Football 9/7/2016 8:14:00 AM

NOTES: Bulldogs Look To Rebound Against Malone On Military Appreciation Day

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – It will be the first meeting ever between the Malone (Ohio) University Pioneers and the Truman Bulldogs when the two teams clash at Stokes Stadium at noon on Saturday.

It will be Truman's second straight game against a regional opponent as the Pioneers are Division II members of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (GMAC). That league along with the GLVC, Lone Star and the Great Lakes Intercollegiate (GLIAC) make up Super Region 4 for NCAA playoff purposes.

The Bulldogs are coming off a 31-19 loss at the hands of the region's top team from a year ago, #14 Midwestern (Texas) State on Saturday night. Jaden Barr and Randy Schroeder combined for 16-of-21 passing with Barr also leading the team in rushing attempts with 15 for 33 yards in his Bulldog debut. The Mustangs scored on three of four drives between the second and third quarters to go up 28-13. Truman scored in the fourth quarter but the two-point try failed that would have made it a one-possession game.

Malone snapped a 15-game losing streak as they defeated Taylor (Ind.) in overtime 39-33 in their season opener. It was the first victory for new head coach Fred Thompson. The Pioneers led 33-17 with 9:20 left in the fourth quarter but allowed the Trojans to score twice and convert on both two-point attempts to tie the game. Running back Matt Blasiole ran for 178 yards and added 55 receiving yards as the Pioneers gobbled up 415 yards of total offense on the day.

UP NEXT:
The Bulldogs start Great Lakes Valley Conference play next week taking to the road to face Missouri S&T on Saturday night. The two teams have the most history against each other than any other two GLVC conference football members with 78 games played between the two programs dating back to 1909.

Truman will be looking to avenge a 10-7 loss at the hands of the Miners at Stokes Stadium last season. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.

HOT ROUTES

The Bulldogs return five all-Great Lakes Valley Conference players from last season, Austin Zoda (First Team), Jordan Brown, Joey Schenck, Ben Wellman (Second Team) and Brian Craft (Honorable Mention).
Zoda is a three-time all-GLVC performer. He was on the second team in both 2013 and 2014. Zoda's 250 total tackles is good for 24^th on Truman's career tackles list. Last season, Zoda finished with 95 stops and had three forced fumbles.
Joey Schenck was second in the GLVC last year in receptions per game (6.5) and led the team with 71 catches for 693 yards and four TDs. He has 95 career receptions, 25 away from cracking the Bulldog Top 10 and has 892 receiving yards.
Quarterback Randy Schroeder started the final six games as a redshirt freshman last season and went 4-2. For the season, he threw for 1,343 yards and four touchdowns and completed 55% of his passes thrown.
Two "True Freshman" took the bulk of carries last season. Andy Satulla led the team with 550 yards rushing and six scores and averaged 3.5 yards per carry. Malique Robbins played in five of the first six games and averaged 5.0 yards per carry and two touchdowns. Satulla had the only two "100-yard" rushing games last year, 172 against St. Francis and 125 against William Jewell.
The Bulldog defense has allowed only five individual opponents to rush over 100 yards since joining the GLVC in 2013 (a span of 32 games). Last year, Bubba Jenkins of Southwest Baptist has the most by an opposing back with 125 yards.
Jordan Brown led the Bulldog defense with two interceptions last year and both were returned for touchdowns. He has three INTs for his career while Austin Zoda has five.
Nick Dolezal led Truman in points scored last season with 50 and converted on 10-of-12 field goals and 20-of-22 extra point attempts. His longest was 43 yards in the season finale against McKendree.
Under Gregg Nesbitt the Bulldogs are 11-1 when they rush for over 200 yards in a game, they were 2-0 last season. In addition, Truman is 18-9 overall and 4-1 last year when winning the time of possession stat.
After playing seven road games last season and travelling over 5,000 miles (the equivalent of going from Kirksville to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Bulldogs will play six times in front of the home crowd. The road schedule in 2016 is kinder as the total miles scheduled to travel is roughly 3,000 round trip or driving to Las Vegas and back.

Midwestern St. Post Scripts:

The Bulldog offense with 255 yards on Saturday night, had more yards than the last three games to end 2015. There were five games last season that had offensive output was under Saturday's total.

There were 26 accepted penalties (29 total) between the two teams. Of the 29, 22 were called when the MSU offense and Truman defense were on the field. The MSU offense was flagged 13 times totaling 94 yards against while the Truman defense was called nine times for 77 yards. Last year, the Bulldogs were 15^th in Division II in fewest penalties per game at 5.09 and 19^th in fewest penalty yards per game at 45.9.

Quarterback Jaden Barr had the second highest completion percentage of a Bulldog quarterback (min. 10 attempts) since the 1998 season. Phil Davis has the highest against Pittsburg State on November 7, 2009 when he completed 16-of-19 (84.2%) Barr completed 14-of-17 (82.3%)

Seven different receivers were targeted on Saturday with Joey Schenck being the top guy at six passes intended for (five catches). Drew Slager, Jordan Salima and Jordan Jorgenson were thrown to each four times.

Midwestern State had four drives of 10 or more plays on Saturday. Last season, the Truman defense was kept on the field for 10 or more play drives just 15 times in the 11 games.

MSU running back Vincent Johnson was the first tailback since 2012 to score three rushing touchdowns against the Bulldogs. The last was Emporia State back Dozie Iwuagwa. Johnson scored three times on nine attempts. All five MSU players that had rushes never had one go for more than nine yards.

Nick Dolezal made both of his field goal attempts to improve to 13-of-15 for his career and 7-of-8 in attempts of 20-29 yards.

The Bulldogs had 11 players make their debut on the field Saturday including three "True Freshman". Those were defensive back Jordan Siegel, running back Jordan Salima and wide receiver Drew Slager.

Print Friendly Version