Posted: Oct 26, 2017
Preview: St. Scholastica Visits Eureka For Senior Day
EUREKA, Ill. -- The Eureka College football team will aim for its longest win streak since 1995 on Saturday when Upper Midwest Athletic Conference leader St. Scholastica visits McKinzie Field for a noon kickoff against the Red Devils. Eureka, hosting its final home game of the 2017 regular season, will honor the program's 17 seniors during a pregame ceremony at 10:45 a.m.
PDF Version of Eureka Football Game Notes
PDF Version of St. Scholastica Football Game Notes
ABOUT EUREKA
Eureka will look to take a big step in its quest to return to the national postseason for the first time since 1994 when the five-time UMAC champion Saints visit Saturday. The Red Devils are 6-2 overall, 6-1 in the UMAC and have won six consecutive games for just the seventh time in program's 127-year history. A win on Saturday over CSS would lift the Red Devils into a first-place tie in the UMAC standings.
The Red Devils continue to enjoy historic success on offense after last week's 460-yard assault at MacMurray. EC averages 419.6 yards per game and is on pace to go over 4,000 yards in a season for the first time since 2009 and just the third time of the Division III era (1978-present). The bulk of the damage has come from Eureka's relentless rushing attack. EC puts up 272.8 yards per game, tops in the UMAC and 15th-most in the country. The current season rushing total of 2,182 yards is 100 yards shy of Eureka's single-season team record of 2,282 set during the 1991 NAIA playoff season.
The defense has carried its weight as well for the Red Devils in 2017. Eureka allows 233.8 yards per game, the UMAC's lowest average and the 10th-best mark among 243 ranked Division III teams. EC's front seven has stymied opponents to the tune of a UMAC-low 82.1 yards per contest. The Red Devils' defense allows 151.6 passing yards per game and will be tested Saturay when St. Scholastica's league-best passing attack visits McKinzie Field on Saturday.
Eureka returns 19 starters from last season's 8-2 team that competed for the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference championship on the final day of the regular season. Six All-UMAC honorees return from 2016 -- three on offense and three on defense.
In all, more than 40 letterwinners are back from last season's team. More than 40 newcomers will join the program in 2017 to give the Red Devils' their largest football roster of the Kurt Barth coaching era.
RED DEVILS MAKE IT SIX IN A ROW AT MacMURRAY
LeAnthony Reasnover went for a career-high 274 rushing yards to highlight the Red Devils' first 400-yard rushing game since 1994 and the EC defense held the nation's 11th-ranked offense more than 170 yards below its season average in a 37-20 UMAC win at MacMurray last Saturday afternoon in front of an overflow crowd at Freesen Field in Jacksonville, Ill.
Eureka stunned the standing-room-only Homecoming crowd early when Reasnover took a handoff 62 yards to the end zone for his 41st career rushing touchdown and a 7-0 lead just 16 seconds into the game. The Red Devils made it 13-0 later in the first quarter when Reasnover finished a 9-play, 68-yard drive with a 5-yard touchdown.
Marquez Ellison's 1-yard plunge made 13-6 in the final two minutes of the first quarter. Ellison later pulled the Highlanders into a 13-13 tie on a 4-yard touchdown at the 9:08 mark of the second quarter.
The Red Devils regained the lead in the final two minutes before halftime. Nick Holman found Josh Kuse for a 36-yard touchdown pass and a 20-13 advantage.
Eureka kept the pressure on the Highlanders midway through the third quarter with perhaps its most dominant scoring drive of the season. Reasnover carried 12 times on the series, including a 1-yard scoring rush, to highlight a 13-play, 94-yard drive that chewed nearly seven minutes off the clock and gave the Red Devils a 27-13 cushion.
MacMurray's Nathan Randle kept the hosts in the game with a 70-yard scoring throw to Demetrius Curry to trim the EC lead to 27-20, but the Highlanders' push wouldn't be enough. Tanner Kuhne gave the Red Devils breathing room with a 34-yard field goal, the fourth of his career, for a 30-20 advantage with 8:44 left in the game. Trevon Moore put the game further out of reach with his second career interception just five plays later and Nasir Phillips found the end zone from 13 yards out for a 37-20 lead.
