Back to the Road for Bucs; at Lawrence on Saturday
Beloit College Buccaneers (0-2, 0-1 MWC)
at Lawrence University Vikings (0-2, 0-2 MWC)
Saturday, September 15, 2012, 5:00 p.m.
Banta Bowl, Appleton, Wisconsin
The Game: Both teams come into Saturday's game with 0-2 marks after last weekend's 31-14 loss for Beloit against Monmouth College in the home opener and Lawrence's 20-16 loss at Lake Forest College.
The Series: The Buccaneers and Vikings are meeting for the 97th time, the second-oldest series on the Beloit College Football books. Lawrence leads the series 56-35 with five ties. Beloit has won 11 of the last 15 meetings, including three of the last four. The teams first met in 1899, an 11-0 Beloit win. The Buccaneers won the first two meetings before the Vikings put together a 13-1-3 series record between 1902 and 1922.
Buccaneers Last Time Out: Beloit did everything they could do on Saturday in the home opener against Monmouth but two fourth quarter touchdowns by the Fighting Scots resulted in a 31-14 loss to Monmouth College. Lukeson Versulien scored on a four-yard run after a Fighting Scots turnover to put the Bucs on top three minutes in but MC got a first-quarter field by Ace Henricks and then a 16-yard scoring run early in the second quarter to lead 10-7 at the break. The Buccaneers retook the lead six minutes into the second half when Eddie Boyd ran in from five yards out. But Monmouth answered in the final minute of the quarter on a 24-yard scoring pass from Brik Wedekind to Spencer Brown to lead 17-14 thru three. MC then muscled their way to a pair of fourth-quarter scores to put it away, with Yocum getting his second TD on an eight-yard run and Wedekind hitting Austin Peterson on a 12-yard pass play. Dillon Hess was 10-17 for 62 yards while Will Coyne was 5-6 for 65 yards in the two-headed passing attack for Beloit. Raymond Thomas had a team-high 46 yards rushing on ten carries while Hess added 42 on 11 carries and Zach Draus 36 on 12 rushes. Boyd, who also finished with 22 yards rushing, had four catches for 50 yards. Defensively, Dan Collins finished with 15 tackles, four solo, while Zach Bock added 11, five solo, and Derrell Carter eight, including seven solo stops. Will Mack had the Bucs' lone interception, which cut short a Fighting Scots drive in the third quarter.
Last Time vs. the Vikings: The Buccaneers provided some drama but came away with an exciting 20-14 Senior Day win over Lawrence University on October 29, 2011, at Strong Stadium. Lawrence jumped on top in the first quarter on a short run at the 2:34 mark to lead 7-0 after one. They held that lead through much of the second quarter until Derek Carrier caught a 15-yard scoring pass from Brian Maughn with 1:13 left before the break to tie it up. But LU got a good kickoff return before scoring on a 32-yard pass play with 20 seconds left to take a 14-7 advantage into the lockerroom. The Bucs got back even four minutes into the fourth quarter on a 36-yard run by Terence Steward. Steward did the honors again midway through the fourth quarter with a four-yard run to cap a 10-play, 80-yard drive. The point-after was missed but Beloit led 20-14. After the score, the Buccaneer defense forced two punts and then the offense ran out the final 2:56 for the win. Steward finished with 116 yards on the ground on 20 carries while Maughn passed for 174 yards. Carrier caught nine passes for 151 of those 174 yards. On defense, Zach Bock had a team-leading 14 tackles while Vince Salucci had ten and also grabbed an interception. Tyler Coleman also recorded an interception. Brian Flanagan, Mark Coogan and Alan Ham recorded sacks.
First Game Success: DB Lukeson Versulien, who stepped into the offensive backfield and rushed four times for five yards and also amassed 90 yards in returns, including a 57-yard kickoff return early in the second quarter, scored his first collegiate TD to open the scoring Saturday on a sweep play…LB Daniel Collins has 26 total tackles thru the first two games, including nine on solo stops…Safety Antonio Jones Shares the team lead with Collins with nine solo tackles…
Up Ahead for the Bucs: The Buccaneers begin a two-game homestand on September 22 when they host Grinnell College in a 1:00 p.m. kickoff at Strong. They then welcome in Cornell College for the Homecoming Game on September 29, also a 1:00 p.m. start.
