Football has 300th win and first Smudge Pot

High-flying wide receiver Eric Rogers broke a school record with his 26th touchdown catch on Sept. 29. Also this season, he set new marks for the Kingsmen in career receiving yards and career receptions.

In a season of milestones, the Kingsmen football team notched the 300th win in program history on Sept. 29, against Pomona-Pitzer, and a fifth consecutive victory over the rival University of Redlands Bulldogs on Oct. 6.

The win over Redlands was sweetest and, this year, earned Cal Lutheran a special prize. Head coach Ben McEnroe had proposed having the two SCIAC powerhouses play, henceforth, for the Smudge Pot, a trophy that celebrates the citrus industries in Ventura and San Bernardino counties.

Redlands accepted his good-natured challenge, with the final result that CLU took home a retired smudge pot – an oil-burning heater once used to keep frost away from orchards – to paint violet and gold and keep until next year’s contest.