 |
| Monmouth's
Rob Purlee, shown talking over the offense with head coach
Steve Bell, scored his first collegiate touchdown Saturday in
his 21st game. Purlee is no stranger to the end zone, though,
as he's thrown 49 career TD passes, including two last
Saturday in a 37-20 win over Grinnell. |
MONMOUTH, Ill. — In their five previous football games, the
Fighting Scots had been able to pass the ball (see Loras and St.
Norbert), run the ball (see Beloit) and play decent defense (see
Lake Forest). But it wasn’t until last Saturday’s Homecoming date
with Grinnell that all three of those elements – as well as solid
special teams play – came together and lifted Monmouth to a victory.
A year ago, that trio of football fundamentals was in synch on a
weekly basis as the Scots posted an 8-2 mark. If Monmouth is now
going to win out and post a 5-5 mark for the season, it will need
more of the following numbers from the 37-20 victory over Grinnell:
204 yards gained by running backs, 203 yards passing and just 48
rushing yards allowed on 34 attempts.
“That’s the first game where all three phases played together,”
said coach Steve Bell. “If we caused a turnover, our offense
responded by scoring. If we turned the ball over, the defense came
up with a stop. We played together, and that hasn’t happened this
season. The closest was the St. Norbert game (a 28-21 loss to a team
currently ranked 11th in the nation).”
“Coach (Chad) Braun had a good game plan to stop Grinnell’s
running game,” priased Bell. “We knew that stopping (Adam) Wallace
was the key. He’s capable of busting some big runs.”
Wallace was held to just 35 yards on eight carries, with a long
of 12 yards.
Bell said Monmouth’s own running success was “two-fold. Our
offensive line did a very nice job creating movement up front, and
Todd Sabean was running the ball very physically. You could just see
that in his style of running. He was lifting his knees higher and
was sticking his nose in there, and that was nice to see.”
Sabean was certainly a workhorse, getting 31 carries, which he
turned into 140 yards and two scores. Bell had intended for
sophomore Jared Donley to see more action, but he rolled his ankle
after running once for five yards and catching a pass for 18 yards.
Another player who had success on a limited amount of carries was
none other than junior quarterback Rob Purlee, who scored his first
collegiate touchdown in his 21st career game, scrambling in from
five yards. The play was witnessed by his grandfather, Robert Purlee
’55, who was in the press box. Three generations of Purlees have now
scored TDs at Monmouth, with the other being Hall of Fame
quarterback Dave Purlee ’78.
“Rob did a good job of taking what was there,” said Bell. “He’s a
good athlete, and he’s capable of running the ball like that. He
made a very smart play to take what was in front of him instead of
trying to take it outside and pass. That play definitely wasn’t
called, though.”
Plays that were called included a 15-yard TD pass from Purlee to
junior Jason Killion and a 35-yard strike to junior Ryan Wood.
Although junior Nathan Gaskill didn’t get into the scoring act, he
did catch two balls for a team-high 71 yards, and he added two
kickoff returns for 76 yards, giving him the school single-season
record of 426 kickoff return yards with four games still to play.
While Bell noticed a difference in the way Sabean ran the ball,
both he and Braun also realized that the whole team had a different
mindset heading into the game.
“During warm-ups I could just tell,” said Braun. “I said,
‘(Coach) Ole, we are ready to play.’”
“We’ve got to carry that into every game,” added Bell.
In terms of defensive performance, Bell praised the effort of new
starters Ryan Bast, a freshman defensive back, and sophomore
linebacker Greg Monn. Bast made six tackles and recovered a fumble
and Monn was in on seven stops.
Another player who excelled was senior defensive end Matt Lerner,
who was in on three tackles for loss and recovered a fumble. It was
a big week for the defensive star, who was featured at the
www.draft2003.com <http://www.draft2003.com/> Web site under the
“Rising Stars” section.
Lerner and Co. will once again be called to stop the run first,
as Lawrence’s biggest weapon is running back Justin Berrens, who is
second in the conference in rushing with 773 yards.
“Berrens is a very good running back,” said Bell. “He gained 175
yards against St. Norbert.”
Berrens has accumulated more yards on the ground than quarterback
R.J. Rosenthal has in the air (58-of-148, 770 yards, 14 INTs), as
the Vikings are ranked last in the league in passing. Roughly half
of Rosenthal’s passes go to Zach Michael, who’s caught 28 balls for
412 yards. In last year’s 35-21 Monmouth victory over LU, Michael
accounted for all his team’s TDs and had 15 receptions for a
staggering 279 yards, including a 96-yarder late in the game.
Andy Kazik leads the Lawrence defense with 53 total tackles. The
Vikings are ranked next-to-last in the MWC in rushing defense,
passing defense and total defense.
“Lawrence has been running the ball pretty well, and they’re
playing at home,” said Bell. “Like I said a few weeks ago, our
schedule isn’t getting any easier.”
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