The Truman Bulldog Football team will end their 2011 season at the same place they will kick off the 2012 campaign by traveling to Bolivar, Mo. and facing Southwest Baptist University at Plaster Stadium.
Kickoff is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.
The Bulldogs will be looking to build off a 53-0 win over Lincoln University (Mo.) last Saturday.
Truman rushed for 396 yards, the most since a 416 day against Washburn University (Kan.) back in 1996 and posted their first shutout since the Southwest Baptist game in 2004.
Donald Harvey will be among 12 seniors playing in their final game all contributed in the home finale. Harvey had 176 all-purpose yards, including a career high 143 yards rushing and picked up two touchdowns during the onslaught against the Blue Tigers.
Harnish Ayora carried the ball 23 times for 111 yards and his first career 100+ yard game as a Bulldog.
Conrad Schottel got the start and was an efficient 9-of-12 passing for 182 yards and three touchdowns. His top target was sophomore Dallas Grier with five catches and 109 yards.
The Bearcats started the season 6-1 including a road win at Fort Hays State but has since dropped their last three games to future MIAA opponents Missouri Southern, Missouri Western and Emporia State.
In last Saturday’s loss to the Hornets, the first three possessions of the game resulted in touchdowns but the Hornets were able to pin the Bearcats deep in their territory to force a punt and had a short field to work with as Adrian Abner made it 21-7 on a five-yard pass from Tyler Eckenrode.
Emporia’s La’Darrian Page and Derek Lohmann earned MIAA players of the week honors in their win over SBU. Page rushed for 201 yards and three touchdowns while Lohmann had three interceptions for the Hornets.
SBU’s Dan Connors is a dual-threat quarterback with 1861 yards passing and has a team high 136 rushing attempts for 371 yards and five touchdowns.
Connors is having to replace Harlon Hill nominee Steven Gachette, who threw for over 3,000 yards and rushed for another 1,000, last season.
The Bearcats averaged over 500 yards of total offense and over 40 point a game in 2010 but has been slowed to just 374 total yards and 27.2 points this season.
Gachette threw for 299 and the Bearcats ran for 171 but they came up short in a 33-30 loss to the Bulldogs at Stokes Stadium last year.
Truman ran for 277 yards with seniors Anton Bernard and Phil Davis each gaining around the century mark.
Keys To Watch:
1 – Contain Conners
SBU quarterback Dan Connors is a dual threat. Connors was 23-of-43 against the Hornets last week with four interceptions and a team-high 73 yards rushing.
He is averaging 206 yards passing per game and 41.2 rushing with 18 total touchdowns.
2 – Keep Pounding The Ball
The Bulldogs ran for 396 yards in their win against Lincoln last Saturday while the Bearcats surrendered 392 to Emporia State in their loss.
In last year’s Truman win over Southwest Baptist, the Bulldogs gained 292 yards on the ground.
3 –“Special” Special Teams
Southwest Baptist has the fourth best kick return average in Division II at 25.4 yards per return and is led by Chris Muhammed, who is 14th in the country a 27.9 kick return average on 21 attempts.
The Bulldogs are sixth in Division II in net punting with a 37.9 average while opposing teams are averaging 21.5 yards per kickoff return.
Eric Phillips is fourth in Division II with a 43.3 yards per punt average for the Bulldogs.
In field goal kicking, Truman’s Derek Koon is 14-of-16 this season while his SBU counterpart John Colliver has made just 4-of-13 attempts and is 2-of-8 outside of 30 yards.
4 – Win The Turnover Battle
The Bearcats have turned the ball over 17 times this season with 13 fumbles lost and have thrown 14 interceptions while Truman has forced 24 turnovers this season with nine coming in the last three games.
5 –Closing On A High Note
The Bulldogs are 8-2 in season finales since 2001and has averaged 42.5 points per game in their last six closers. Both losses came by just one point, a 39-38 overtime loss to Missouri S&T and a 62-61 thriller last year against Nebraska-Omaha.
Players To Watch:
Southwest Baptist:
#6 Thad Everson: The 5-7 senior running back is leading the Bearcats with 514 yards rushing on 118 carries this season. He had 78 on 13 attempts last season against the Bulldogs.
#7 Dan Connors: The 6-6 junior quarterback is completing 63% of his passes for 13 touchdowns and 1,861 yards. He has also gained 567 yards on the ground but with sacks is averaging 2.7 yards per rush.
#21 Chris Muhammad: The senior defensive back leads the Bearcats in the return game with a 9.1 punt return average, a 27.9 kick return average and has two interceptions for 47 yards.
Truman:
#1 Donald Harvey – The senior will be playing in his 44th and final game for the Bulldogs and is coming off a single-game high 143 yards rushing with another 33 on a kick return.
#19 Richie Schumacher – The bandit of the defense is second in the MIAA and third in Division II in tackles per game with 12.6. He had 10 tackles and four pass breakups last year against the Bearcats.
# 5 Derek Koon – The sophomore place kicker is one made field goal away from tying the Truman single-season field goal record of 15 set by Scott Bresaw in 1990. He is 14-of-16 this season.
Courtesy Truman State University
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