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After Knight-mare at Minahan, Scots
look to rebound vs. Ripon
Release Date: October 10, 2006
MONMOUTH, Ill. — Any Monmouth
College fans still in range of the Green Bay area Saturday night
were able to view a couple “highlights” of the Monmouth-St. Norbert
game on the 10 o’clock sports news. The videotape editors at WGBA-TV
did their job very well, sorting through the game’s 140 plays and
picking a Fighting Scot fumble that was recovered in the end zone by
the Green Knights on their way to a 48-0 victory.
The play represented many of the things that went wrong at Minahan
Stadium for the Scots, who committed eight turnovers. The Knights
converted two of the miscues directly into scores, and they also
used their takeaways to start scoring drives of five and 36 yards.
The “highlight” in question was set up by kickoff return man Evan
Haffner slipping at his own two-yard-line, showing that the Scots
certainly didn’t hit it big in the “breaks” department. It also
offered visual proof that Monmouth could not get a ground game
going, as star Dante Daniels was held to just 43 yards before
gaining 47 on the Scots’ final drive of the day. Those 90 yards
represent the lowest total of the year for the senior, who now has
940 yards this season.
“First and foremost, you can’t turn the ball over eight times
against a football team that good and expect to win,” said MC coach
Steve Bell of the collection of four fumbles and four interceptions.
“Obviously, I didn’t do my job of getting them prepared. I’ll take
the blame on that.”
In a 48-0 loss, neither the offense nor the defense plays well, and
Bell pointed to some reasons why.
“On defense, we had a lot of guys who weren’t ‘gap-responsible,’” he
said. “Good teams will exploit that type of stuff, and that’s what
St. Norbert did. We also worked all week on not letting their
receivers get deep, but we were unsuccessful there, too.”
While the game was still within reach, the Knights scored on a
69-yard pass play from Cody Craig to Judd O’Connell.
“We had 14 possessions, and eight of them ended with turnovers,”
said Bell. “Of the other six, four were three-and-out. That says it
all about how we performed offensively.”
Freshman quarterback Jared Mundt did not play well, but he is in
good company. Neither Rob Purlee nor Mitch Tanney, both
record-setting Monmouth quarterbacks, fared much better in their
first games under center against St. Norbert. Purlee was 11-of-32
passing in a 45-0 loss, while Tanney completed just 8-of-17 passes
in a 55-19 defeat.
“We put Jared in a situation that, at this point in his career, he
just wasn’t ready for,” said Bell. “It’s not that he’s not going to
be capable of doing it later in his career. The game was just too
fast for him, and things snowballed.”
Bell has opted for a “Wizard of Oz” or “Dallas” approach to the
“Knight-mare at Minahan.” His Scots are not in Wisconsin anymore,
and the next challenge is all that’s on his mind after what must
have seemed like a very bad dream.
“Once I hit the Illinois border coming back, it was over,” said
Bell. “I put it behind me. That’s not the Monmouth football team I
know. We need to get back to the level we know we can play at. I
know in my heart that we’re capable of much, much more than that.”
Monmouth will get to prove that this Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Bobby
Woll Memorial Field against a Ripon team that is now tied with St.
Norbert for first place in the Midwest Conference.
“It doesn’t get any easier,” said Bell. “They’re undefeated in the
conference, and they’re not giving up a lot of points (just 56 in
their last four wins). They run the option, and we’re going to have
play assignment football defensively. Specific guys will be in
charge of specific people, and those assignments will change
depending on the scheme we’re in. They want to run their fullback,
and how we try to take away their fullback dictates what else they
will try to do. They also want to throw a little play-action.”
When Ripon throws, quarterback Bob Faulds has proven to be a capable
passer. On just four completions, he threw for 123 yards and two
scores in last week’s 41-7 win over Beloit. Faulds can also do
damage on the ground, and he gained 62 yards on 10 carries vs. the
Bucs. For the season, he’s rushed for 334 yards and a team-high
eight TDs. Scott Perkins leads the team with 423 yards on the
ground, and John McGuire and Matt Birschbach are also running
threats.
“Defensively, they have some nice athletes,” said Bell. “We’ve got
to be able to run the ball.”
Returning All-MWC players on the defensive side of the ball for the
Red Hawks include defensive backs Chris Kellett (three forced
fumbles) and Brad Fehly (two interceptions) and defensive linemen
Mark DeDina (six tackles for loss) and Joe Leistkow. Linebacker Mike
Krause leads the team with 44 tackles and defensive back Joshua
Kraemer has three interceptions.
With their defeat, Monmouth slips to 4-1 in the conference and 4-2
overall. The Scots still have slim MWC title hopes, and it would
take a victory over Ripon, a Ripon win against St. Norbert on Oct.
21, four straight Fighting Scot wins and a little tiebreaker help.
Such a three-way tie would be broken by quarters led in conference
games. Currently, St. Norbert has led 19 quarters, Ripon 18 and
Monmouth 15.
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