HISTORIC WIN STREAK CONTINUES
With last weekend's win at MacMurray, the Red Devils have won six games in a row in for the second straight season and for the seventh time overall in program history.
All six wins on Eureka's current streak have been by 11 points or more, the second such stretch in 127 years of Eureka College football.
The Red Devils won all 10 of their regular-season games in 1991 -- including the first six by 14 points or more. Only a 13-6 home win over Kentucky Wesleyan and a 22-15 win at Greenville came by single digits during EC's 1991 Illini-Badger Football Conference championship season.
NATIONAL HONORS FOR LeANTHONY
LeAnthony Reasnover was selected to the D3football.com Team of the Week, according to a Tuesday afternoon announcement. Reasnover, who rolled to a career-high 274 rushing yards in Saturday's victory at MacMurray, is the first Red Devil to be named to the website's weekly honor roll since 2012.
Reasnover, who was also named UMAC Offensive Player of the Week on Monday, became the second 3,000-yard rusher in the modern era of Eureka football last Saturday with a 274-yard performance in EC's 37-20 win at MacMurray. His 274 yards were the highest individual EC total since Brett Dyche ran for 286 yards in a 17-14 Illini-Badger Football Conference victory at Concordia (Ill.) on Oct. 26, 1985.
Reasnover ended Saturday's contest with 3,201 career rushing yards and needs 104 more rushing yards to surpass Derrick Harris' all-time Eureka record of 3,304 yards set between 1991 and 1993.
After eight games, Reasnover's 1,227 rushing yards in 2017 rank sixth among all NCAA Division III players. His 20 total touchdowns and 120 points scored rank second nationally. With one more touchdown, he'll break Kurt Barth's single season Eureka scoring record of 123 set in 1995.
KUHNE'S NEW RECORD
Eureka sophomore kicker Tanner Kuhne made three extra points Saturday at MacMurray to break Eureka's single-season record for extra points. Kuhne now has 36 successful point-after kicks in 2017, breaking the previous mark of 34 set by then-freshman Travis Huber in 2009.
Kuhne has scored 48 points this season, second-most on the Red Devils and tied with St. Scholastica's Donovan Blatz for most points among UMAC kickers. Kuhne needs four more points to equal Huber's 2009 total of 52 for the most points in a season by a Eureka kicker in the modern era.
A DOMINANT DEFENSE
Chris Friend made 12 tackles to lead a Eureka a defense that limited MacMurray to 317 yards last Saturday, well shy of its incoming season average of 493.4 yards per game. The Highlanders' especially tough rushing attack, which averaged 250.4 yards entering Saturday's game, sputtered to just 65 yards on 36 attempts – an average of 1.8 yards per carry.
Macae Skaggs added his fourth interception of the season, a first-quarter pick that was returned five yards. Skaggs has four interceptions this season, the 15th time since 2000 a Red Devil has had at least four interceptions in a season.
Trevon Moore also had an interception and a pair of tackles for EC last Saturday. He added a team-best four pass breakups against the Highlanders. For the season, Moore ranks second among UMAC players with 12 passes defended -- 11 breakups and an interception.
SENIOR DAY TRENDS
Eureka will look to win on Senior Day for the first time since 2015. The Red Devils are 3-5 in their home finale since 2009 under ninth-year head coach Kurt Barth.
The Red Devils dropped last season's Senior Day to Northwestern (Minn.), 37-15. The highest scoring game in the history of McKinzie Field also fell on Senior Day, a 69-63 defeat to Crown on Nov. 7, 2009, the first Division III football game to feature more than 1,400 yards of total offense.
BUNDLE UP
From an 89-degree kickoff in September to a driving rain storm during homecoming to a lightning delay two weeks ago, Eureka has faced its fair share of weather adventures during the 2017 home schedule. Saturday's contest against CSS may include a new wrinkle.
