on a 35-yard lob with 1:26 left in the opening period.
The Smith-to-Smith connection hooked up again in the second quarter, this time a 57-yard bomb down the right sideline that extended the Wildcats' lead to 28-0 with 7:55 to go before intermission. Less than two minutes later, Wyatt Smith threw 26 yards to tailback Connor McNabb in the end zone.
The Wildcats struck again through the air as Smith lofted a 33-yard TD in stride to Weiss and the Wildcats led 42-0 with 2:20 left in the second quarter.
Linfield marched to the Willamette 8-yard line and appeared ready to score again with under a minute remaining but Smith's pass intended for Keaton Wood was intercepted by Zach McLellan at the 3.
Linfield outgained Willamette 410-164 in the first half. Smith passed for 364 yards and five TDs and ran for another touchdown by intermission.
The second half offered more of the same for Willamette. Smith threw 34 yards to Wood for his sixth TD pass of the game on Linfield's first drive after the break. Hazlett, Smith's backup, passed 14 yards on the Wildcats' subsequent possession, to make the score 56-0 with 9:45 left in the third period.
Hazlett showed his athleticism on a 23-yard scoring rush, diving just inside the pylon to push the Linfield advantage to 63-0.
Iverson led Linfield rushers with 56 yards while Damon Martin and Artie Johnson both netted 32 yards.
Defensively, Brian Pullman was credited with a game-high eight tackles, including two for loss. Dusten Ramsayer-Burdett and Chase Lydig both recorded six tackles. The Bearcats were held to 100 yards rushing on 39 attempts, an average of 2.6 yards per carry.
The Bearcats had a pair of chances to score but Castaneda couldn't connect on fourth-down passes into the end zone when Willamette had fourth-and-8 from the Linfield 9-yard line early in the second quarter and fourth-and-2 from the Wildcat 6 late in the third quarter.
'CAT SCRATCH Saturday's announced attendance was 1,481…Wyatt Smith has thrown 14 touchdown passes in his last two games while allowing just one interception…Linfield scored in double digits in all four quarters and reached 77 points for the second straight week…Willamette managed zero turnovers in the game…Linfield's previous highest-scoring back-to-back games came in 2015 with a 73-0 win at Lewis & Clark and a 77-10 home win over Pacific … in the past two seasons, Linfield has outscored Willamette 136-0 … the 77 points was the most Linfield has ever scored against Willamette and it was the largest margin of victory in the series. The previous highest score was in a 63-21 win in Salem in 2005, and the previous largest margin of victory over the Bearcats was a 59-0 win in 2018 …the only larger margin of victory in Linfield history was an 83-0 home win over Oregon Normal (now Western Oregon) in 1927.
NEXT
Linfield heads to Puyallup, Washington for a Saturday afternoon matchup at Pacific Lutheran. Kickoff at Sparks Stadium is set for 1 p.m. The office of Community Engagement is hosting a pre-game barbeque in the parking lot across the street from the stadium starting at 11 a.m.