Scots' defense proves its worth in 34-0 win over Lake Forest

Release Date: October 5, 2005

MONMOUTH, Ill. — During Monmouth College’s five-game winning streak to start the season, national observers haven’t quite gotten the right impression of the Fighting Scots’ defense.

Sure, the Scots are ranked as high as 25th in the nation by one poll (AFCA) and have received mentioned in two others, but with scores like 40-26, 48-34 and 56-30, it looks like they are winning shootouts and getting by solely on the strength of a tremendous offense.

That’s far from the case, though, as the first-string defense, which has yielded just six touchdowns this year, is actually an outstanding unit, and they were able to flash their brilliance in a dominating 34-0 victory Saturday at Lake Forest.

Two of the unit’s senior leaders even found their way to the end zone, as linebacker Justin Zigler and cornerback Ryan Bast scored touchdowns. Zigler, in fact, earned a “Player of the Week” honor from the National Weekly Football Gazette after finishing with 10 tackles, including three for loss, an interception and a fumble recovery.

Monmouth surrendered just 152 yards on the day and, after 19- and 14-yard Forester gains put the hosts in Monmouth territory on consecutive drives in the first quarter, the Scots would not allow them to get past the MC 35 the rest of the way.

“After those first couple long plays, I thought our defense did a tremendous job,” said MC coach Steve Bell. “We won that game because of our defense. We were able to apply pressure on their quarterback without blitzing, and that always bodes well.”

Monmouth sacked LFC quarterback Matt Mahaney four times and held him to just seven completions. Two other passes were snared by Monmouth defenders and taken the other way for TDs.

On Zigler’s 30-yard return, which came on the first play of the second quarter, “the ball went through their kids’ hands, and then Justin tipped it and caught it,” said Bell. “It was a very athletic play on Zigs’ part. Then our defense threw some key blocks for him, which is something they practice.”

That opened the scoring, while Bast’s 29-yard return gave Monmouth a 27-0 lead in the third period.

“Our defense did a good job of baiting their quarterback on the other one,” said Bell. “They made him think we were in something that we weren’t, but we jumped out of it at the snap. When he threw the ball, Ryan was just sitting in the flat, and he had clean sailing to the end zone. No one was there.”

While the defense did its job in headline-grabbing ways, Monmouth’s offense was content to roll along at a less glamorous, but very efficient, pace.

“Walking off the field, I didn’t feel like we’d gotten into much of an offensive rhythm all day, but if you look at the yardage, we did fine,” said Bell.

Quarterback Mitch Tanney was 21-of-27 passing for 215 yards, and Dante Daniels again eclipsed the 100-yard mark, rushing for 129 yards on 24 carries and scoring a touchdown. The Scots’ other TD was a 38-yard strike from Tanney to Evan Haffner, marking the seventh time the duo has clicked for a score this year and the 18th time over the past 15 games.

Even when Monmouth didn’t score, its offense could be effective. In the fourth quarter, the Scots drove 62 yards in 15 plays and ate up 7:59 on the clock. Nathan Palkovic’s 25-yard field goal was blocked, but the damage had still been done thanks to ball control.

A year ago, Monmouth started a shutout string of three games with a blanking of Lake Forest, and it will be interesting to see if the Scots can repeat the feat against Grinnell, who they defeated 24-0 last season.

“Coach (Greg) Wallace does a good job of getting his team ready to play,” said Bell. “Their quarterback (Sean Pfalzer) is a very good athlete and they have a nice defensive scheme. The key for us is we can’t let them run the ball. We want to make them one-dimensional, and then we can let our front guys get after the quarterback.”

Pfalzer is the league’s second-rated quarterback behind Tanney, throwing for 943 yards and eight TDs. His top target has been Kyle Perry, who has 16 catches for 302 yards and four touchdowns. Lance Burkholder leads the ground game with 186 yards.

“Defensively, they’re different,” said Bell of the Pioneers’ 3-4 alignment. “They also do a lot of zone blitzing. We definitely have to step it up, because they can beat us if we don’t play well.”

The Pioneers are 1-3 on the season, with their victory coming against non-conference foe Macalester. They have been defeated by Ripon, Lake Forest and Illinois College.

At the midway point of the season, Carroll has emerged as the team with the best chance of catching the Fighitng Scots in the standings, although the Pioneers’ task will not be easy. They must face Beloit, St. Norbert and Lake Forest this month before entertaining the Scots on Oct. 29.

Besides Carroll, the only other one-loss team in the MWC is St. Norbert, which Monmouth defeated 28-20 in September.

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