SOMETHING TO BE PROUD OF

For many Fighting Scots football fans, the sting of last weekend’s 30-28 loss to Wartburg in the second round of the playoffs still hurts.

Let’s put the playoff picture in proper perspective.

·         Only 32 Division III football teams played any games after the regular season.

·         Of those, only 16 played after Thanksgiving.

·         No other Division III team had a 14-game winning streak.

Sure, a last second loss hurts – it always does, but the Fighting Scots put together one of the best seasons – and some would say THE best season – in the 116 years of the program. The 2008 edition won a school-record 11 games and became only the fourth team in Monmouth history to complete an undefeated regular season. Steve Bell and his staff can lay claim to half of those perfect regular seasons, also posting a 10-0 regular season mark in 2005.

Following the last-second loss, the team delayed their usual Sunday morning meeting to Monday in order to give the players time to digest what had happened.

“We wanted to give them time,” said Bell. “Of course they were disappointed in the outcome. But, they have stayed true to each other all year. There has never been any finger-pointing. That’s what I want them to take away from that game. They understand it’s a team sport.”

At least two of the players were already preparing for next season. Running back Clay Bricker and offensive lineman Josh Kotecki were in the film room Monday morning watching game film from the weekend.

These guys are either gluttons for punishment, or really determined and committed to making the 2009 season even more successful.

“That’s the way we are as far as athletes,” said Bell. “You want to know what happened. You want to see what you did right and wrong. Even though you were in the moment, you want to see it and confirm it. That’s the way athletes and coaches are built. You can’t second guess, you just have to say we didn’t get it done. You can’t play the game of ‘What ifs,’ you could do that for years.”

The last two minutes of the game have been well-documented in the local media. The Scots led for the first 59:53 of the game, but Wartburg pieced together a 79-yard drive in the game’s final 1:34, capping the drive when Knights’ wide receiver Justin Vetters out-jumped the Scots triple coverage in the endzone for the winning TD with :07 left.

“The philosophy on Wartburg’s last possession was to keep them inbounds,” explained Bell. “We wanted to close as many windows as we could. The kid made a heck of a catch. You’ve got to give them credit.”

While the Scots can’t get a “Do over,” they can get a “Do again,” as in repeat the success next season. They’ll graduate one starting offensive lineman and eight – count ‘em, eight – starters on defense including Marc Artozqui who set the single season tackle record with 121 stops this fall.

“More than the athletes, we’ll have to replace the leadership,” said Bell in preparing for next season. “We know we have the athletes to fill in, but it was this year’s leadership that made the difference. Replacing the leadership is always the hardest part. We had a group this year that did a great job of policing themselves. That’s great for a coach to not have to deal with all the little things that happen in a team atmosphere.”

That confidence in the leadership allowed Bell to tell his team – before practices even began – the team was on the verge of something great.

“We had the right pieces in place and it played out,” claimed Bell. “Your goal every year is to go undefeated, but it sure is hard. I truly believed this team could do that. They were a great group to work with. We recruited the athletes, but now the next group has to step up.”

Much like Roger Haynes’ track program, the football program has begun to feed on its own success. After a 3-7 inaugural season, Bell-coached teams have never had a losing season. Since 2002, the team has compiled a 52-11 record with two conference titles. 

“You hope success breeds success,” said Bell. “You backup good recruiting classes with another good class and so on. I’m confident we have the athletes in place, but it gets back to replacing the leadership. The leadership aspect is a large part of what we do. That’s why we were good this year.”

While the leadership was good, the Scots didn’t exactly have a bunch of under-achievers on the field. In fact, just the opposite, they backed up the leadership with quality athletes.

A couple of seniors – a quarterback-turned-wide receiver and a basketball player-turned-wide receiver – became surprise key offensive components.