The forecasted high temperature in Eureka for Saturday's kickoff is just 43 degrees. Coupled with cloud cover, winds upward of 15 miles per hour and a moderate chance of rainfall, the conditions promise to be unfavorable for another EC home contest.
ABOUT ST. SCHOLASTICA
St. Scholastica is 7-1 overall and the final remaining unbeaten UMAC squad with a perfect 7-0 record to find familiar territory atop the UMAC standings. CSS has recovered from a disastrous 98-0 defeat on opening day at then-#10 St. John's (Minn.) to win seven consecutive league contests, six of which have come by 10 points or more.
The Saints score 36.1 points per game, second-most in the UMAC behind the Red Devils. Zach Edwards, a sophomore from West St. Paul, Minn., drives the league's top-ranked passing offense and leads the UMAC with 2,023 yards, 21 touchdowns and an NCAA passer rating of 174.6. He's put together a pair of 300-yard games, including a 325-yard effort with three touchdowns in the Saints' league win over Westminster on Sept. 16. Edwards averages 20.03 yards per completion, the highest average in Division III.
Five different Saints have made at least 13 receptions. Senior Hunter Thompson leads the group with 23 grabs for 564 yards and a UMAC-best nine touchdowns. CSS averages 152.6 rushing yards per game, led by sophomore Jeff LeMay with 439 yards and five touchdowns in 2017.
On the defensive side, St. Scholastica yields 27.9 points per contest, but has limited UMAC opponents to 21 points or less in five of its seven conference games. The Saints have given up 187.3 rushing yards per game, including a pair of 200-yard games against UMAC opponents, and will be challenged by Eureka's methodical ground game that produced 402 yards last weekend. Junior linebacker Jonathan Senger has a team-high 63 tackles and three interceptions. Cal Germain has added 59 stops and Jake Zoellick owns the team lead with 9.5 tackles for loss and 6.0 sacks.
CSS founded its football program in 2008. The Saints quickly became the marquee program in the UMAC, having won league championships and representing the UMAC in the NCAA playoffs for five consecutive seasons between 2011 and 2015. The College of St. Scholastica was founded in 1912 in Duluth, Minn., a city of 86,000 residents on the north shore of Lake Superior approximately 150 miles from the Canadian border. The undergraduate enrollment is 1,750.
MEET THE HEAD COACHES
Eureka College Athletics Hall of Famer Kurt Barth is in his ninth season as the head coach at Eureka. The winningest head coach in program football history, Barth has led EC to a pair of eight-win seasons and molded the Red Devils into an annual contender in the UMAC.
In all, Eureka has received 53 All-UMAC selections in eight seasons under Barth's direction. Additionally, Barth's strategies have put a dent in the Eureka football record book, as the Red Devils have broken 16 program records, including eight passing records, since his arrival in 2009.
Kurt Ramler is in his fourth season as head coach at St. Scholastica. Ramler, the second head coach in CSS football history, led the Saints to UMAC championships and national playoffs appearances in 2014 and 2015.
Ramler played collegiately at St. John's (Minn.) from 1993 through 1996 and as a senior was a finalist for the Gagliardi Trophy, awarded to the nation's top Division III player. He won 27 games as the Johnnies' quarterback and returned to SJU in 2013 as offensive coordinator. Ramler was previously head coach at Carleton (Minn.) for six seasons and was named Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 2008.
THE ALL-TIME SERIES
St. Scholastica has won seven in a row over the Red Devils since 2010 and leads the all-time series, 7-1. The Saints have won all three of their previous trips to McKinzie Field, but needed a last-minute touchdown to beat EC in their 2015 matchup. Eureka's only win in the series was a come-from-behind 21-20 triumph inside the Metrodome as part of UMAC's Dome Day on Oct. 30, 2009.
FOLLOW THE ACTION ONLINE
Eureka will provide a live video broadcast and live statistics of Saturday's game. The links will be available at eurekareddevils.com. Updates via Twitter will be available at @EurekaGameDay.
