MONMOUTH, Ill. — On paper, this looked like
the year that Monmouth College could break through against five-time
league champion St. Norbert and gain the inside track on a Midwest
Conference title.
But when it comes to gridiron warfare, paper
doesn’t count for much. Real weapons are more the order of the day,
and Monmouth coach Steve Bell very accurately summarized the
Fighting Scots' 55-19 loss in front of an estimated 2,000 fans in
their home opener.
“You don’t bring a knife to a gunfight,”
Bell quipped to reporters when assessing the damages following the
defeat. “They brought a bazooka and I don’t know if we even showed
up with a knife.
“If anything, this game showed us we can’t
just show up (and expect to win),” Bell added. “Our first two games,
we got by with having great special teams. If we’re going to play
good teams like this, we have to be strong in all facets of the
game. We haven’t had a very good game on offense or on defense in
any of our first three games.”
While the special teams were just so-so vs.
the Green Knights, they were again the best element of Monmouth’s
game. Meanwhile, the offense could get little generated, as St.
Norbert continually won the battle up front, either plugging the
holes that running backs Ed McCracken and Todd Sabean normally find
or pressuring quarterback Mitch Tanney, who they sacked five times.
And the Scots’ defense had an off day of near-record proportions,
allowing 607 yards, the second-highest total in school history. Only
Coe had put a bigger hurt on Monmouth, gaining 651 yards in a 57-16
win in 1994.
“It seemed that we played very slow against
St. Norbert, and that’s because we were hesitant,” said Bell when
asked about the Scots’ inability to stop any St. Norbert back.
Starter Casey Meehan rushed for 148 yards and reserves Josh
Harnowski and Adam Lewis added 77 and 67 yards, respectively. “We
were waiting for them to make their move instead of taking the
initiative. We just didn’t play fast.”
Now that a wake-up call has been very
effectively delivered, Bell was asked what he expects from his
players against a Beloit College team that is tied with Knox for
last in the MWC.
“While our focus now shifts to Beloit, it’s
more a matter of looking within ourselves and getting back to the
level of consistency and effort that we need to be at,” he replied.
“We’ll find out what kind of team we have. I’m confident we’ll come
back this week and play well.”
Although St. Norbert laid waste to Monmouth
College’s most impressive football streak – a run of nine straight
victories – the Fighting Scots will still carry a winning streak
into Beloit’s Strong Stadium on Saturday. Monmouth has won its last
six games on the road, including two in a row in Wisconsin earlier
this season.
“We’ve never really played well up there,”
said Bell, referring to 22-3 and 44-28 losses his teams have
suffered on the Bucs’ turf in 2000 and 2002. “They run a wing-T
offense, which is something you normally don’t see, and Coach (Ed)
DeGeorge always does a very good job of getting his teams to play
extremely hard.”
Beloit has also had to play St. Norbert’s
Green Machine this season, and the Bucs trailed 32-6 in the contest
before falling 39-20. The Bucs also fought hard against another top
league team, Lake Forest, losing 26-15 to the Foresters on Saturday.
Beloit’s lone win was a 58-14 non-conference triumph over Macalester
on Opening Day.
The Bucs actually led Lake Forest 15-12 on a
third-quarter TD run by Lee Rankinen, but the Foresters escaped by
posting two TDs midway through the fourth quarter. Rankinen led the
BC ground attack with 108 yards on 20 carries and quarterback Nate
Skelton, who prepped at Cambridge High School, was 10-of-15 for 111
yards.
For the season, Rankinen has rushed for 352
yards and is averaging 6.4 yards per carry. Two other Buc backs,
Jeff McLaughlin and Alex Olson, are also over 100 yards for the year
with averages of 5.5 yards per carry or higher. With the ground game
clicking, Skelton has passed for just 217 yards and no TDs, with
Chris LaPorta catching five passes for 123 yards.
Whether the Scots’ opponent is in first
place or last place, though, the veteran Monmouth coach is serious
about his team being ready to play.
“It wasn’t a matter of who we played last
week,” said Bell. “Our effort level was unacceptable. We would’ve
got it handed to us no matter who we played.”
Bell was particularly upset that his team
didn’t respond after getting the chance to refocus at halftime.
“Another thing that was disappointing was
that in the past two or three years, the third quarter has always
been our quarter. We laid an egg in the third quarter.”
It was a gunfight, and Monmouth only brought
an egg. Look for Coach Bell and his staff to make sure that the
Scots are packing appropriately on this weekend’s trip.
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