Football 9/26/2018 8:30:00 AM

Bulldogs Host William Jewell For Family Night

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – After posting season highs in total offense and points scored the Truman Football team will look to keep things rolling when they open up Great Lakes Valley Conference play on Saturday night hosting William Jewell College.

The Bulldogs shot out of the gate on the second play from scrimmage on Saturday with a 75-yard touchdown pass from Jaden Barr to Mitch Nichols and Truman picked up win number one on the season 34-20 over FCS member Valparaiso. Freshman kicker Josh Scheiderer tied a school record with four field goals and sophomore returner Lawrence Woods added a fourth quarter boost with a 92-yard return for a score when the Crusaders had pulled to within seven with nine minutes to play.

Woods was named the GLVC Special Teams Player of the Week, leads NCAA Division II and is second across all NCAA divisions in kick return average at 50.6 on his five returns. His two scores have gone for 90 and 92 yards. The Bulldogs are third as a team in Division II in kick returns at 32.6 average. West Georgia (39.5) and Indiana (Pa.) (34.2) are ahead of Truman in the stat category.

Offensively on Saturday, Jaden Barr turned in his second 100-yard rushing game of the year (118) but was also selective in calling his own number. In the first half, Jordan Salima took the bulk of the carries for 64 yards while in the second half Andy Satulla ran 21 times for 76 yards. As a team, Truman ran for 265 yards and moved to 17-1 since 2010 when rushing for over 200 yards in a game. Barr averaged 9.1 yards per carry on his 13 attempts and had the team's rushing touchdown.

The defense held Valpo 88 yards rushing on the day and are 20^thin Division II and second in the GLVC in rushing defense per game. Through the first four games, the Bulldog rush defense has limited opponents to 96.8 yards per game. Half of the Crusaders' yards on Saturday came on two possessions, they went 75 yards on their second of the day to take an early lead then went 77 yards in their final possession trailing 34-13. The defense forced three, three and outs, six punts and got an interception from Zach Nadle.

In getting their first win last Saturday, Truman will welcome the 0-3 William Jewell College to Stokes Stadium for Family Night. The Cardinals had their opener at Drake canceled due to weather then played the defending national champion, Texas A&M Commerce to a 10-point home loss. They were out on the road the past two games and struggled to a 58-17 loss at Findlay (Ohio) and a 41-14 loss to defending GLVC champion Indianapolis.

The Cardinals have struggled on both sides of the ball. Jewell is averaging 250 yards overall and 16 points in the first three games while allowing 440 yards and 42 points defensively. Quarterback Will Schneider is the team's leading rusher and passer. Schneider has 49 rushing attempts for 109 yard and two scores and has thrown for 510 yards and two more touchdowns. Schneider averages 206.3 yards of total offense per game with the next closest on the list, Bulla Graft at 18.7 yards.

Last year in Liberty, the Bulldogs broke a 14-all tie late in the third quarter on a 31-yard field goal by Danny Spencer and got a five-yard touchdown run from Malique Robbins with 1:22 left to play to give the Bulldogs a 24-14 win. Jordan Salima ran for 133 yards and Truman rushed for 243 as a team. Jewell senior QB Brad Strauss threw for 340 yards and two scores but was sacked five times, four by Bulldog sackmaster Sam Reeves.

Next Saturday will see the Bulldogs travel to McKendree for another key GLVC matchup. The Bearcats had won two straight over the Bulldogs before the 'Dogs decided to play "keep-away" last year in Kirksville. Truman held the ball for nearly 44 minutes and had 71 rushing attempts in coming back from a 14-0 deficit to win 17-14. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. in Lebanon, Illinois.

