Football 10/10/2018 8:26:00 AM

Bulldogs Ride Momentum Into Homecoming Saturday

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – Coming off a 45-point outburst, the Truman Football team will welcome the Lincoln Blue Tigers for the 76^thedition of Homecoming on the Kirksville campus this Saturday at 2 p.m.

The Bulldogs enter Saturday's tilt with a 3-3 overall record and 2-0 conference mark. Lincoln is 2-4 overall and 1-2 in the GLVC.

Truman scored 21 points in the fourth quarter, highlighted by two big plays in their 45-38 win over McKendree. After the Bearcats jumped up 31-24, Jordan Salima took the first play from scrimmage straight up the middle 66-yards for the equalizer. It was Salima's long run from scrimmage as a Bulldog and propelled him to his first 100-yard rushing day of the season with 134 yards. The second strike came against after McKendree had gone on top 38-31. Lawrence Woods went up the right sideline 89-yards for his third kickoff return of the season for a touchdown and fourth for his career to swing the momentum back in Truman's favor.

After the second lighting delay of the game, the Bulldog defense got a stand. On the ensuing Truman drive Andy Satulla, capped off a nine-play 55-yard march with a two-yard dagger to give Truman the lead. The defense had to make a pair of stops in the final minutes. D'Anthony Knight knocked away a pass in the endzone on fourth and goal and Jordan Siegel picked off a pass in the final seconds to preserve the win.

Lincoln had their homecoming spoiled by Quincy on Saturday 14-13. The Hawks were up 14-6 before Henry Ogala connected with Justin Korakakos on a 52-yard TD pass in the third quarter. Lincoln took over at their own eight and methodically got to the Quincy 27 before a sack on third down forced a 50-yard field goal attempt by Fernando Ramirez with 2:58 to play. Ramirez's attempt was short and the Hawks ran out the clock for the win. Kimbo Ferguson ran for 102 for Lincoln while Ogala threw for 148.

This will be the last meeting between Truman and Lincoln under the GLVC banner. Last week, Lindenwood University was admitted into the league and with that, the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association decided to end the scheduling alliance between the two leagues that allowed Lincoln to play GLVC football as an associate member. Truman has won 21 straight against the Blue Tigers including last year's 41-14 win in Jefferson City.

About The Bulldogs…

Jaden Barr is in his third year as the starting quarterback for the Bulldogs. Barr has started 26 games and is inching up the Truman career passing lists. He is 10^thin yards completed with 4,600, ninth in completions with 392 and sixth in total offense with 5,734.
Barr has 526 rushing yards this season to lead Truman with three, 100-yard running games. His total is only 72 yards shy of last year's total of 598.
Barr is third in the GLVC in rushing yards per game at 87.7 and seventh in passing yards at 137.3. He is third in the conference in total offense at 225.0 per game.
Jordan Salima has gone over 2,000 career rushing yards and is 12^thon the Bulldog career list. He is sixth in career rushing attempts with 546 and is closing in on the top 10 in Truman all-purpose yards with 3,165. Salima has a team-high 91 rushing attempts this season for 360 yards and four touchdowns.
Andy Satulla went over 1,000 career rushing yards last week against McKendree and has 289 yards and two game winning touchdowns. Satulla has 1,092 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns.
Barr has used 14 different receivers this season on his 87 completions. Dante Ruffin has the most catches with 14 for 141 yards, Brass Woods has 12 catches for 135 and Mitch Nichols has the most yards receiving with 173 on 10 grabs.
Junior Sam Reeves added a key sack against McKendree on Saturday and inched closer to the Truman career record. Reeves is in second place in the career rankings in qb sacks with 28. He is four back of Ernie Myerson's 1984-87 total of 32. Myerson is the father of current Bulldog and defensive mate of Reeves' Travis Myerson.
Reeves has 40.5 tackles for loss, also second on the career charts. He is 1.5 away from the record held by Nic Abbate (2010-14).
The Bulldog defense has been balanced with 11 players with over 20 tackles through the first six games. Bryan Edwards and Wyatt Fishel lead the pack with 43 and 42 tackles respectively. Edwards has 5.5 tackles for loss and a forced fumble. He is the active career leader on the defense with 173 stops in 28 games played.
Lawrence Woods is a two-time GLVC Special Teams Player of the Week. Woods has returned three kicks for touchdowns this season, a Truman single-season record, and leads all of the NCAA in kickoff return average at 47.6 yards per return. The Truman single-season record is 37.2 per return held by Tremaine Millender in 2013. Millender had 10 returns for 372 yards while Woods this season has 10 returns for 476 yards.
The Bulldogs are fourth in the NCAA Division II in kick return average at 28.9 as a team. They are also atop the GLVC with Missouri S&T right on their heels at 28.5 yards per return.
Brock Rohler has the Bulldogs second in the GLVC statistics in Net Punting. Rohler is averaging 39.6 yards per punt with a long of 55. He has had 12 of his 28 punts fair caught, eight inside the 20 and two touchbacks. The Bulldogs have allowed six punt returns this season for a total of 19 yards (3.2/return).
Josh Scheiderer leads the Bulldogs in scoring with 43 points making 9-of-10 field goals and 16-of-17 extra point attempts. Scheiderer's long is 46 yards coming against McKendree last Saturday.
The Bulldogs continue to be one of the least penalized teams in the nation. Truman averages 3.67 flags accepted per game for a total of 32 yards per game. Those numbers are first in the GLVC and third in Division II.

