Monmouth College Fighting Scots (2-1)
at Beloit College Buccaneers (2-2)
Saturday, October 3, 2015, 1:00 p.m.
Strong Stadium, Beloit, Wisconsin
The Buccaneers return to Strong Stadium to face the Fighting Scots of Monmouth College after falling 42-34 at Lake Forest College last Saturday to snap a modest two-game winning streak. MC came from behind last Saturday to top Carroll University 22-16 at home…
The Series: The Buccaneers and Fighting Scots are meeting for the 56th time in a series MC leads 33-21 with one tie. Monmouth has won the last four meetings and 11 of the last 12 going back to the 2003 season. The lone Beloit win in that stretch came in 2010, a 34-27 victory at Strong Stadium. The programs first met in the final game of the 1906 season, an 11-0 Fighting Scots win. MC won the first three meetings before the Bucs came out on top in 1910 17-0 in the first recorded Homecoming Game. That 1910 win started a four-game winning streak by BC in the series in which Beloit out-scored Monmouth 125-5. After the 1913 53-0 Buccaneer win the series didn't resume again until 1926…
The Bucs Most Recent Game: Beloit never quit coming back at Lake Forest College last Saturday. But they could never get back to even in a 42-34 loss. The Foresters had the first two scores of the game on a short run and a 64-yard interception return in the opening quarter. Beloit made it 14-7 after one on Danny May's three-yard scoring run at 1:27 of the period. The Buccaneers pulled within 14-10 seven seconds into the second quarter on Kam Sallee's 24-yard field goal before LFC pushed their lead to 21-10, capping a 15-play drive with a five-yard TD run at the 3:23 mark of the period. Mike Nolden caught an 18-yard scoring pass from May to pull the Bucs back within 21-17 with 1:14 left but Lake Forest had the last say, scoring on a one-yard run five seconds before halftime to make it 28-17 at the break. Sallee's second field goal of the game, this one from 30 yards out, made it 28-20 midway through the third quarter. The Foresters pushed their lead up to 35-20 at 3:07 of the quarter on a 68-yard touchdown run but Nolden caught his second TD pass of the game on a 22-yarder from May with 43 seconds left to make it 35-27 after three. LFC scored on a one-yard run midway through the fourth quarter to re-establish their 15-point advantage before Nate Brault caught a 16-yard scoring pass from May with 3:47 remaining. Beloit couldn't recover the ensuing onside kick and Lake Forest ran out the final time to hold on for the win. Beloit finished with 472 yards of offense while LFC had 401. May finished with 325 yards passing, with Nolden catching eight passes for 170 yards. Sallee also caught eight passes for 77 yards. Mason Dixon rushed 27 times for 104 yards. On defense Brendon Endrina led the way with 10 tackles followed by Riley Pearson and Dewight Walker with eight each. Walker added two pass defenses…
Bucs' Last Time vs. the Fighting Scots: The Buccaneers found the going rough in a 40-7 loss at Monmouth College on October 4, 2014. The Fighting Scots finished with just under 500 yards of offense while holding Beloit to 135, including just 53 on the ground. MC got going with a pair of touchdown runs in the opening quarter, from 44 and three yards both by Michael Buehne, to open a 14-0 lead. They made it 23-0 at the half after tacking on a safety from Michael Smith and a 34-yard scoring run in the second quarter by Buehne. A 32-yard field goal by Ace Henricks and two-yard run by Tanner Matlick made the score 33-0 entering the fourth, where they added a 16-yard TD run by Buehne, his fourth rushing TD of the game, in the first three-plus minutes to close out their scoring. The Buccaneers got on the board with 2:56 left when Dewight Walker scooped up a fumble and raced 88 yards for a TD, the longest fumble return in Beloit Football history, for the final score. Mason Dixon gained 54 yards on 20 carries while Evan Phillips threw for 82 yards. Michael Nolden caught four passes for 38 yards and Ryan Sughroue three for 31 yards. Buehne finished with 187 yards on 17 carries and Matlick had 118 passing yards. On defense, Antonio Jones had 12 tackles, eight solo, while Walker had 11 to go with his long fumble return. Riley Pearson and Derell Carter both had nine tackles, both with a sack and Carter with a fumble recovery. Daniel Quijas also recovered a fumble and Alan Ham had a sack. Smith led the Scots with eight tackles followed by Carson Perrero with seven. MC recorded five sacks, a fumble recovery and an interception to go with seven tackles for loss…
Notes & Notables: The Buccaneers had over 472 yard in total offense for the fourth straight game, the longest stretch of games over 400 since the 2002 season…Mason Dixon barely kept his streak of consecutive 100-yard rushing games going with 104 against LFC. He's had 100-plus in six straight contests. In 24 career games he's had 100-plus yards rushing in 19 of them…Even though the loss dropped them to .500 on the season, the 2-2 mark after four games is the program's best since they were 2-2 in 2010 on the way to a 5-5 season…Mike Nolden had his second straight 100-yard receiving game with 170 on eight catches Saturday…
Up Ahead for the Bucs: Beloit has a bye week on October 10 before returning to action on October 17 at defending MWC Champion Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. They return to Strong Stadium on October 24 to face St. Norbert College…