Steve Zidow, a backup QB on the 2005 team, switched to wide receiver for 2008 and was the team’s fourth-leading receiver with 43 catches for 442 yards and five touchdowns. Kyle Weyeneth, who had never played collegiate football, was just behind Zidow with 32 catches for 347 yards and four TDs, including one in the postseason.  

The offense received plenty of accolades this season, finishing with the nation’s No. 2 ranked scoring total. They averaged nearly 47 points per game and over 460 yards per game.

The defense wasn’t too bad, either, helping the Scots to the No. 2 ranking in turnover margin and passing defense. Opponents averaged just over 100 yards against the Scots’ defense.

“I give a lot of credit for our offensive success to our defense,” said Bell. “Our defense did an exceptional job this year. Fans look at the offensive numbers, but they might not understand how you got them. A lot of our offense was fed off what the defense did. The defense gave us the ball on a short field a number of times. It’s a lot easier to score on a short field.”

Senior Luke Sandrock had the best season of his four years, finishing with a career-high 37 tackles. Classmate Willy Mason had a team-high seven interceptions after recording just one in the previous three years. Junior Anthony Goranson led the team with 21 tackles for loss and 12 sacks.

“Everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY played well this season,” praised Bell. “The thing I’m most proud of is this team played their best against Wartburg.”

We’re proud of the team, too, coach. Now, when do we start two-a-days?

IT’S GOOD TO BE AT HOME

That feeling will be short-lived for the men’s basketball team.

After logging over 2,400 miles in the first week of the season, Mark Vershaw’s squad made their homecoming a successful one with an 86-80 win over MacMurray Monday night following a 66-54 win at Eureka last Wednesday. The Scots will have to wait a while for their next home game – they won’t be at home again until Jan. 7.

The Scots shot well early against Eureka, hitting seven of their first 11 shots to jump to an 11 point lead with 13:17 left in the first half. Monmouth must have liked the Eureka gym, hitting nearly 50 percent of their shots, but a familiar nemesis made an appearance.

“The only thing that kept us from playing a complete game was turnovers,” said Vershaw of his team’s 21 miscues. “That has been a down side for us so far this year. The turnovers result in us having empty possessions. We can’t have that once we get into the conference play.”

Corey Turner had the hot hand in the game with 19 points and continued his scoring barrage with a team-high 21 against MacMurray. 

“Corey has done a good job of playing to his strengths,” praised Vershaw. “He understands his role and has done a really nice job in the last couple of games.”

Judging by Monday’s game, Turner’s role might be the guy who puts his foot on the gas. On consecutive trips, Turner took a feed from Eric Grant and drained a pair of threes. Turner wasn’t alone – the Scots were on fire from beyond the arc, not scoring points other than a pair of free throws from inside the three-point line until Turner’s layup with 11:41 left in the first half and the Scots leading 22-17.

“MacMurray was in a zone,” said Vershaw explaining the Scots torrid long range shooting. “At times we had four guards out there and got some good looks against the zone. Of course, finally playing on our own court helped.”

Playing the first game after the Thanksgiving break, Vershaw was a bit concerned about turkey-lag.

“I was afraid we would either come out sluggish or come out on fire and then our legs would give way,” said Vershaw. “I think the later happened. If it was a 20 minute game, we would have been in very good shape.”

Monmouth was in good shape at the break, sitting on a 16 point lead. The locker room cooled the Scots hot shooting in the second half, but the team that shot barely 66 percent from the line a year ago, drained 75 percent of their free throws to stave off a Highlander comeback in the game’s final minute.

That’s not to say Vershaw could sit back with his feet up. The Scots had to hit five of their last six free throws in the final :19 to ice the game. Corey Gruber sank three of four and Zach Ott made the final two to seal the deal.

“We gave them too many opportunities,” said Vershaw. “It seemed like we hit a streak where we would make one out of two (free throws). They had a kid hit a couple of threes and you can’t trade a three for a one when you’re trying to put a team away. It’s all about learning how to put teams away and learning how to win.”

