Nagelmann Chips In as CLU Romps, 26-14

For the past several weeks, Cal Lutheran has been playing quarterback roulette. Saturday the Kingsmen had their chips on the right number.

The victim was Cal State Hayward (0-5), which killed itself by playing its own brand of “rush-in roulette.” Hayward employed an eight-man front and was picked apart by Dan Nagelmann, who completed 15 of 22 passes for 239 yards and two touchdowns in a 26-14 Cal Lutheran victory. The Kingsmen (2-4) won for the first time in more than a year at Mount Clef Stadium.

“That’s the best game I’ve played in years,” said Nagelmann, a transfer from Moorpark College who redshirted last season.

Cal Lutheran Coach Bob Shoup began rotating Nagelmann, Tim Zeddies and Eddie Hoffman against La Verne in the third game of the season, but none of the quarterbacks had particularly distinguished themselves.

“Today, Nagelmann was by far the better, but we knew Hayward with their eight-man front would be really tough to run against,” Shoup said. “We felt we were going to have to go to the pass, and Nagelmann was the obvious choice.”

Shoup nonetheless started Zeddies, who was ineffective on Cal Lutheran’s first two possessions. Nagelmann then took over and drove the Kingsmen to the Hayward 30, at which point Hoffman entered the game. The drive ended in a missed field-goal attempt, and Nagelmann took most of the snaps thereafter.

Early in the second quarter, Cal Lutheran drove 42 yards after a poor Hayward punt that culminated in Greg Maw’s 37-yard field goal. The Kingsmen struck again on their next possession when Nagelmann found Tom Leogrande with a 66-yard touchdown bomb.

Attempting to build on a 10-7 lead with two minutes remaining in the half, Nagelmann ran and passed for 29 of the 37 yards as Cal Lutheran drove for another Maw field goal.

The game might have been decided in the last eight seconds of the first half. Not only did Maw kick his 41-yard, momentum-turning field goal, Hayward also lost its quarterback on the last play of the half when Tony Randall suffered a clavicle injury on an ill-advised scramble.

Randall threw for 73 yards and rushed for 87 in the half but was forced to leave the game after trying to milk one more play out of the waning seconds.

Michael Maine, Randall’s replacement, completed seven of 13 passes for 64 yards, but Hayward will prefer not to remember Maine’s performance. Hayward’s option offense lost its coordination with Maine at the helm. Cal Lutheran safety Kevin Evans intercepted a Maine pass on Hayward’s second-to-last possession, and Maine earlier botched a handoff to running back Eric Tuipuloa, Evans recovering the ball on the Hayward 18.

Five plays after Evans’ recovery, Hoffman dove for the touchdown from the one-foot line to score with 3:29 remaining in the third quarter. Nagelmann closed out the Cal Lutheran scoring when he lofted a 30-yard touchdown pass to Shane Hawkins early in the fourth quarter.