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Turkeys don’t fly, and pigskin
probably won’t either in Knox-Monmouth clash
Release Date: November 1, 2006
MONMOUTH, Ill. — If you’ve heard it
once, you’ve heard it a thousand times: When Monmouth and Knox meet
on the gridiron, you can throw the records out the window.
For this Saturday’s Bronze Turkey Game at Bobby Woll Memorial Field,
you might want to throw “throwing” out the window, as well.
The Fighting Scots and Prairie Fire have come across most of their
offensive successes through the record-breaking seasons of running
backs Dante Daniels and Kevin Megli. Daniels eclipsed Monmouth’s
single-season rushing record two games ago and will enter the 118th
meeting of the storied rivals with 1,459 yards this fall. Megli is
also new to the Knox record book, becoming the school’s all-time
leading rusher last Saturday. He will enter the final game of his
career with 3,049 yards, including 891 yards this season on 147
carries.
“It should be a short one,” said Monmouth coach Steve Bell of the
game, which doesn’t figure to have lots of clock stoppages for
incomplete passes. “They run the double-slot option, and they’re
doing a good job of running the ball. We’ve got our work cut out for
us.”
Knox is ranked second in the Midwest Conference with 271.5 rushing
yards per game, and Monmouth also relies heavily on the ground game,
calling running plays 70 and 73 percent of the time in its last two
wins against Ripon and Illinois College. In both victories, the
Scots were able to spoil the dreams of Midwest Conference title
contenders by getting Daniels over the 200-yard mark and coming up
with great defensive efforts.
At Jacksonville Saturday, Daniels gained 205 yards on 36 carries and
scored second half TDs of 44 and two yards.
“At halftime, we came in and said, ‘We’re just going to run it,’”
said Bell of the talk he gave to his team after two scoreless
quarters of play. Indeed, the Scots stayed almost exclusively on the
ground, with Daniels getting the call on Monmouth’s final 12 plays
of the game.
Prior to his flurry of carries, Daniels broke the biggest play of
the game in the third quarter.
“We ran one of our staple plays,” said Bell of the game-tying run.
“Dante made a nice cut on it, and (receiver) Dan Morrison made a
great block, sealing their corner inside. After that, it’s hard for
teams to catch him because he’s so fast.”
Daniels had much less ground to cover on his go-ahead score, as Phil
Kleckler’s interception, which was one of five MC picks on the day,
set Monmouth up at the Blueboys’ 24.
“The turnovers were big,” said Bell, whose team has been on the
other end of the takeaway category a few times this season. “We
didn’t take advantage by scoring a lot of points off of them, but
the turnovers kept them from scoring points.”
One play in particular stood out, as Kyle Harmon stayed in position
on a trick play and picked off a pass by Illinois College receiver
Joe Reed in the end zone. Later in the quarter, after Harmon had
made a touchdown-saving tackle on a punt return, Cole Norman stepped
in front of a Pete Jennings pass to again deny Illinois College on a
trip inside the red zone. For his point-preventing plays, Harmon
earned one of the Midwest Conference’s Performer of the Week honors.
“Our defense played tremendously,” said Bell. “Statistically,
Jennings is one of the top quarterbacks in the league, and I don’t
think they had a pass longer than 19 yards. That says a lot. All
they completed were some shallow crossing routes, and you can give
that stuff up. We got a lot of pressure on him and got in his face
on a lot of throws.”
Continued Bell, whose team will finish no worse than tied for second
in the MWC with a victory Saturday, “It was a nice way to regroup
after a lackluster game against Lake Forest. We had some guys really
step up. We talked about our best players playing their best, and
that’s what we got.”
The Prairie Fire have just one conference win this season, but
they’ve been in most of their games, including a 42-27 loss to
league champion St. Norbert on Sept. 30 that saw them pull within a
touchdown of the Knights in the fourth quarter. Since that loss,
Knox has dropped four straight games by an average of just 3.5
points. In addition to Megli, Aaron Willits is having a fine season,
and his 578 yards in conference games is good for seventh in the
league.
“This is the last game of the year, and both teams want to end their
seasons the right way,” said Bell. “Both teams will be juiced to
play. There’s going to be a lot of energy on both sides.”
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