Winning took a team effort. Scott Ubbenga came off the bench to play 14 minutes and score 18 points, making four of his six three pointers. Robbie Hinkle contributed 21 scrappy minutes, making all four of his charity tosses and recording three steals. Kyle Cook made five of seven free throws and finished with 13 points.

“Kyle’s athletic ability really helped us battle inside,” praised Vershaw. “Zach played 34 minutes and played well against a very athletic team. We needed to give him some rest but he played through it and gave us a good presence inside. We had some balanced scoring and got some help from some guys we needed to play well.”

The Scots will need everyone to play well this weekend. Last season, the Scots opened conference play against the upper tier of MWC teams. It won’t be much easier this year.

A road trip to Ripon Friday followed by a drive to St. Norbert Saturday means back-to-back games against two teams picked above Monmouth in the annual coaches poll. That’s the bad news.

The good news is Vershaw will have two key pieces of last year’s squad back for the weekend trip. Guard Alex Tanney and forward Kyle Weyeneth will be making the trip after finishing up a pretty good football season. Also joining the team from the gridiron is freshman forward David Milroy.

“We’re hoping our football guys can give us a spark,” said Vershaw. “Although it’s short notice, we think they can give us a little lift. They won’t be able to go 40 minutes, but they’re the type of players who will give you what they can when they’re asked.”

Weyeneth, who hadn’t played collegiate football until this fall, didn’t have eye-popping basketball stats last season – instead, his worth comes from factors not kept by a statistician.

“He’s the kind of guy who will go all out whether he’s in the game for two minutes or 20 minutes,” reported Vershaw. “He doesn’t take a possession off. Adding the football guys who came off an historic season will do nothing but help us. Even if they don’t play a minute on the court, those guys are winners and know how to win. That will carry over to the rest of the team. It was a long season for them, so we want to ease them into basketball and make sure everything is good physically for them and they have time to recuperate.”

The Scots’ schedule should help with the recovery time. Vershaw’s squad will travel to Central Tuesday, and then have a month off until a January 7 home date with Illinois College.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN

Like the men’s team, the women’s basketball team has played their share of tough competition this season and are well-prepared for this weekend’s conference-opening trip to Wisconsin.

The Scots are fresh off a third place finish at their own Thanksgiving Tournament last weekend, falling to Central in the opener 84-76 and defeating Rockford 73-53 in the third place game.

It was a tail of two halves against Central. The Dutch jumped out to a 52-34 halftime lead on 54 percent shooting. The Scots cranked up the defense in the second half and took their first lead of the game on two Melissa Gorski free throws with 2:58 left. Keli Jo Hinkle promptly picked the Dutch’s pocket, but missed the breakaway layup. Tanesha Hughes, trailing the play, got the rebound but missed the putback, allowing Central to regain possession. The Dutch then scored 11 unanswered points and went five-for-five from the line in the final minute to ice the game.

“Our second half was great,” praised Melissa Bittner. “It was all about defense and rebounding. In the first half we played pretty poor defense. We weren’t aggressive blocking out or hitting the boards.”

Gorksi and Hughes certainly hit the boards, combining for 30 of the Scots’ 51 rebounds. Gorski’s 14 rebounds was just shy of Hughes’ 16. Hughes picked up a double-double with a team-high 18 points. Alison Andrews just missed matching Hughes’ double-double effort, scoring 14 points and pulling down nine rebounds.

“I was pretty proud of our second half,” said Bittner. “We only gave up 32 points in the second half after 52 in the first half. We definitely made the defensive adjustment.”

So, Coach, what exactly did you say to the team at halftime to crank up the defense? We guess you stayed pretty calm in the locker room, right?

“I think I might have yelled,” chuckled Bittner. “I was not happy with our first half. They were on track to score 100 points. You can’t give up 52 points in a half and expect to win. We pride ourselves on our defense – that’s why we’ve won four games.”

