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Stakes are high for Monmouth vs. St. Norbert matchup
Release Date:
Oct. 8, 2009
MONMOUTH, Ill. —
One team will be
knocked from their perch as a conference unbeaten when Monmouth
hosts St. Norbert Saturday at 1 p.m. at April Zorn Memorial Stadium.
Monmouth – ranked
12th by D3football.com and the American Football Coaches Association
– and St. Norbert were picked 1-2 in the Midwest Conference coaches’
poll and are tied with Ripon atop the Midwest Conference at 4-0. All
that will change this weekend when the only two teams to win the
league title outright in the last six years meet in Monmouth’s
Homecoming game. Other than the Fighting Scots title years of 2005
and 2008, the Green Knights have won the title every year since
1999, sharing the crown with Lake Forest in 2002.
The game features
two of the league’s premier coaches – Jim Purtill (96-16 at St.
Norbert) and Monmouth’s Steve Bell (73-25), who just moved
past Kelly Kane as the second winningest coach in Fighting Scots’
history. The tandem has a remarkable conference record – Purtill is
88-5 and Bell is 70-18 in the MWC.
While the Scots
are the defending champions and defeated the Green Knights at St.
Norbert last season, Bell isn’t taking anything for granted.
“They’re an
extremely good team,” said Bell of the Green Knights. “We don’t try
to hide it from our kids. This game will have some type of
ramification for the conference championship. It won’t decide it,
but it will have an impact on who’s in position to win it at the end
of the year.”
The Scots enter
the game ranked second in Division III in both scoring offense
(50.60) and total offense (512.60). But it has been the defense that
has surprised most onlookers. Monmouth’s defensive unit ranks as
DIII’s best in turnover margin (3.40) and pass efficiency defense
(72.10), and they’re eighth in rushing defense (51.20). Consider
that the Scots have recovered 11 of 12 opponent fumbles and picked
off 13 passes and St. Norbert’s prime directive may be to take care
of the ball.
The Green Knights
have certainly done that. St. Norbert quarterbacks have only been
picked off three times. They haven’t fumbled much, but their success
rate hasn’t been good when they do, losing five of their six drops.
That could create a feeding frenzy for Monmouth’s defense.
“We work on takeaways
every week,” said Bell. “We stress to be ahead in the turnover
category.”
The Green Knights
like to run, but do sport a balanced attack (161.4 rushing per game,
236.8 passing per game), led by junior quarterback Rob Berger. He’s
thrown for 11 TDs and nearly 1,000 yards. His favorite target has
been 6-foot-3 wide receiver Jeremy Gezella, who has a team-leading
six touchdowns and averages more than 100 yards per game. Running
back John Weninger gets the bulk of the carries and has five rushing
touchdowns, but Berger is apt to run as well with four TDs.
“They’ve got a
talented quarterback,” said Bell. “He’s a very good athlete, very
versatile and Gezelle is a talented receiver. We’ll have to get a
pass rush without running a lot of extra defenders, but their
offensive line is huge.”
The Scots’ defensive
line and their 14 sacks will be tested. St. Norbert’s offensive line
averages more than 290 pounds vs. Monmouth’s defensive line average
of 250. The Knights have protected their quarterback, allowing just
eight sacks this season.
Defensively for St.
Norbert, they’ve gotten a good rush, too, recording 34 tackles for
loss and nine sacks while holding opponents to 133 yards rushing and
161 yards passing per game. Sophomore linebacker Justin Baker has
been the main hit man for the Knights. His 36 tackles lead the
defense and 265-pound defensive tackle John Troyer has a team-high
four sacks.
“They have a new
defensive coordinator,” reported Bell. “They’ll be a little bit
different schematically than they have been because of that. I
expect some wrinkles that we haven’t seen yet. One thing that hasn’t
changed is that they have big, strong linemen.”
Bell isn’t looking at
the numbers as he prepares his Scots for their biggest challenge of
the season. The way he figures it, the game is anyone’s for the
taking.
“There is no underdog
in this game,” claimed Bell. “It will be a matchup of two extremely
good football teams. It’s a 50-50 game. Whoever’s willing to make
the plays and performs the best on Saturday will win.”
Game Coverage: Fans
may log on to
www.midwestconference.tv
to access live streaming audio and video coverage of Saturday’s
contest.
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