Pacific Index

 Even though Boxer football only has four games on home turf, they’re ready to dominate 

After a disappointing defeat at Howard Payne University in Texas, Boxer football returned back to Oregon, and seemingly took their anger out on conference rival Willamette with a dominating 42-0 victory. Sophomores Keaton Smith and Makana Kamaka-Brayce, along with junior Emana Tarape, combined throwing 17 for 26, for 277 Yards, four touchdowns, and one interception. Running back senior Brody Bantolina also returned in good form from last season, rushing for 95 yards in 22 carries. 

Unfortunately, there was something that prevented it from being a perfect day, as starting quarterback Makana Kamaka-Brayce suffered a season ending knee injury, something fellow quarterback Smith was devastated about. “It was really unfortunate what happened,” said Smith. “Truly heartbreaking that he took an injury like that.”

While many would assume that it’s a straight fight between Smith and Tarape for the starting job, Smith says otherwise. “I don’t like to think of it as a battle,” commented Smith. “I mean, the way our coach presented it to us even in week one, we were told that we should take it like we’re all starting, so we’re going into it with the mindset of we’re gonna be running more than one quarterback, because we have the personnel to do so.”

   Does that mean the Boxers have some secret weapons tucked in their back pocket?

With senior Brody Bantolina in the backfield, senior Josiah Chaffin (who was voted First Team All-Conference last season), and junior Riley Camarillo both at wide receiver, a solid offensive line, and a stout defense, it’s made Smith super excited for the rest of this season, as he thinks Pacific can be very competitive in the Northwest Conference.

“We have the guys that we need to get it done, and I think it just becomes a matter of how good we can get with the guys that we have and become as close to our top potential that we can be,” he asserted. “I know we have the players that we need to get it done and take it all the way this year,” Smith assured. “I believe that we can go much, much farther than we did last year.”

But that may be a bit more of a challenge this year than last year, as the Boxers only host four home games this season; two back-to-back on September 20 against the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and then another home game on October 4 vs. Whitworth. Their remaining two home games will be the Homecoming game on October 25 vs. Willamette, with their last home game facing them against Lewis & Clark. While they won’t have the Red Den screaming from the stands for most of the season, Smith thinks that’s no problem, and says his team has a plan on how to deal with toxic environments.

“A message that [Head Coach Ian] Falconer spoke last week before we headed to Willamette is really going to be how that will sum it up,” Smith began. “What Coach Falconer told us was, you know, we’re traveling all these guys and they’re all going to be on the sideline. He told us to ‘bring our own juice,’ meaning bring our energy.” 

“It doesn’t matter who’s behind us, it doesn’t matter who’s across from us, we bring our own juice. And to compound on that, one of our main messages for this season was that we’re on a hunt. We’re not just playing football, we’re hunting,” Smith voiced. “Be ready for a show.”