By Clyde Hughes
D3sports.com
Monmouth players should be walking a little taller, smiling a little wider, and hugging friends and loved ones a little tighter this week.
The Fighting Scots have been licking their chops for a year to get another shot at the longtime kingpins of the Midwest Conference — the St. Norbert Green Knights, the six-time conference champs.
Saturday, they made the opportunity pay off with a stunning come-from-behind 28-20 victory. Monmouth trailed by 13 points at halftime, 20-7. When you’re down by that much against a team you’ve never beaten at their place — ever — self-doubt can start to creep in.
Monmouth coach Steve Bell said Monday that did happen to his team on Saturday and he hopes to bottle it for the rest of the season.
“We haven’t played well there in the five previous years,” Bell said. “I mean we never showed up. I could tell mentally, though, this was different, even when we were down early. There was a little bit of a lull there, but never to a point where the kids thought that was the game.”
On the other side of the ball, St. Norbert’s inability to put a team away came back to haunt them. A week earlier, Beloit rallied with 13 fourth-quarter points before falling short to St. Norbert 27-25. That contest seemed to be a foreshadowing for this contest.
“Our No. 1 focus at halftime was putting ’em right away in the second half,” St. Norbert quarterback Cody Craig told the Green Bay Press-Gazette. “But we just didn’t get the job done as a team.”
Because they didn’t, St. Norbert’s impressive 19-game win streak in Midwest Conference games disappeared in front of a home crowd.
Bell said some of his players came up with fantastic performances for its fantastic finish. Quarterback Mitch Tanney was 32-of-41 for 301 years. Wide receiver Evan Haffner caught 16 of those passes for 190 yards.
“Our best players had their best games,” Bell said. “Justin Zigler, our linebacker was all over the field and was unbelievable. Mitch Tanney was unbelievable. In games like this, your best players have to step up and this game they did.”
The big question now for each team is the same: What happens from here? For Monmouth, they probably face a bigger challenge this week than knocking off a repeat conference champion. The challenge is facing complacency.
“I told them we have to validate (our win against St. Norbert) now,” Bell said. “This doesn’t mean anything if we don’t validate it against Beloit. We have to show up and play with confidence.”
Bell admitted that he and his coaching staff have their work cut out for them not letting the Fighting Scots enjoy their victory too much.
“I told them they can celebrate until Monday,” Bell said. “Then it’s back to work. We still have some tough games left to play. If we don’t come to play anyone can beat us.”
Bell said Lake Forest, the Midwest Conference’s other undefeated team which beat Beloit 28-12 last Saturday, has traditionally played them tough and his team can by no means can start to be fitted for championship rings just yet.
CCIW mowing them down ...
The College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin can boast about two nationally ranked teams, but the rest of the league looks pretty darn good as well. After three weeks of play, the CCIW has a 16-3 record against non-conference opponents, including a perfect 6-0 record this past week. Three teams are 3-0, including nationally ranked Carthage (No. 18), Elmhurst, and North Park. Nationally ranked Wheaton (No. 20), Millikin and North Central are 2-0. The CCIW has one more week of non-conference tilts before they have to start eating each other in league play on Oct. 1.
On the flip side ...
It’s been a rough year for the Illini-Badger Football Conference so far. The IBFC has a 3-17 record in non-conference games so far this year. Lakeland, the conference favorites are off to a 1-2 start, but we should probably give them a pass as both of the losses have been to nationally ranked teams, including a 73-12 loss last Saturday to then-No. 15 UW-Whitewater. Eureka and Greenville (0-2) and Benedictine and Concordia, Ill. (0-3) are all awaiting their first wins of the seasons.
A walk-off kick return?
Well, not exactly, but pretty darn close to it and gives the Defiance Yellow Jackets their first victory of the season. Bethany completed a comeback at Defiance, of the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference, with two fourth-quarter touchdowns to go up 26-22 with less than a minute to play.
Game in the bag, right? All you have to do is kick it deep.
Sophomore kick returner Gary Allen took the ball at the Defiance 20, found a hole and followed a convoy of blockers into the end zone with 49 seconds left to give Defiance (1-2) a 29-26 win. “It was huge and it was a great return,” Defiance coach Robert Taylor told the Defiance Crescent-News. “The thing about Gary is he has the tendency to make great plays. He’s a darn good athlete and an even better kid. I thought Maurice Griffin made a great block on the return that sprung him on about our own 40-yard line. Maurice sealed the guy off the edge and once Gary gets into the open he’s just too fast which was great to see.”
Allen said he noticed Bethany was kicking the ball short all game. “I just caught the ball and found a hole,” Allen told the paper. “Matthias Moore and Ricky Calverley just crushed one guy. I was just running hard because I didn’t want the kicker to catch me because last week the kicker caught me on a return.”
Game to watch
Hanover (1-2) at Waynesburg, Pa. (1-1) , at 1:30 p.m.:</B> Hanover, one of the top teams in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference, is in danger of falling 1-3 with another loss. Hanover coach Wayne Perry, with a win, will become the winningest coach in Indiana collegiate history. Waynesburg beat HCAC member Manchester last week 28-7. Hanover has given up consecutive 50-point games to two nationally ranked teams, Bridgewater (Va.) (56-42) and Washington & Jefferson (56-20).
