Seniors leave historic mark on football program  

By: Ian Van Anden
Sports Editor

 With the end of the season, the Scots and head coach Steve Bell now have to look to the off-season and recruiting. Monmouth will take the biggest hit on offense where they will lose seven starters. The MC defense will take its share of lumps.

The Scots’ three biggest losses will be seniors Joe Freitag, Dante Daniels and Evan Haffner. Coach Bell is sad to see all his seniors leave, “It’s hard to put a finger on our biggest loss. We will take our biggest hit offensively but it is something every college program has to go through. My belief is we will have someone to step into every roll.”
Freitag started all 10 games for the Scots at left tackle and anchored a young and often injured line. Freitag, who was named a team captain at the beginning of the year, was a leader in the locker room and on the field. His leadership and high level of play will be greatly missed.

Haffner who has been a standout as a wide receiver special teams player tallied 1,225 yards in the 2006 season and scored six touchdowns. With the end of his Monmouth College career, Haffner now holds the all-purpose yards record for MC with 4,379 total yards. This number crushes the old record held by Ron Baker since 1975. Baker had 3,989. In 2005 Haffner set the single season record for all-purpose yards when he accumulated 1,554 yards.

The senior wide receiver ended his time in the Fighting Scots uniform with a bang. In his final game Haffner caught nine passes for 124 yards and three touchdowns. Haffner also had 26 punt return yards and would have had more if one return had not been called back on a Scots’ penalty.

In only two years with the Fighting Scots, Dante Daniels quickly became a fan favorite. His senior year was easily his best. In the 2006 season Daniels broke the MC single season rushing total by rushing for 1,557 yards and 16 touchdowns.

Daniels is now the Scots’ single game rushing leader. In the Beloit game, Daniels tallied 229 rush yards breaking the old record held by Ron Baker since 1973. Daniels then broke his own record against Ripon when he had his best game of his career by rushing for 247 yards and two touchdowns. Baker’s record was 223 yards and now is only good enough for third on the list.

The Scots will also lose several other athletes. Along with Haffner, Monmouth’s other two starting wide receivers will be departing, Aaron Hogan and Dan Morrison. On the offensive line Tony Russo, The Scots’ starting left tackle, will graduate with Freitag.

Fifth year senior Shane Gordon will also be leaving the team. In his final game of his collegiate career the coaches took Gordon back to his roots. As a freshman Gordon came to the team as a quarterback but was later moved to tight end. Against Knox Gordon was given two chances to complete a pass, he was unable to convert the attempts. Gordon also took the final two snaps from scrimmage as the Scots’ quarterback.

Senior defensive tackle Zach Kirchner, who was unable to participate in the Knox game, will also be departing. Kirchner, who solidified the Scots’ defensive line, will be missed. Two other big losses on defense are Jason Goldsworthy and Phil Kleckler. Both athletes started at linebacker.

Kleckler led the Scots in tackles as he tallied 73 on the season and also recovered a fumble, recorded a sack and a half and intercepted a pass. Kleckler was one of the most active members of the MC defense. Goldsworthy was third on the team in tackles for the 2006 season with 54.

Despite all the losses for the Scots, Bell remains optimistic for the 2007 season. “Our defense will be very good. We are returning all of our starting defensive backs. Our expectations will not change; we will compete every year.”

With the success Bell has had in his eight years at Monmouth, expectations have been raised and he knows it. “Other than the St. Norbert game, our defense played well enough to win every game. A lot of people look at a 7-3 record as a down year but I do not think that way. We did not play up to par in two games and that hurt us. 7-3 is not a negative; it is a building block.”