Pacific senior quarterback J.T. Greenough tied a career-high with four touchdowns to highlight a Senior Day that saw the Boxers defeat Willamette, 44-13 on Saturday in Forest Grove.
The Boxers (5-4, 3-2 NWC) were led by its 22-member senior class, who made contributions across all three phases of the game – offense, defense and special teams. Greenough also threw for a career-high 361 yards with a pair of 100-yard receivers for his favorite targets were Kern and
James Hoban, who had 129 and 110-yards receiving, respectively. Both Kern and Hoban each caught a touchdown pass to go along with senior
Chad Aragon and sophomore
Ty Hargis.
Defensively, Pacific held Willamette to 5 of 17 on third down and 277 yards – 100 on the ground and 177 through the air of total offense. Leading the Boxer defense was senior
Cole Thomas, who had eight tackles and four pass breakups. Fellow senior
Ryan Sinkking also had eight tackles including two for minus nine yards.
The Bearcats (1-7, 0-6 NWC) scored on its second drive of the game for an early 7-0 lead as Mathew Castaneda completed a six-yard touchdown pass to Jeremiah James. Castaneda completed 21 of 42 passes for 153 yards and ran for 50 yards to lead the Willamette offense.
After punting on its second possession, Pacific scored a touchdown on four-consecutive drives to take a 28-7 lead. Three of the touchdowns came through the air and Greenough. The fourth came when senior
Kevin McGee ran it in from three yards out to put Pacific ahead 14-7 with 10:22 left in the opening half. Earlier in the drive, junior
Bret Yap Jr. ran a fake field goal down to set up first and goal for the Boxers.
With a 28-7 lead at halftime, three-different Boxer place kickers made field goals in the second half to stretch the lead to 37-7 with 12:42 left to play. Then, Greenough connected with Hoban on a 57-yard touchdown pass play to put Pacific ahead 44-7 with 7:29 to go.
The Bearcats got a last-minute touchdown but the Boxers' blocked the extra point for the final margin.
Pacific will wrap up the 2018 season with a matchup at Linfield on Saturday, Nov. 10 at 1:30 p.m. in McMinnville.
