FIRST ROUND FUN

There could be plenty of fireworks when two teams that average more than 40 points per game meet at noon Saturday in the first round of the NCAA Division III playoffs at Monmouth’s April Zorn Memorial Stadium.

Monmouth College has the nation’s second-best scoring offense, averaging nearly 48 points per outing. The University of St. Thomas isn’t lagging far behind, ranked ninth while scoring just under 41 points per game. The way they score is the difference.

The Fighting Scots high-octane offense is fueled by record-setting junior quarterback Alex Tanney and a stable of talented receivers, complemented by a couple of explosive running backs. The Scots average 354 of their 541 yards of total offense through the air.

The Tommies like to keep both feet planted firmly on the ground, but have quick-score potential. Their 425 offensive yards per game includes 247 via the run, led by 6-foot-2, 205-pound running back Ben Wartman. St. Thomas’ top back has gained more than 1,300 yards with “patient” running, waiting for a seam and exploding through the hole. The ground game is complemented by diminutive wide receiver Fritz Waldvogel. Don’t let the 5-foot-9 sophomore’s size fool you, Waldvogel is a playmaker and the Tommies’ offensive scheme can get him deep.

“He is a fabulous player,” said Monmouth coach Steve Bell of Waldvogel. “He creates explosive opportunities for them at wide receiver. He’s also a terrific return man. He’s just flat out good.”

Waldvogel’s 62 receptions and 793 yards makes him by far the team’s reception leader, as no other receiver has more than 17 catches. As dangerous as the sophomore is lining up from scrimmage, the Scots special teams’ coverage units had better keep an eye open. Waldvogel handles most of the kickoff and punt return chores, returning three punts and three kickoffs for TDs. He’s the Division III leader in kickoff returns, averaging more than 36 yards per return and is in the top 10 in both punt return yardage and all-purpose yards.

Starting the Tommie offense has fallen on the shoulders of two quarterbacks. The pair of sophomores – 5-foot-10 Dakota Tracy and 6-foot-5 Greg Morse – split time under center and have thrown for eight and nine touchdowns, respectively. Tracy has passed for more than 1,000 yards, completing 56 percent of his passes, and Morse has hooked up for 615 yards on 59 percent accuracy.

Opening holes and providing pass protection for the Tommies is an offensive line that checks in at nearly 1,500 pounds, or about half the weight of a Volkswagen Beetle. The line averages nearly 300 pounds per man. Only right guard Jon Curtis checks in under 300 pounds.

“They’re probably closest to St. Norbert,” reported Bell of St. Thomas’ offensive style and big linemen. “They’ll run multiple formations, do some misdirection, play action, roll out and throw. They can go deep.”

It’s nothing new for Monmouth’s defense, which has been solid against the run and the pass. Led by linebacker Adam Hoste, the Scots have eight players with 40 or more tackles and have held opponents to just 94 rushing yards and 9.4 points per game. Monmouth has picked off 18 passes and preseason all-American Anthony Goranson leads Monmouth’s sack attack, recording 7.5 sacks to close within 1.5 sacks of the school’s all-time record. The Scots’ other defensive end, Nick Leffler, has terrorized quarterbacks with four sacks.

Of course, when it comes to quarterbacks, the Scots have a pretty fair one in Tanney. His 166.79 pass efficiency rating ranks eighth in DIII and he’s just 203 yards from the 10,000 yard mark in his career. Four receivers have 40 or more catches, and Matt Shepherd and Mike Blodgett are each on the verge of becoming the Scots’ first receivers with 1,000 yards in a season. Add in the running back tandem of senior Clay Bricker (756 yards) and sophomore Caleb Pratt (845 yards) and the Scots possess a potent attack.

The Tommies defense hasn’t allowed many yards on the ground or through the air. Cyrus Allen – a 6-foot-2, 240-pound defensive lineman – has crashed the passing party with a team-high 4.5 sacks. A pair of defensive backs and a linebacker have the top tackle totals on the swarming defense.

“Some of that is schematics,” explained Bell of the secondary’s high tackle numbers. “They put those guys in position to make the tackle.”

Being in position has given St. Thomas their second trip to the NCAA playoffs. Their first came 19 years ago.

Making their third trip to the postseason, the Scots first qualified for the elite field in 2005. Monmouth has plenty of playoff experience with back-to-back appearances, and the Scots are hosting their third straight playoff game.

