Football 10/3/2018 8:32:00 AM

Truman Looks To Keep Rolling Against McKendree Saturday

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – A prolific offense and a tradition-rich defense will clash on Saturday when the Truman Bulldogs travel to Lebanon, Illinois to face McKendree University at 1 p.m.

Truman has held opponents to 21 points or less in four of the five games this season and are among the conference leaders in scoring defense, rushing defense, opponent third down conversion percentage, quarterback sacks and tackles for loss. The Bulldogs sacked William Jewell quarterback Will Schneider five times on Saturday night en route to their second straight win of the season 27-20. Running back Andy Satulla scored on an 18-yard rush with 27 seconds left to play to break the tie and record his first 100-yard rushing game since 2015.

McKendree has scored over 40 points in their last three games including 48 in their 48-14 conference win at Quincy on Saturday. They top ranked offense in the Great Lakes Valley Conference entering Saturday's battle with 492 yards of total offense per game. Quarterback Reese Metcalf is tops in the nation in touchdown passes with 20 through five games. Metcalf has had protection with his offensive line allowing two sacks and 15 tackles for loss this season.

The series between the two schools, while short, has been spirited. Truman won the first three games, in 2011, 2013 and 2014 before the Bearcats sent Truman into the 2015 offseason with a crushing 31-3 loss. That defeat of 28 points was the worst Truman had been dealt in the conference to date. The next year in the season finale, McKendree's 41-14 win not only left a bad taste in the mouth of Bulldog fans but denied Truman the outright GLVC title but also kept the Bulldogs out of the NCAA Division I playoffs.

In last year's game, the best way to keep an offense contained is to not let them have the ball. McKendree led 14-0 after the first play of the second quarter but Truman played "keep away" the rest of the game in ralliying for a 17-14 win. The Bearcats had the ball for nine minutes in the first quarter but only seven minutes and some change the rest of the game. Jordan Salima established new career highs with 41 rushing attempts for 195 yards on the day. As a team, Truman ran the ball 71 times for 299 yards. Danny Spencer hit a 28-yard field goal with 9:12 left to put Truman up by three. The Bulldogs forced McKendree's seventh punt with just under seven minutes to play and that would be their last offensive play. Derrick Curry muffed a Truman punt that was recovered by Taylor Manes with 2:28 remaining and Truman salted out the clock for the win.

About The Bulldogs…

Jaden Barr is in his third year as the starting quarterback for the Bulldogs. Barr has started 25 games and is inching up the Truman career passing lists. He is 11^thin yards completed with 4,469, ninth in completions with 375 and sixth in total offense with 5,512.
Barr is third in the GLVC in rushing yards per game at 87.0 and sixth in passing yards at 138.6. He is third in the conference in total offense at 225.6 per game.
Jordan Salima has gone over 2,000 career rushing yards and is 14^thon the Bulldog career list. He is seventh in career rushing attempts with 527 and is closing in on the top 10 in Truman all-purpose yards with 3,031. Salima has a team-high 72 rushing attempts this season for 226 yards and three touchdowns.
Andy Satulla has had nearly 20 rushing attempts in the last two games against Valparaiso and William Jewell and turned in his third 100-yard rushing game of his career with 101 in Truman's 27-20 win over Jewell on Saturday. Satulla is sitting at 999 career rushing yards.
Barr has used 13 different receivers this season on his 70 completions. Dante Ruffin has the most catches with 12 for 132 yards, Brass Woods has nine catches for 102 and Mitch Nichols has the most yards receiving with 157 on nine grabs.
Junior Sam Reeves had one of the five sacks on Saturday against William Jewell and is now alone in second place in the career rankings in qb sacks with 27. He is five 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 39.5 tackles for loss, also second on the career charts. He is 2.5 away from the record held by Nic Abbate (2010-14).
The Bulldog defense has been balanced with nine players with over 20 tackles through the first five games. Bryan Edwards and Wyatt Fishel lead the pack with 34 apiece. Edwards has 4.5 tackles for loss and a forced fumble. He is the active career leader on the defense with 164 stops in 27 games played.
Lawrence Woods has one of his three career kick return touchdowns against McKendree and is one return touchdown away from tying the school career record of four held by Mike Laususe. He averages 50.6 yards per return but because of this threat, does not have enough returns to qualify for the national rankings.
The Bulldogs dropped to third in the GLVC and 12^thin the NCAA in kick returns due to William Jewell not kicking any of the four kickoffs deep because of the threat of Woods and Malique Robbins. Truman averages 25.8 yards per return after last weekend entering with a 32.6 average.
Brock Rohler has the Bulldogs atop the GLVC statistics in Net Punting. Rohler is averaging 38.7 yards per punt with a long of 55. He has had 12 of his 24 punts fair caught, eight inside the 20 and two touchbacks. The Bulldogs have allowed only three punt returns this season for a total of 10 yards.
Josh Scheiderer has made all eight of his field goal attempts and 10 of his 11 extra points. He is 4-for-4 in attempts over 30 yards with a long of 38.

