"Lake Forest came in here two years ago and beat us," warned MC coach Steve Bell. "They’re extremely capable of coming in here and beating us again."

The Scots’ defensive unit will need to shift gears for the Foresters’ spread offense after facing Ripon’s option offense last week. If not for two fourth-quarter touchdowns, the Scots might not have moved up the polls from No. 23 a week ago or stayed unbeaten atop the Midwest Conference.

Trailing 35-25 with 8:01 to play, Bell counted on his quick-scoring offense and stingy defense to make up the 10-point deficit in the waning minutes.

Starting a drive at their own 28-yard line, the Scots marched down the field and faced a fourth-and-one at the Ripon 34. After a timeout, Clay Bricker got the call and picked up a hard-fought yard to keep the drive alive. The drive was capped when Kyle Weyeneth took an Alex Tanney pass 25 yards to the end zone.

"Give Alex the credit on the fourth down call," said Bell. "He’s the one who called Clay’s number. That says a lot when you’ve got a quarterback of Alex’s caliber and he calls for the tailback on fourth-and-a-yard."

With 5:25 left, Bell’s decision was onside kick or kick deep?

"We thought about it," reported Bell of the possibility of an onside kick. "There was just too much time on the clock and I was confident our defense would hold them. It was a critical point and our defense came up big."

What the defense did was hold Ripon to a three-and-out, forcing the Red Hawks to punt. A 57-yard boot pinned Monmouth at its own 23 with 3:28 to go.

The Scots again marched down the field, aided by two penalties. Ironically, one was against the Scots. A 15-yard personal foul against the Red Hawks that moved the ball to the Ripon 26, and a holding call on the Scots moved the ball back to the 31 – just where Bell wanted it.

"We needed room to set the play up," reported Bell. "We needed to be inside the 40, but not too close. We were at the 26 and had a holding penalty that pushed us back far enough to make the play work."

"The play" was a textbook pass by Tanney, who hit Matt Shepherd in stride for a 31-yard scoring strike and the lead.

Next up will be a Forester team that gave Ripon a scare in Week 2 before falling 14-3. Kickoff Saturday at April Zorn Memorial Stadium is 1 p.m.

"Our kids have to take care of business," said Bell. "The last two weeks we have not played exceptional football. We’ve been exceptional in spots, but our challenge is to put it together for 60 minutes."

If the Scots do "put it all together," it could be a long day for the Foresters’ defense, which touts the league’s second-best pass defense, allowing just 147 yards per game through the air. The Foresters’ challenge will be to hold MC’s air attack under its nearly 300-yard per game average. On top of that, the Scots have rolled up averages of 43 points and 443 yards per game – both league highs.

"Lake Forest is similar to us," said Bell of the Lake Forest defense. "Their scheme is much like ours. They have always been good against the run. We’ll have to be able to run like Bricker did last week in order to give Tanney time to throw."

Throwing the ball is something the Foresters know a thing about. Quarterback Geoff Sobey has completed more than 60 percent of his passes and carries a 119.89 pass efficiency rating. His favorite target has been lanky wide receiver Dan Carter, who leads the Foresters with 40 catches for 578 yards and a team-best four TDs.

Lake Forest can also run the ball, nearly evenly splitting their 427 yards of offense last week between the run and the pass. Sophomore running back Brock Stenberg accounted for 291 of those yards – 179 yards on the ground and 112 receiving yards.

For their part, Monmouth is glad Lake Forest runs a more traditional type offense.

"They go out of the shotgun nearly every snap and they’ve got some terrific receivers," reported Bell. "Our defense is built more toward the traditional type offense. We have the long, tall pass rushers. The option is just a tough offense to defend regardless of what kind of players you have."

The Foresters offense was tough to defend last week as the team never trailed in a 24-16 win over Grinnell and led 24-9 before the Pioneers put together a 60-yard drive to score in the game’s final minutes.

The Scots proved last week they can put together long scoring drives late in the game, too. They just hope it’s not something they’ll have to do each week.