Surf Division winner and two-time Championship Game participant RV Chapman University will host California Lutheran University on Saturday, Nov. 15 at 1 p.m. as part of the 2025 Championship Week, which will also feature the University of Redlands hosting Pomona-Pitzer Colleges for third place and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges welcoming the University of La Verne in the fifth-place game.
The Panthers recorded the first unbeaten mark in conference play since 2021 and have a chance to become the first team in recorded SCIAC history to post an 8-0 ledger. The four-game margin from Chapman to Pomona-Pitzer’s 3-4 record is the largest in the three years since moving to the pod structure. The 4-3 Kingsmen tied with Redlands but reached the final game thanks to a better record within the Sun division, having split with the Bulldogs who fell last weekend to CMS.
Chapman’s triple-threat rushing attack of
Fischer Huss,
Andrew Latu and
Tyler Pacheco led the league by more than 100 yards per game, averaging 4.9 per carry for 18 touchdowns. The defense, meanwhile, shut down opponents’ running game with regularity, surrendering just 50.4 per yards contest as foes were forced to try passing their way back into games. Chapman locked down in the secondary as well, however, to the tune of league-lows in yards permitted per week (154.6) and touchdowns (four).
Kade Zimmerman ranked second among the league’s wideouts with 80.1 yards per game, hauling in 41 receptions for 561 yards and six touchdowns with Pacheco posting an 8:2 touchdown-to-interception ratio. Brother
Tate Zimmerman also ranked second in SCIAC play with 12.0 tackles for loss and four sacks in six games.
CLU jumped out to a scorching start to open the season 5-0 before falling to Chapman, 35-25, on Oct. 18 in the foes’ only matchup so far this season. The Kingsmen’s second-ranked offense averaged 22.9 points per game while the defense gave up 22.4 behind Chapman’s +17.7 margin. However, CLU also surrendered the second-fewest yards in the conference while converting the highest percentage of scores in the red zone (87.5 percent) which proved to be the difference in three one-score victories and a double overtime defeat.
Drew Nees has had a massive breakout after appearing in just one game as a first-year, nearly doubling the next-ranked player atop the sacks leaderboard (eight) while also picking off two passes, broken up four and forcing a pair of fumbles along with totaling 47 tackles (6.7 per game).
Logan Bowers ranked second in the conference with 59 tackles and
Joe Farley was the only quarterback to top 1,000 yards passing, connecting on 99 for 1,329 yards and five touchdowns. More than one-fifth of that production went to
TeNorris Merkel, who hauled in 22 catches for 350 yards and a touchdown.
Tune in for kickoff in Ernie Chapman Stadium at 1 p.m. via
livestream through FloCollege and/or
live stats.
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