Behind Enemy Lines…

McKendree was 7-4 last year and 5-2 in the GLVC. They were 4-1 at home with the only coming to Indianapolis, the GLVC champions. They are 3-2 this season with a scoring offense of 40.4 points per game.
They won their first two games over Northern Michigan (34-28) and Kentucky State (34-17) but then was on the short end of two shootouts. They lost at home to Bowie (Md.) State 47-41 and 55-45 on the road to Chowan University (N.C.).
Last Saturday against Quincy, Reece Metcalf completed 22 of 28 passes for 323 yards and three scores. The Bearcats outgained the Hawks 548 to 290 and averaged 7.7 yards per play.
Preston Thompson leads the GLVC in rushing yards with 459 and a 6.1 average. Metcalf leads in passing with 300 yards per game and 1500 yards and 20 TDs.
Metcalf has completed 66.9% of his passes and has a QB efficiency rating of 184.7.
Jalyn Williams and Josh Revay have 24 catches and five receiving touchdowns apiece and both over 300 yards. Matt Cole has 12 catches for 235 yards.
McKendree has scored on 23 of 24 trips into the redzone (96%) and have 17 redzone touchdowns.
The defense has been the Achilles heel for McKendree as they are giving up a league-worst 489 yards per game. That was after the 290 yards allowed in their win over Quincy last week.
Opponents have ran for 235 yards per game and have averaged 6.5 yards per play this season. The Bearcats gave up 205 yards on the ground last season and 370 yards overall.
Ricco Gipson leads the team with 45 tackles.
They have four interceptions, two by Jason Bennett and no fumble recoveries.

Truman vs. The GLVC:
The Bulldogs are 25-14 all-time in the Great Lakes Valley Conference since joining the league in 2013. They are 14-7 in conference home games and 12-7 in road tilts.
Truman has averaged 167.0 yards per conference game on the ground, while allowing 101.1 yards rushing. They have recorded 109 sacks in the 39 conference games (2.7/g) while allowing 61 (1.5/g).

Inside The Numbers (William Jewell)

The Bulldogs improved to 37-7 when leading at the half and 39-9 when leading after three quarters since 2010.
Jake Ellis caught his first touchdown of the season to put Truman up 14-10 with 3:22 left in the third quarter. Ellis had five touchdown receptions last season.
That TD pass to Ellis from Barr was the 30^thof his Truman career to tie him for 10^thon the career charts with Jake Czeschin.
Barr and Andy Satulla both finished with 101 yards rushing. It was the first time since Harnish Ayora (111) and Donald Harvey (143) in a game against Lincoln in 2011 that the Bulldogs had two players go over 100 yards rushing in a game.
Satulla's winning touchdown that came with 27 seconds left was the first time since a 2012 game against William Penn in which Truman scored to take the lead in the final minute of play. That game, Garrett White scored with 49 seconds left.
It was the second game this season that had come down to the wire as Truman was on the other end of a winning touchdown with 15 seconds left in a 21-20 loss to Saginaw Valley in week three.
The Truman defense sacked quarterback Will Schneider five times with Bryan Edwards recording two sacks.
Wyatt Fishel finished with a team-high 10 tackles.
Eric Yakle clinched the win with his first collegiate interception with seven seconds left.

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.

McKendree returns eight all-league performers headlined by first teamer Cole Foster (OL). Second team returners are receiver Jayln Williams, lineman Jake King and defensive back Blake Benoist.
Honorable mentions were QB Reese Metcalf, receiver Josh Revay, linebacker Ricco Gibson and kicker Monte Wolke.

The Bearcats lost three first team defensive players from last year. Tobias Cook (DL), Austin Weltha (LB) and Nate Powell (DB).

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.

Print Friendly Version

Players Mentioned

#25 Harnish Ayora: RB; 5' 10"; Senior

#1 Donald Harvey: WR; 5' 9"; Senior

#92 Nic Abbate: DE; 6' 2"; Junior

#28 Garrett White: RB; 6' 0"; Junior

#35 Danny Spencer: K; 5' 10"; Senior

#61 Jack Borisenko: OL; 6' 3"; Freshman

#98 Cade Rohler: DT; 6' 2"; Freshman

#99 Josh Scheiderer: K/P; 5' 11"; Freshman

#56 Brayden Swope: OT; 6' 4"; Freshman

#15 Jaden Barr: QB; 5' 11"; Junior

#48 Bryan Edwards: LB; 6' 0"; Junior

#83 Jake Ellis: TE; 6' 7"; Sophomore; National Letter of Intent

Players Mentioned

#25 Harnish Ayora
: 5' 10"; Senior
: RB

#1 Donald Harvey
: 5' 9"; Senior
: WR

#92 Nic Abbate
: 6' 2"; Junior
: DE

#28 Garrett White
: 6' 0"; Junior
: RB

#35 Danny Spencer
: 5' 10"; Senior
: K

#61 Jack Borisenko
: 6' 3"; Freshman
: OL

#98 Cade Rohler
: 6' 2"; Freshman
: DT

#99 Josh Scheiderer
: 5' 11"; Freshman
: K/P

#56 Brayden Swope
: 6' 4"; Freshman
: OT

#15 Jaden Barr
: 5' 11"; Junior
: QB

#48 Bryan Edwards
: 6' 0"; Junior
: LB

#83 Jake Ellis
: 6' 7"; Sophomore; National Letter of Intent
: TE