ORANGE, Calif. — The Chapman University football team has fireworks at halftime of every homecoming game, but those were not the only fireworks on Saturday night as the Panthers (3-1, 2-0 SCIAC) exploded to an impressive 57-10 victory over the Whittier Poets (1-3, 0-2 SCIAC).
Normally the team who controls the time of possession is more likely to win, but this was not the case as Chapman secured the 47-point victory despite having the ball for eight less minutes than Whittier.
The difference was special teams as Chapman had 107 punt return yards and 106 kickoff return yards in the first half. It seemed like the Chapman record of 160 punt return yards was in trouble, but the Panthers did not have another punt return in the second half. Even though the Panthers did not score a touchdown on special teams, they consistently started drives in Whittier territory.
Chapman scored its first touchdown of the game after a 52-yard punt return from Brendon Manzano immediately put the team in the red zone on the Whittier 20-yard line. Andrew Latu followed up his big game from last week with another rushing touchdown, this time from five yards out for the 7-0 lead.
Whittier responded with a methodical nine-minute drive with the ball from goal-to-go, but Nick Nino had a crucial pass breakup in the end zone on second down, which would eventually force Whittier to settle for a 34-yard field goal from Preston Yado.
Another big return from Chapman, this time on the kickoff as Carter Williams ran it back 83 yards on the return. Fear crept in as the yellow flag hit the turf, but those jeers turned into cheers with the facemask penalty on Whittier. Fischer Huss promptly cashed in with the seven-yard rushing touchdown.
The Panthers continued with a dominant ground game with 139 yards and six touchdowns. Eli Brandt had two of them himself to close out the first half, including an eight-yard scramble where he stretched the ball across the goal line to make it a 25-point lead.
Despite the 31-3 halftime lead, Chapman had some trick plays up its sleeve with a double pass as Chuck Wynn received the backward pass from Brady McKelheer and threw the ball to Emilio Pucci for a 33-yard completion that deflected off a couple Poets. This was a big drive for Pucci as he also hauled in a 15-yard touchdown from McKelheer for the first passing touchdown of the game.
The Chapman defense was spectacular as Kaulin Post stuck his hand up a few yards away from the line of scrimmage and snagged his first interception. The Panthers went back to its bread and butter with the run game as Viggo Anderson has now scored a touchdown in back-to-back games, this time from five yards out.
Wynn must have been feeling good from his passing completion earlier as he joined the party with his own four-yard touchdown. Speaking of passing completions, Sean Helgeson completed a 17-yard pass to Lucca Edwards to increase the lead to 57-10 just after the two-minute timeout.
Ashton Keyes was a silver lining with 119 rushing yards and one touchdown, which was off a 43-yard explosive play in the third quarter.
This was Chapman's first matchup with Whittier since 2022 with the Poets bringing back their football program after a three-year hiatus.
The Panthers will look to stay undefeated in the SCIAC as they hit the road next week to face Redlands at 7 p.m.