One more win would also make Bell the Scots’ all-time winningest coach. That could set off some fireworks, but then again, so could the Scots’ and Tommies’ offenses.

TWO OPTIONS TO WATCH PLAYOFF GAME

Advance ticket sales for Monmouth College’s first round playoff game on Nov. 21 against the University of St. Thomas at April Zorn Memorial Stadium will go on sale Thursday.

Tickets will be on sale Thursday and Friday from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Monmouth College business office, located on the first floor of Poling Hall. Ticket prices are $8 for adults and $4 for students. All seating is general admission.

Tickets will also be available Saturday beginning at 10 a.m. in the lobby of the Hewes Library, located just south of the stadium’s main gate. Gates for the game between the No. 8-ranked Fighting Scots and the No. 10 Tommies will open at 10:30 a.m., with the kickoff scheduled for noon.

Fans unable to attend Monmouth College’s first round playoff game against St. Thomas will be able to view the action on their computer. The college, in conjunction with the Midwest Conference and the Web company Penn Atlantic, will be producing the live webcast with full audio and video. Due to the expected volume of viewers, fans are encouraged to log on between 11:30 and 11:45 a.m. at www.midwestconference.tv.

BITTERSWEET

The cross country team experienced a bittersweet weekend at last Saturday’s NCAA Midwest Regional at Lake Breeze Golf Course in Winneconne, Wis.

Monmouth’s women placed 13th of 39 teams and the men were 25th of 39, but it was a pair of women’s individual performances for the Scots that took center stage.

Junior Mary Kate Beyer placed 14th in the field of 273 runners and earned her second straight trip to the NCAA Championships and achieved all-region status. Beyer bettered her own class record, touring the 6K course in 22:03.4.

“Mary Kate was substantially improved since the last time we ran there,” reported Haynes. “She went out pretty hard and ran her normal race.”

Senior Katie Staab earned her first all-region honor and it could have been more. Staab was less than a half second off her season’s best and placed 21st, just outside the last national qualifying spot. Running in her final collegiate cross country race, Monmouth’s No. 2 runner just missed qualifying for the national meet by one place and 1.9 seconds.

“Katie ran very well and earned all-region honors for placing in the top 35,” said Roger Haynes. “It was unfortunate that she came up one position and 1-point-9 seconds short of being the last individual qualifier. Katie and Mary Kate did a pretty good job of keeping track of the competition we identified. Katie beat a couple of them and had one right in front of her and needed to beat her, but was just short. Unfortunately, that’s the way it works.”

Another senior and a freshman provided more bright spots for the Scots’ women. Newcomer Rachel Bowden placed 104th, running within four seconds of her season’s best with a 24:04.0. Senior Amy Aghababian’s season’s best 24:13.5 put her 109th.

The rest of Monmouth’s women – Whitney Didier, Brittany Frazier and Tori Beaty – finished 155th, 167th and 186th, respectively.

“As a group, the women had a solid day,” praised Haynes. “They ran very well front to back.”

While Beyer and Staab ran as expected for the women, Monmouth’s men had a nice surprise. Freshman Jake Barr was the first Scot across the finish line in an 8K race for the first time this season, finishing 111th in 26:43.3.

“Jake ran very well,” praised Haynes. “He made a step in the right direction.”

Barr was just two seconds ahead of Geoff Bird in 115th and eight seconds faster than Paul Davies who placed 121st. Alan Rosiquez (152nd), Connor Shields (158th), Tim Bentz (184th) and Damon Bautista (243rd) rounded out the men’s scoring.

“We’ll need to make the regional meet a much higher priority,” said Haynes of future races. “I spoke with a number of other coaches and many schools view the regional as just being the last race of the season and not an opportunity to run a season best. We need to change that mentality.”

Beyer won’t have to change her mentality this weekend. For the second straight year, she will run at the NCAA Championships. This Saturday the junior will be aiming to improve on her 74^th place finish at last year’s national meet.

This year’s Nationals will be held at Highland Park Golf Course in Cleveland, Ohio.

AMONG THE TREES

The men’s basketball team opened the season Sunday with their traditional outing against a Division II team, and like many past seasons used the opportunity as a learning experience.

The Fighting Scots gave Minnesota State-Mankato a run for much of the game, but a late run by the Mavericks dealt Monmouth a 90-57 season-opening loss. Senior Zach Ott's bucket in the paint gave the Scots a quick 2-0 lead and Eric Grant's three-pointer posted Monmouth to a five point advantage before Minnesota State took the lead for good four minutes into the game.