Behind Enemy Lines…

Lincoln brings the number three ranked defense in the GLVC into Saturday's game with Truman. The Blue Tigers have held opponents to 24 points per game and 336.0 yards per game.
They have been stout against the run with allowing 127.2 yards per game.
Lincoln is near the bottom of the league (7^th) and 140^thout of 167 Division II teams in kickoff return defense at 23.6 yards per return.
Edwin Durassaint is the top defensive tackler with 47 stops through six games and has one interception, 3.5 tackles for loss and one fumble recovery for 78 yards.
The defense has seven sacks through six games while the offensive has allowed 24 quarterback sacks for 153 yards lost.
Kimbo Ferguson and Hosea Franklin both average over 50 yards per game rushing this season. Ferguson has 310 yards on 68 attempts and two touchdowns, Franklin has 216 yards on 50 attempts. Terry Hunter has half of the team's six rushing touchdowns with three on 55 carries and 137 yards.
Henry Ogala has completed 56.7% of his passes for 966 yards and five touchdowns. Ogala has used Blake Tibbs 27 times for 412 yards and A'Jani Johnson 12 times for 147 yards.
Fernando Ramirez is 5-of-12 on field goals and 12-of-12 on extra points. His long is 47 yards. Four of his seven misses have come from 45 yards or more with two attempts greater than 50 yards.
The Blue Tigers broke a 29-game conference-losing streak when they defeated Southwest Baptist 28-13 on September 22. Lincoln is 2-32 in GLVC games dating back to 2014.

Truman vs. The GLVC:
The Bulldogs are 26-14 all-time in the Great Lakes Valley Conference since joining the league in 2013. They are 14-7 in conference home games and 13-7 in road tilts.
Truman has averaged 167.0 yards per conference game on the ground, while allowing 101.1 yards rushing. They have recorded 110 sacks in the 40 conference games (2.7/g) while allowing 61 (1.5/g).

Inside The Numbers (McKendree)

