Uncanny Tanney

by Ian Van Anden
Asst. Sports Editor

In their fourth game of the season, the Scots welcomed the Beloit Buccaneers to Bobby Woll Memorial Field. On Saturday Sept. 24, the Scots played in front of the largest crowd of the year as they opposed Beloit; over 2800 Scots faithful witnessed the Scots beat Beloit 56-30.

The win by the Scots improves their record to a perfect 4-0, while Beloit resides in the basement of the Midwest Conference standings currently with a record of 0-4.

MC senior quarterback Mitch Tanney continued his incredible season by throwing for a total of 238 yards, completing 14 of his 16 passes and tallying five touchdowns. So far this season Tanney has found the endzone 15 times through the air; Tanney has also added two rushing touchdowns to his stat sheet.

In the Beloit game, the MC football team saw its new offensive weapon, junior transfer, Dante Daniels torch the Buccaneer defense. Daniels busted onto the scene with 29 rush attempts as he tallied 165 yards for a 5.7 yard per carry average. Daniels also added two rushing touchdowns to his day.

Junior wide receiver Evan Haffner may be the most dynamic player on the Monmouth offense. Haffner in four games leads the Scots in all purpose yards as well as in receptions and receiving touchdowns. At this point in the season Haffner has racked up 13 rushing yards, 477 receiving yards, and 250 yards on both punt and kick returns. This all adds up to 470 yards on the season. Haffner also has seven touchdowns, six receiving as well as one punt return for a touchdown.

At the end of the first quarter, Haffner once again brought MC fans to their feet with an electrifying 55 yard punt return for a touchdown. This score put the Scots up 28-0 at the end of the first quarter.

Although he only played in the first half of the game, Haffner’s stat sheet was full. He hauled in four catches for 47 yards and two scores. Haffner did more then just run pas the Beloit defense as he showed his shifty moves in the open field. On a number of occasions Tanney found Haffner open over the middle and then Haffner made numerous Buccaneers miss open field tackles. 

In the first half the Scots offense made some history. They put 49 points on the scoreboard which tied them with the all-time  touchdowns to contribute to the record for points in a half. The previous record had been established in 1971.

The first team defense continued its dominance as they only allowed one touchdown in the first half. The Buccaneers scored their only points of the half on a 12 play 70 yard drive. On all their other drives combined, the Beloit offense only gained 48 yards. Their yards per play during the first half were a measly 3.3 yards. The MC defense forced Beloit into six three and out punting situations in the first half alone.

The Fight Scot offensive starters became spectators starting on the third drive of the second half. The MC fans witnessed the future of the program and saw the backup players get some real game experience. The Scots offense was simply unable to move the ball against the first string Buccaneer defense. Beginning with that drive the Scot offense gained a grand total of 128 yards.

On the other side of the ball, the MC second string defense was not fairing any better. The Scots yielded 22 points and 226 yards to the Buccaneer offense. The Scots gave up a 94 yard scoring drive to Beloit as time winded down in the third quarter that took only nine plays.

After seeing the teams lead shrink significantly, team captain Tanney and coaches called all the players into a huddle where Tanney tried to light a fire under the team. This seemingly worked as in the last two possessions of the game the Scots looked a lot better. Their defense forced Beloit to go three and out and turn the ball over to the Scots.

The Scots second stringers had their best drive of the half as they rolled the final three minutes and 48 seconds off the clock. During this drive, the Scots executed seven plays and gained 47 yards. The third quarterback on the teams depth chart led this final charge for the Scots. This was freshman, Robert Garcia who looked good in his first appearance of the year. Garcia came in relief for sophomore back-up Joe Exline who was experiencing trouble moving the offense.

This Saturday, Oct 1 the Scots will travel to Lake Forest, IL to take on the Lake Forest Foresters. The Scots have beaten the Foresters in the last two meetings between the teams. This streak includes a 14-0 shutout in last year’s game. The Scots lead the all-time series against Lake Forest with a record of 26-16-2.

Lake Forest’s defense is heralded as one of the nation’s best. This unit is anchored by their linebacker Ryan Gallegos. Gallegos leads the team with 44 total tackles, he also has one interception and a fumble recovery on the year. This game pits Monmouth’s high scoring offense against Lake Forests’ dominate defense. However don’t be surprised if the Monmouth defense doesn’t have something to say about the outcome of this game.