No. 2-ranked Mary Hardin-Baylor has taken its mighty rushing attack and frenzied defense north to America’s dairyland for a clash with third-ranked Wisconsin-Whitewater at 1 p.m. today at Perkins Stadium.
The Crusaders (7-0) lead the nation in rushing, scoring, tackles for loss and turnovers forced but face a Warhawks team that has been there and done that. After all, it was UW-W (6-1) that won last year’s intense meeting 7-3 in Belton.
“This game has very little significance as of right now,” UMHB coach Pete Fredenburg said. “But the neat thing is that it’s going to give us the opportunity to rise to the occasion or to see where we fell short.”
The Crusaders enter on the heels of a 69-30 thrashing of Mississippi College, in which they rushed for an American Southwest Conference-record 613 yards. Senior tailback Jarvis Thrasher (Temple) had an ASC-record 324 yards on only 12 carries, sophomore tailback Quincy Daniels (Belton) posted 199 yards on just eight tries, and they combined to set an NCAA all-divisions record for rushing by a tandem.
“They’re two very impressive runners,” first-year UW-W coach Lance Leipold said. “We have not seen speed out of the backfield like these two have. We haven’t seen that much team speed since last year’s game.”
UMHB averages 379.9 rushing yards and 57.3 points per game. UW-W counters with a defense that doesn’t have departed tackle Ryan Kleppe, who dominated last year’s game with 10 tackles (5½ for loss), but still is holding opponents to 82 rushing yards and 14 points per game.
“Defensively, they’re just going to line up and play,” Fredenburg said. “There’s nothing fancy and no gimmicks. You have to block them and run hard.
“Last year, they took away some of our option game and that hurt us. That’s when you have to be able to throw the ball some.”
That job falls to UMHB senior quarterback Josh Welch, who has attempted only 77 passes (42 completions for 794 yards) but will have the benefit of 6-7 senior wideout Patrick Oliver (16 catches, 357 yards, eight touchdowns), who wasn’t on the team in 2006.
“We haven’t seen a 6-7 receiver this year,” Leipold said. “So obviously, you have to be concerned.”
As intriguing as the battle is between UMHB’s offense and UW-W’s defense, an even more interesting matchup could be the flip-flop of that.
The Warhawks are driven by 5-9, 200-pound senior running back Justin Beaver, who missed last year’s game with a broken collarbone. Beaver comes in with a Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference-record 5,361 career yards, and he averages 176 per game.
“Beaver is really a quality back,” Fredenburg said. “He runs extremely hard, finds his holes and does a nice job. Having him will add a dimension to their offense.”
Assigned the task of controlling Beaver is a UMHB defense that hasn’t yielded 100 rushing yards to any team - much less a single player - since the 2005 season opener against Willamette (Ore.).
“We like to run the ball, also,” Leipold said. “But we have different schemes. UMHB is, I don’t want to say old-school, but they play power football and get after people.”
At the controls of the Warhawks offense is first-year senior starter Danny Jones, a transfer from Cal Lutheran. Jones, who has completed 58 percent of his attempts for 1,232 yards, is a bigger running threat than UW-W’s quarterbacks of the past.
“When he got here, we didn’t ask him to be someone he wasn’t or even to go out and win games for us. We just wanted him to manage the offense,” Leipold said. “But we know what to expect of him. He’s more mobile and wants to play in the playoffs.”
And other than on the entertainment scale, the repercussions of today’s game won’t be felt until the playoffs as both teams hope to secure the top seed in their respective brackets.
“We try not to talk about the playoffs,” Leipold said. “We just want to keep getting those Canadian winds to blow down this way. Maybe that will keep them from getting up here, or at least make it a little colder.”
NOTES: UMHB (2004) and UW-W (2005, 2006) are the last three runners-up in the Stagg Bowl, Division III’s national championship game. . . . Today’s temperature at kickoff is expected to be about 50 degrees, with gusty winds. . . . UW-W has a 19-game home winning streak. The Warhawks haven’t lost at Perkins Stadium since a 35-10 loss to Wisconsin-La Crosse in the 2005 season finale. . . . The game will televised to about 120,000 homes in southern Wisconsin. The televised feed can be purchased and viewed on the Internet at pennatlantic.com.
edrennan@temple-telegram.com