It was the 11^thtime since 2010 that the Bulldogs put 40 points or more up on the scoreboard and they are 10-1 in those games. The last 40-point game was against Lincoln in 2017 (41-14) and the 45 points were the most since 52 scored against Southwest Baptist in 2014.
It was only Truman's fifth win out of 34 games since 2010 that the Bulldogs won after allowing over 30 points. The last was a 40-37 shootout in the 2013 season opener against Southwest Baptist.
The Bulldogs improved to 19-1 when rushing the ball over 200 yards since 2010. They have now rushed for over 200 in the last three games (265, 255, 311).
The 311 yards rushing were the most since the 2014 game at Southwest Baptist when they reeled off 350 rushing yards. They have ran the ball for 300 or more yards six times since 2010 with the most rushing yards being 396 against Lincoln in 2011.
Jordan Salima's 66-yard rushing touchdown was the longest of his Truman tenure. His previous long run was 44 yards last season in Jefferson City against Lincoln.
Salima has run for 329 yards and two touchdowns in his last two games against McKendree.
All three primary rushers for Truman, Salima, Jaden Barr and Andy Satulla, averaged over seven yards per carry on Saturday.
Brass Woods returned to the lineup and made three catches for 33 yards.
Spencer Newell had the longest punt return of the season at 23 yards.
Josh Scheiderer hit the longest field goal of the season at 46 yards as Truman drove from its own one yardline at the end of the first half to get into range.
D'Anthony Knight led the defense with 12 stops, 11 solo and Jordan Siegel added 10 tackles and picked off his second pass of the year to end the game.
The defense had nine tackles for loss with Sam Reeves picking up the lone sack.
McKendree had a pair of 100-yard rushers. Preston Thompson had 129 yards on 20 carries and two touchdowns while Jace Franklin added 111 yards on 21 rush attempts.
It was Truman's second straight win over McKendree.

Homecoming Facts

The first Homecoming Game on the Truman campus occurred on November 3, 1939 and it was a 21-7 loss to the University of Central Missouri. The Bulldogs are 45-27-2 in homecoming games after last year's non-conference game against Grand Valley (Mich.) State, a 42-7 loss.
This will be the first time Lincoln has been the homecoming opponent. Truman has played the University of Central Missouri 18 times for homecoming, the last coming in 1996. Second on the list is Missouri S&T with 10 games, followed by Northwest Missouri and Southeast Missouri with eight games apiece.
Last year's non-conference homecoming game was the first since the 1977 game against Evansville (Ind.).
Three of Truman's seven overtime games have occurred on homecoming. The first was 1999 against Emporia State, again against the Hornets in 2007 and finally in 2008 against Nebraska-Omaha. All three were wins.
This year's honorees have strong Truman Athletics ties. Dick and Edie Erzen are the Alumni of the Year. Dick is a member of the Athletics Hall of Fame and was the "super sub" on two basketball teams at Truman that posted a 59-4 record. He was a teammate of Bulldog great Harry "The Horse" Gallatin.
Derek and Kelli (Floyd) Kent are the Young Alumni of the Year winners. Derek was a three-time all-MIAA defensive back with second team honors in 2001 and third team honors in 02 and 03. He was also a CoSIDA Academic All-District honoree. Kelli played hoops for the Truman Women's Basketball team and is ninth on the career assists charts with 282 in 107 games played.
Ray Armstead is the Parade Grand Marshal. Armstead is Truman's only Olympic Gold Medalist after being a member of the winning 4x400 meter relay team at the 1984 games in Los Angeles. He has been inducted into the NCAA Track & Field Hall of Fame and Truman Athletics Hall of Fame and still holds the school record in the 400 at 44.87.

Returning All-GLVC…
Defensive lineman Sam Reeves and kick return/running back Malique Robbins are returning first team all-Great Lakes Valley Conference performers. Reeves was ninth in Division II in quarterback sacks with 11.5 and 42^ndin tackles for loss with 16.

Backfield mates Jacob Morris and Jordan Salima were second team honorees last year while tight end C.J. Brown and linebacker Bryan Edwards were named honorable mention.

Brotherly Love…
The 2018 Bulldogs feature four sets of brothers on the team. Connor and Jack Borisenko, A.J. and Alec Devecchi, Brock and Cade Rohler and Bennett and Brayden Swope.

Sportsmanship…
For the third straight year, the Bulldogs earned the GLVC Sportsmanship Award for Football. The award is voted upon by league coaches. Truman was one of the fewest penalized teams in Division II at sixth last year with just over four flags per game. They were third in Division II in penalty yards at 347 for the season or 31.5 per game.

In addition to the Sportsmanship Award, Truman placed 33 players on the Academic All-GLVC team. To earn the award, players needed to average a 3.30 GPA for the academic year.

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