“We wanted to compete with a much taller team,” said Mark Vershaw of the Scots’ season-opener. “We did a very nice job for the first 27 minutes. Their size and depth finally wore us out.”

The Scots showed they could hold their own early, holding the deficit to single digits until the Mavericks put-back basket with 3:58 left in the first half gave them a 10-point lead. Corey Gruber's trey with 1:46 left trimmed it to nine, but a tip-in a minute later gave Minnesota State a 37-26 halftime lead. Eric Cogdill scored two of his team-high 16 points with a layup in the first two minutes of the second half to cut the hole back to single digits, but the Mavericks quickly answered and regained the double digit lead and slowly pulled away down the stretch. Ott finished with 10 points and Cogdill pulled down a team-best eight boards.

“Our guys stayed in it, despite not shooting extremely well,” said Vershaw of his squad’s 38 percent shooting. “It was very encouraging that we were able to hang with such a tall team.”

Need a visual?

The Mavericks introduced the lineups, not by position, but rather by number.

“For the Scots, (5’9) Eric Grant. For the Mavericks (6’5) Cameron Hodges.”

Whoa. How’s the weather up there, Stretch?

OK, so Grant didn’t have to GUARD the guy, but Cogdill sure had his work cut out for him in the post. The Mavericks did take it easy on the Scots, subbing out their 6-foot-11 all-conference center. In his place came their little sophomore center….all 6-foot-10 of him.

“That was two games in a row Cogdill has faced very tall Division II centers,” said Vershaw in referring to the Scots’ exhibition game against Western Illinois University. “He’s given up some size in the post, but he’s off to a very good start and we won’t see front lines like that the rest of the season.”

Likewise, Ott has started strong. Facing a tall front court, the 6-foot-7 senior hit five of his 10 shots from the field and pulled down six defensive rebounds.

Sophomore starter Curtis Oler also shot well from the field. Oler finished with nine points, making three of his five shots from beyond the arc. Transfer Joel Dieterich logged 19 minutes and served as an example of things to come.

“I think Joel and all our newer players will have the chance to really showcase their strength when we face our regular opponents,” predicted Vershaw. “Joel had to go against a 6-5 guard. Those are things we’re not going to see against a Division III team.”

Vershaw used the game to get a first-hand look at many of his newcomers in a game setting. For the most part, the third-year coach liked what he saw.

“We had a lot of encouraging things that happened in that game,” reported Vershaw. “It’s a tough environment for our freshmen to play in, but it was a learning experience. We came out of it with a much better feeling than last year.”

The Scots will see their first Division III team this weekend when they host Central College. The JV will face the Dutch at 2 p.m. Saturday in Glennie Gym, followed by the Varsity contest at 4.

MAKING WAVES

Buoyed by five firsts, the men placed second at their own Monmouth Invitational Saturday at the Pepper Natatorium. The Scots women nearly duplicated the men’s performance, setting one pool record, taking first in three events and placing third in the eight-team meet.

“This was definitely the performance we expected,” said Kurt Niemeier after his team returned to full strength last weekend. “Everyone swam really great. We had a lot of relays and individuals swim better at this meet than they did last year at the DePauw meet which is held in December. Our performances have been well ahead of schedule.”

The women got out of the gate quickly, opening the meet with a second place in the 400 medley relay. Rachel Buckham, Krysta Sparks, Rachel Holm and Colleen Zumpf swam an honor roll time of 4:22.76. Holm and Zumpf teamed with Erica McAloon and Kendra Keuhl to take third in the 400 freestyle with an honor roll time of 3:57.22.       

Monmouth set a pool record and took three of the top four spots in the 200 breaststroke. Sparks set the pool record, swimming a 2:31.58 to place first. Amanda Zaidel, swimming the event for the first time since junior high, was third with a lifetime-best 2:42.75 and Zumpf was fourth with a time of 2:48.91.

McAloon also picked up an individual first in the 50 freestyle. Her personal-best 26.96 won by five-tenths. Buckham took second in the 200 backstroke in 2:23.27 and third in the 100 backstroke in 1:06.50.

The Scots were strong in the 100 breaststroke, sweeping the top four spots. Sparks touched first in 1:11.43. Zaidel’s second-place time of 1:14.53 was a personal-best while McAloon’s 1:16.17 bested Zumpf for third by two-tenths.

