Posted: Sep 05, 2018
Preview: Eureka Ready For Bright Lights, Iowa Wesleyan in Home Opener
EUREKA -- Following its sixth season-opening victory of the Kurt Barth coaching era, the Eureka College football team will gear up for its home opener this Saturday when Iowa Wesleyan visits McKinzie Field for a 7 p.m. kickoff under the lights.
ABOUT EUREKA
Eureka is 1-0 and will look for its third 2-0 start in the last four seasons this Saturday on the FieldTurf at McKinzie Field.
Eureka's 519 yards in the season-opening win last week make the Red Devils' the nation's 17th-ranked offense. The defense yielded 24 points last week, 14 of which were scored in the fourth quarter after the Red Devils built a four-possession lead. The 28 rushing yards allowed in the win over Knox gives EC the 13th-ranked rushing defense in America.
In the midst of a major program renassance that culminated in the program's first-ever NCAA playoffs bid last year, Eureka entered the 2018 season with 86 student-athletes on the roster. Thirty-three letterwinners from last season's championship squad have returned for 10th-year head coach Kurt Barth, the winningest head coach in 127 years of Eureka College football.
More than fifth newcomers have joined the program for 2018, another massive recruiting haul for Barth, who regularly welcomes large groups of student-athletes.
RED DEVILS RIP KNOX, REGAIN LINCOLN BOWL TROPHY
Eureka rolled up 519 yards of total offense -- its third 500-yard game since 2015 -- on its way to a 49-24 non-conference rout of Knox in the seventh annual Lincoln Bowl last Saturday in Galesburg, Ill. The final 25-point margin marked Eureka's most lopsided win in the series with the Prairie Fire since a 41-7 victory in Galesburg on Sept. 7, 1991.
Le'Anthony Reasnover ran for a game-high 125 yards and Joe Hughes added 104 in his collegiate debut to give the Red Devils two 100-yard rushers in the same game for the first time since Chris Wakid (137) and Hall of Famer Nick Lindsey (125) at MacMurray on Oct. 25, 2008.
Reasnover's 125-yard day left him 26 yards shy of the 4,000-yard mark in his 31-game career. He extended his own all-time Eureka records in yards and touchdowns and his 18 rushes gave him a seventh Eureka rushing record with 755 career carries. Additionally, his three scores bumped his career point total to 366. Reasnover's next touchdown will break head coach Kurt Barth's 21-year-old school record of 371 points scored.
Drew Barth navigated the air attack with a 14-for-17 effort for 172 yards and a pair of touchdowns. James Douglas III led the Red Devils with four grabs, while a 63-yard touchdown grab by Josh Kuse made him EC's top yardage target through the air.
Four Red Devils had five tackles to share the team lead. Logan Noel and Colby Brannock each had a sack, newcomer Nehemiah Butler returned his first collegiate interception 34 yards and fellow newcomer Genesis Forrest was credited with five pass breakups.
TANNER KUHNE NAMED NACC SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Eureka junior kicker Tanner Kuhne has been named Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Special Teams Player of the Week, according to an announcement from the league office, Wednesday morning. Kuhne was perfect on seven extra-point attempts in the Red Devils' 49-24 win at Knox last Saturday.
The announcement marks Kuhne's fourth career conference player of the week award, but the first for any Red Devil in their first year as a member of the NACC. Kuhne also notched a touchback on five of his kickoffs and placed three of his five punts inside the Prairie Fire's 20-yard-line, giving EC a decided field position advantage throughout the big non-conference win.
Kuhne, who set Eureka's single-season record for extra points last season with 47, now has 54 successful extra points in his career, third-most in the modern era of Eureka football.
ABOUT IOWA WESLEYAN
Iowa Wesleyan is 0-1 in 2018 after dropping its opener last Saturday to Cornell under the lights in Mount Pleasant, 27-21. The Tigers held possession for nearly 40 minutes, nearly erased a 20-point halftime deficit and kept the Rams off the scoreboard in the second half, but the late rally came up empty after CC was able to recover an onside kick in the final minute of the contest.
Sophomore quarterback DeMarcus Collins was named Upper Midwest Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Week after a 320-yard effort through the air. He threw for a touchdown and rushed for two more. The Tigers put up 501 yards as a team, but lost a pair of fumbles.
The IWU defense allowed 344 yards in the loss to Cornell, but the Rams ran more than 30 plays fewer than IWU and averaged 6.6 yards per play. Grequenceo Coger led the charge with eight tackles, 2.5 of which were for a loss. He was also one of three IWU defenders to record a sack.
Michael Richtman is the 49th head coach in Iowa Wesleyan football history. Now in his third season, the 1997 St. Mary's (Minn.) graduate has a 5-16 record in Mount Pleasant.
Iowa Wesleyan left the NAIA for NCAA Division III in 2013 and is fully eligible for the NCAA postseason beginning this season. The Tigers have had only two winning seasons in the last 24 years (1994, 2014) and went 2-8 last fall. The Tigers compete alongside Eureka as full-time members in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in all sports other than football.
THE ALL-TIME SERIES VS. IOWA WESLEYAN
Eureka and Iowa Wesleyan celebrate a storied rivalry that spans six decades across the NCAA and NAIA, as well as the Prairie College Conference, the Illini-Badger-Hawkeye Football Conference and the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference.
The Red Devils lead the series 14-11-1, including a 7-5 mark in games played in Eureka. The rivalry was resumed after a dark period of nearly a quarter century when IWU joined the UMAC as an associate member in 2013. Eureka won four of five games in the series contested in the UMAC, including last season's 49-18 win in Mount Pleasant.
Eureka will try to win its fourth conseuctive game in the series this Saturday. It would be EC's longest win streak against the Tigers since winning seven in a row from 1973 through 1979.
EUREKA AND THE UMAC
With Eureka ending its nine-year run as an associate member of the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference last November, Saturday's matchup with the Tigers marks Eureka's only matchup of 2018 against a UMAC opponent.
The Red Devils went 38-34 in conference games as a member of the UMAC from 2009 until 2017 and won the league's outright regular-season title last season.
Eureka's combined all-time record against the nine UMAC members is 66-76-1. The Red Devils' most frequent UMAC foe has been MacMurray, meeting 33 times. The 2018 campaign will be the first time Eureka and the Highlanders won't meet in football since 1984.
"DAIRY DAUGHTERS" PREGAME
Dairy Daughters, the Nashville-based country music duo of Shelby Dressel and Megan Gertken, will perform Saturday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. at the RJR Transportation Stage across the street from McKinzie Field in advance of Saturday's game.
The 3-hour performance will take place in the southeast corner of the main tailgate area, directly across the street from McKinzie Field. In the event of rain, Dairy Daughters will perform at 3:30 p.m. inside Christine Bonati Bollwinkle Arena and Convocation Center.
