CLAREMONT — The Cal Lutheran football team did what it came to do.

It didn't necessarily cover itself in glory in the process, but it still has the chance to do so next week.

After building an early 28-point lead, CLU overcame its own lackluster effort — and a stubborn one by Pomona-Pitzer — to claim a 31-13 win over the host Sagehens and clinch a share of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title.

CLU (5-3, 5-0) will play for the big prizes — an outright title and its first NCAA Division III playoff berth — when it returns home next Saturday to play Redlands in its regular-season finale.

"A win's a win," said CLU coach Ben McEnroe. "We needed to win to clinch a share of the championship, and we're happy with that. We're just not happy that our intensity level for 60 minutes wasn't there. We seemed to be really up and down and very flat from an emotional standpoint.

"There were some very good individual plays but we couldn't carry that intensity for 60 minutes. We'll take the victory, take the share of the conference, and look forward to Redlands coming to town next week."

Agreed linebacker Austin Jones, whose interception set up CLU's second score, "It was what we wanted, but it was an ugly win."

Saturday's outcome was foretold in the first three minutes, as the Kingsmen scored twice to lead 9-0. CLU went 59 yards on the opening possession to score on a 26-yard pass from R.J. Benedict to Jesse Matlock.

Jones then intercepted a Jacob Caron pass on the first play of Pomona's ensuing possession, leading to a 40-yard Connor Pearce field goal — two scores in 34 seconds, giving CLU that nine-point lead with 12:02 left in the first quarter.

"Coach was talking to me all week, Get deep, get deep, get to your hash,' " said Jones. "I got deep. There were two receivers and the nickel back, and the nickel back got his hand up. The ball popped up, and I'm over there, (my heart) pitter-pattering, and I started rumbling and tumbling.

"Our other linebacker, Roland (Jenkins) picked up a fumble and scored" — that was a 40-yard return later in the quarter — "and if he hadn't scored, I think it would have been a lot closer game."

Instead, it was 28-0 four minutes into the second quarter, thanks to the score by Jenkins, a 10-yard run by Louis Montano and another Benedict-to-Matlock pass, this time for 8 yards.

But CLU failed to deliver a knockout blow, and Pomona (2-6, 1-5) kept coming, scoring on a 6-yard pass from Caron to Robert McNitt and a 1-yard run by Andrew Russell before CLU picked up its final points on a 41-yard field goal by Pearce. Only three second-half red-zone stops by the CLU defense kept the game from being more of a white-knuckle finish.

"The second half, we were lethargic," said Jones. "We came out in a daze. But at least we held. Bend-but-don't-break defense is our motto, but next week, we've got to step it up if we want to be the sole champions of the SCIAC."

On the positive side, of course, CLU did respond to the significance of its opportunity at the start of the game.

"We were knocking people around out there early," said McEnroe. "For whatever reason, we didn't maintain that intensity level and that effort, and we've got to get that fixed. We're in control of that. That's what bothers me, is that we have control over our effort and our intensity, and we let it slip a little bit.

"But we'll get it fixed, and they'll bounce back and be ready to play next week. I'm not worried about that."

CLU finished with a bare 354-351 margin in total yardage. Benedict was 24 of 43 for 232 yards, with Matlock catching seven balls for 86 yards and Montano the leading rusher with 16 carries for 73 yards.

"We had to win and we won," said Matlock. "It wasn't the prettiest thing, but right now, all we're worried about is Redlands and not sharing the championship, but winning it outright."

Caron, Pomona-Pitzer's freshman quarterback, was 17 of 37 for 170 yards and rushed for another 21 yards. Kevin Yamazaki led Pomona's running game with 13 carries for 85 yards.