The defense was there Sunday, holding Rockford to just 25 percent shooting in the first half and outrebounding the Regents 51-25. Hughes picked up her fourth straight double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Her effort was only topped by Gorski’s double-double of 25 points (10-of-12 from the field) and 14 rebounds. That translates into the two seniors scoring over half the Scots’ points and grabbing nearly half the team’s rebounds.

“Our seniors did a great job this week,” said Bittner. “The Rockford win was a great team win, everyone contributed in some way. We were a bit sloppy in the first half. We came out strong in the second half, especially in the first 10 minutes.”

The Scots led 30-19 at the half and opened up a 20-point lead midway through the second session on Lindsie Pettie’s bucket in the paint. Rockford was able to trim the deficit to 13 on a trey near the 8:00 mark, but the Scots answered and regained the 20-point edge over the final five minutes.

This weekend the Scots travel to Ripon and St. Norbert to open Midwest Conference play. They’ll make the northern trek with four players averaging double figures – Gorski 17.0, Hughes 13.0, Lynsey Barnard 11.0 and Justine Boone 10.6.

Gorksi is on the verge of becoming only the seventh woman in MC history to score 1,000 points. The senior guard is just 11 points shy of the milestone.

Hughes is coming off an MWC Performer of the Week award. She’s averaging a double-double, adding 11.6 rebounds per game to go with her 13 point average.

They’ll face a tough test this weekend, meeting St. Norbert Saturday after a Friday night matchup with fast-improving Ripon. The Green Knights might have a bit of revenge on their minds – the Scots gave St. Norbert their only league loss last season.

“We’ve always matched up well with St. Norbert,” reported Bittner. “Even though they’re at home, they play Lake Forest Friday, so it would be nice if Lake Forest could wear them down a bit.”

The Foresters might just be able to grant Bittner’s wish. Lake Forest was ranked second in the coaches poll behind St. Norbert.

POLL POSITION

The final edition of the American Football Coaches Association poll (AFCA), released prior to the first round of the Division III playoffs, ranked Monmouth College at No. 14.

The Scots, 10-0 at the time of the poll, remained ranked 22^nd in the D3football.com rankings.

Perennial power, Mt. Union, picked up 39 first place votes. UW-Whitewater received the remaining first place vote and were ranked fifth both nationally and in the West region. The Warhawks will face the West’s top seed, Willamette – ranked No. 6 by AFCA – Saturday with the winner to meet the Monmouth-Wartburg winner Dec. 6. Wartburg, which defeated No. 9 UW-Stevens Point, is the only nationally unranked team remaining in the West region.

THAT’S A LOT OF MICE

The totals are in, and a lot – and we mean A LOT – of people logged on to watch the Fighting Scots in last week’s Second Round of the football playoffs.

The report from the Midwest Conference office says 1,157 computers were logged on in the historic game. That’s over 1,100 more than either the St. Norbert or Ripon games. That number doesn’t necessarily mean there were that many viewers as multiple viewers were probably watching on one computer.

t’s doubtful that many viewers will log on to any one webcast of the upcoming conference basketball season, but should the men’s or women’s basketball teams duplicate the football season, it could happen.

You just never know.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Fri., Dec. 5
Swimming – at DePauw Invitational, 9:30 a.m.
Women’s Basketball – at Ripon, 5:00 p.m.
Men’s Basketball – at Ripon, 7:00 p.m. 

Sat., Dec. 6
Swimming – at DePauw Invitational, 9:30 a.m.
Women’s Basketball – at St. Norbert, 2:00 p.m.
Men’s Basketball – at St. Norbert, 4:00 p.m. 

Tues., Dec. 9
Men’s Basketball – at Central, 7:00 p.m.

SCOTSIVATIONAL

“A man can be as great as he wants to be. If you believe in yourself and have the courage, the determination, the dedication, the competitive drive and if you are willing to sacrifice the little things in life and pay the price for the things that are worthwhile, it can be done.” – Vince Lombardi