About The Bulldogs…

Jaden Barr is in his third year as the starting quarterback for the Bulldogs. Barr has started 24 games and is inching up the Truman career passing lists. He is 12^thin yards completed with 4,345, tied for ninth in completions with 364 and eighth in total offense with 5,287.
Barr is third in the GLVC in rushing yards per game at 83.5 and sixth in passing yards at 142.2. He is second in the conference in total offense at 225.8 per game.
Jordan Salima is closing in on 2,000 career rushing yards (1,979) and would be the 14^thTruman running back to achieve that milestone. He went over 500 rushing attempts and is eighth in Bulldog career lore and will pass Andrew Gillespie with four more carries.
Barr has used 12 different receivers this season on his 59 completions. Dante Ruffin has the most catches with 11 for 125 yards, Brass Woods has nine catches for 102 and Mitch Nichols has the most yards receiving with 137 on seven grabs.
Junior Sam Reeves moved into the career top three in quarterback sacks at Truman. Reeves picked up the Bulldogs only sack against Valparaiso and now sits with 26 for his career, tied for second place with Ligo Letuli and six off of Ernie Myerson's career total of 32. His 37.5 tackles for loss tied with Patrick Blackwell for second and 4.5 behind leader Nic Abbate.
The Bulldog defense has been balanced with eight players with over 20 tackles through the first four games. Bryan Edwards leads the pack with 28.
As mentioned earlier with Lawrence Woods, he is now one kick return touchdown away from tying the school career record of four held by Mike Laususe. He averages a nation's best 50.6 yards per return.
Brock Rohler has the Bulldogs atop the GLVC statistics in Net Punting. Rohler is averaging 42.5 yards per punt with a long of 55. He has had nine of his 18 punts fair caught, five inside the 20 and two touchbacks. The Bulldogs have allowed only two punt returns this season for a total of six yards.
Josh Scheiderer has made all eight of his field goal attempts and all seven extra points to start his Bulldog career. He is 4-for-4 in attempts over 30 yards with a long of 38.
The Bulldogs are among the national and conference leaders in Kickoff Returns (3rd/1^st) at 32.6 per return and penalties per game (12^th/1^st) at 4.25 per game.

Behind Enemy Lines…

William Jewell has been on a tailspin since Truman's 24-14 win last October. The Cardinals have just one win in their last seven games (13-3 vs. Lincoln on November 4, 2017) since the Bulldogs broke the 14-all tie in Liberty.
They have scored 20 points or more just once in those last eight games and have allowed on average 33.2 points per game.
The Cardinals are last in Division II in tackles for loss with just one this season. Opponents are averaging 6.7 yards per play and have scored on 17-of-18 red zone trips and are successful on third downs 52% of the time.
Quarterback Will Schneider is third in the conference in total offense at 206.3 yards per game. Bulla Graft (11) and T.J. Guillory (10) lead the team in receptions.
The Cardinals were 2-9 last season with both wins coming on the road, against Quincy 45-28 and at Lincoln 13-3.

All-Time Against Jewell:
The Bulldogs have won four of five GLVC games against William Jewell. The last Cardinal win was when the stunned a Truman homecoming crowd with a 21-17 win in 2014 after Truman led 17-0 at half. Truman is 9-7-2 all-time against the Cardinals with the series dating back to the first meeting in 1903.

Truman vs. The GLVC:
The Bulldogs are 24-14 all-time in the Great Lakes Valley Conference since joining the league in 2013. They are 13-7 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 104 sacks in the 38 conference games (2.7/g) while allowing 60 (1.5/g).

Inside The Numbers (Vaparaiso)

It was the sixth win out of 43 games in which Truman won after trailing at the half (7-6). The last was McKendree in 2017 when the Bulldogs trailed 14-7.
Truman improved to 17-1 since 2010 since rushing for over 200 yards in a game. The Bulldogs finished with 265 yards on 56 carries. The team has won 11 straight games when rushing the ball over 50 times per game, the last lost was in 2010 against Nebraska-Omaha.
Mitch Nichols' 75-yard catch and run for a touchdown was the first passing TD of the season and first for his career. It was the longest career touchdown pass for Jaden Barr besting the previous one of 60-yards with Drew Slager at Missouri S&T in 2016.
Barr passed Steven Thompson for 12^thon the career passing list with his 122 yards on the day, moved into the top 10 in Truman career passing attempts with 17 on the afternoon and now has 631. And is now responsible for 46 touchdowns in his career.
Jordan Salima went over 500 career rushing attempts with 17, all coming in the first half.
Zach Nadle had his first career interception when he picked off a pass at the Truman 10 to end a scoring threat in the first quarter. Nadle finished with a season-high eight tackles to lead the defense.
Truman recorded five tackles for loss and Sam Reeves recorded the only sack in the third quarter.
The Bulldogs were 6-of-15 on third downs and since week two are now successful 46% of the time on third down. Valpo was 1-of-12.

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.
The Cardinals return two honorable mention GLVC players. Senior Bulla Graft was listed as a utility player and senior Justice Taylor was a defensive back.

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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Players Mentioned

#94 Patrick Blackwell: DE; 6' 0"; Junior

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

#80 Drew Slager: WR; 5' 9"; Sophomore

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

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

#35 Zach Nadle: DB; 5' 11"; 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

#30 Jacob Morris: FB; 5' 8"; Sophomore; National Letter of Intent

Players Mentioned

#94 Patrick Blackwell
: 6' 0"; Junior
: DE

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

#80 Drew Slager
: 5' 9"; Sophomore
: WR

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

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

#35 Zach Nadle
: 5' 11"; Freshman
: DB

#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

#30 Jacob Morris
: 5' 8"; Sophomore; National Letter of Intent
: FB