“That’s our strength on the women’s team,” said Niemeier of his breaststrokers. “Krysta has been strong in the event for her first two years. Colleen is just an all-around hard worker and is a great swimmer to watch when she’s rested. Then our two freshmen, Amanda and Erica, have really helped our numbers. Amanda was really impressive with her 200, swimming that for the first time in years. Erica didn’t look like she would be one of our top sprinters at the start of the season, but she’s really coming through. She has a great work ethic and is destined to be one of the top sprinters on the team.”

A 2:29.11 placed Holm second in the 200 butterfly. Keuhl also took a second with a “great job” in swimming a 5:48.37 in the 500 freestyle.

“That was a second off her best time,” reported Niemeier. “We’re switching her around to some different events from last year and she’s responding.”

Monmouth’s men opened their portion of the meet with a win in the 400-yard medley relay. Josh Dunn, Harrison Heilman, John Kaiser and Steve Collins swam a 3:53.50 to win by more than six seconds. Dunn, Kaiser, Collins and Joe Testolin formed the second-place 400 relay team, swimming a time of 3:25.77, just a second out of first.

Heilman took an individual first and two seconds. The senior touched first in the 400 IM with a time of 4:38.18.  He also swam a 1:08.78 in the 100 breaststroke to place second and added another second with a time of 2:10.16 in the 200 IM.

“Harrison had a tough assignment,” explained Niemeier. “He went straight from the relay to the 400 IM. He was just three seconds off his DePauw time last year.”

Dunn added an individual first in the 200 freestyle, swimming a 1:51.83 and Testolin was third less than two seconds back. Testolin was the winner in the 500 freestyle, clocking a 5:12.25 and Dunn was second in the 100 freestyle at 50.66.

“Josh and Joe had great swims last weekend,” said Niemeier. “Josh is well ahead of where he was last year at this time. Joe has really improved. Last year as a freshman he was pretty slow, but he’s now coming on strong and is making a bid to be a top contender for the relays.”

A time of 2:10.86 took first for Kaiser in the 200 butterfly by five-tenths. Tom Pederson took second in the 50 freestyle at 23.29. Josh Van Swol placed third in the 100 backstroke at 1:01.10 while Testolin clocked a personal-best 2:12.96 to place fourth.

“Tom did very well in the 50 free,” praised Niemeier. “He’s never been that fast this early in the season, but swam a 52.16 in the 100 free. He didn’t have great technique as a freshman, so he’s worked hard on that and it’s paying dividends. He’s now one of our top sprinters.”

The Scots swim at Augustana Friday and won’t swim at home again until Jan. 8. Niemeier is using the next two weeks leading up to the DePauw Invitational as a time to refresh and re-energize his team before they head out for a long – and well deserved – winter break.

HARD TIME ON THE HARDWOOD

When women’s basketball coach Melissa Bittner upgraded her non-conference schedule, she intended to get an early read on her team’s progress.

After a 75-51 loss to Carthage in the season-opener, Bittner has a clear picture of the work that needs to be done.

“We need to run the offense we’ve been practicing since October,” said Bittner. “It’s very frustrating to see us go one-on-one and abandon what we had been working on. We didn’t run an offense at all.”

The Scots took their opening possession and a quick lead on Lynsey Barnard’s basket to open the game, but that good feeling didn’t last long. Carthage hit a three-pointer on their second possession and never trailed after that, leading by as many as 28 midway through the second half. A Monmouth surge cut the deficit to 13, 57-44 when Barnard canned a trey, but the Lady Reds answered with a 10-0 run to put the game away.

Carthage – ranked second in the CCIW – blistered the nets for 68 percent shooting in the first half. That compounded with 15 first half Scots’ turnovers made for a long game.

“We had a lot of unforced turnovers,” lamented Bittner of her team’s 27 turnovers in the game. “We have GOT to take better care of the ball, especially when both of our point guards are returners. Carthage did apply some pressure, but many of our turnovers were unforced.”

The turnover margin wasn’t heavily on Monmouth’s shoulders, Carthage coughed the ball up 22 times. The difference came in what the teams did with it. Once the Lady Reds’ got the ball from the Scots’ miscues, they took advantage, scoring 32 points off turnovers. Monmouth converted just 16 points from the Carthage mistakes.

That still didn’t sit well with Bittner.

“We didn’t play well defensively, either,” reported Bittner. “We left their three-point shooter open and she made us pay. Of course, we’d much rather have this experience now than in conference play. We played a softer schedule last year and weren’t tested. This year we purposely scheduled tougher non-conference teams to test us.”

A couple of freshman did pass their first test. Post player Zipporah Williams came off the bench to pull down a game-high nine rebounds and three-point specialist Colleen Forrest drilled four of her eight three pointers to finish with 12 points. Both took some time to adjust to the college game, but Bittner liked what she saw out of the rookies.

 “Zipporah really crashed the boards aggressively,” said Bittner. “She adjusted well to the college game. She was a spark for us. Colleen forced some shots in the first half because we didn’t run the offense. She found her shot in the second half and hit some threes.”

If turnovers were an issue, Bittner can take heart that Williams and Forrest only accounted for four turnovers in 29 and 25 minutes of action, respectively. 

“I would say our freshman exceeded my expectations,” praised Bittner. “The returners fell a little short of expectations. That was great that our freshmen stepped up, but it was disappointing that our returners didn’t play well in the opener.”

The team will get a chance to redeem themselves quickly, hosting Fontbonne Saturday. Bittner knows exactly what the Scots need to do.

“We have to run the offense,” said Bittner. “Defense and rebounding wins games, but we have to be cohesive as an offense, play as a team and move with purpose. We can’t freelance like we did against Carthage.”

ALL-CONFERENCE

Hillary Broms, a junior defender on the women’s soccer team, was recently named to the All-Midwest Conference second team.

She received all-conference votes from eight of the other nine league coaches and narrowly missed a spot on the 11-player first team.

“Hillary has been one of our leading players the past three seasons, and I was very pleased that the other coaches in the conference recognized that this year,” said s head coach Barry McNamara. “She has made a habit of playing tenacious defense while also making well-timed advances up the field into our attack. Hillary has a knack for beating her mark to the ball time after time, and she knows what to do with it when she gets it.”

Broms frequently plays on the left side of the field, where she has an excellent rapport with former high school teammate Kelly Russell, who is a sophomore outside midfielder.

Broms started all 18 of Monmouth’s games this fall and rarely left the field. She has one goal and six assists so far in her MC career and has played in all but one of the Scots’ 54 games during her career.

PERFECT TIMING

Football’s offensive line and special team’s coach Dave Ragone knew it was going to be tight.

Wife Lauren was expecting their second child right around the end of the regular season. That gave the Ragones a two-week window to add to their family. One week, actually when you figure the second week the Fighting Scots would be prepping for their first round playoff game.

Give Mrs. Ragone a gold star. She delivered Anthony David Ragone at 10:48 p.m. last Wednesday. The newest Ragone checked in at seven pounds and 19 inches.

Whew!

Come to think of it, the Ragones timed the birth of their first child, Olivia, pretty well, too. Big sister was born during spring break in ’08.

Considering blocking and special teams all comes down to timing, it probably shouldn’t be a surprise that Coach’s wife timed their addition perfectly.

GLAD WE’RE NOT THAT MONMOUTH

Scots Scoop had to do a double-take when a local paper ran a story on the Monmouth men’s team playing basketball at 6 a.m.

What? Has Mark Vershaw lost it? A 6 a.m. game? That’s like just barely past 0-dark-30.

Fortunately for Vershaw’s players – and the sports information office – it was the OTHER Monmouth…the one in New Jersey. The Hawks were part of ESPN’s 24 hours of basketball marathon Tuesday. Monmouth University played St. Peter’s in the really early time slot.

That got the Scoop to wondering, would Vershaw ever play a game at 6 a.m.?

“I’d play at 2 a.m. if it were on national television,” laughed Vershaw. “To get that kind of exposure for our program, I’d play at whatever time they told me.”

Hmmmm. Maybe planting that seed wasn’t such a good idea. By the way, the MU Hawks lost to the Peacocks 54-38.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Fri., Nov. 20
Swimming – at Augustana, 6:00 pm 

Sat., Nov. 21
Cross Country – at NCAA National Championships, 11:00 am EST
Football – hosts St. Thomas, NCAA Playoffs First Round, Noon
Men’s Basketball – hosts Central, 4:00 pm
Women’s Basketball – hosts Fontebonne, 6:00 pm 

Wed., Nov. 25
Women’s Basketball – hosts Eureka, 5:00 pm
Men’s Basketball – hosts Eureka, 7:00 pm 

SCOTSIVATIONAL

"If you don't bring an intention to your actions, then they're nothing but a punishment." – Jillian Michaels from The Biggest Loser