Beloit College Buccaneers (2-3, 1-0 MWC North)
at Macalester College Fighting Scots (2-3, 0-1 MWC North)
Saturday, October 17, 2015, 1:00 p.m.
Macalester Stadium, St. Paul, Minnesota
After a bye week the Bucs return to action in St. Paul, Minnesota, as they take on the defending MWC Champion Scots of Macalester College. Beloit is looking to turn things around after a 41-21 loss to Monmouth College in their most recent game on October 3. MC is coming off an MWC North Division-opening 23-0 loss at home to Ripon College last Saturday…
The Series: The Buccaneers and Scots are meeting for the 13th time in a series BC leads 8-4. The teams met last season in Beloit for the first time since 2007. Macalester has won the last two meetings, in 2007 and 2014, though Beloit won all four meetings between 2002 and 2006. The programs first met near the end of the 1952 season, a 40-0 Buccaneer win. Beloit won the first four meetings, the first two with shutouts, before MC posted back-to-back wins in 1957 and '58 by a combined score of 47-8…
The Bucs Most Recent Game: Beloit couldn't rebound from a first-half deficit and dropped a 41-21 decision to Monmouth College at Strong Stadium on October 3. The Fighting Scots had the only scoring in the opening quarter with a pair of short TD runs and made it 17-0 early in the second quarter on a 22-yard field goal. MC increased their lead to 24-0 with 35 seconds left in the half on a short scoring pass before the Buccaneers got on the board 22 seconds later on a 10-yard scoring pass from Danny May to Mike Nolden, making it 24-7 at the break. A 35-yard field goal by Monmouth accounted for the only scoring in the third quarter before both teams scored twice in the fourth. Nolden caught a five-yard scoring toss from May with 8:33 left but the Scots answered on a 12-yard touchdown pass and then scored their final points on a 13-yard run. Nate Brault closed out the scoring with 2:02 remaining with a 27-yard TD pass from May. Monmouth had 461 yards in offense, 281 on the ground, while Beloit finished with 396, 306 thru the air. May had all of the 306 yards passing but was also intercepted three times. Nolden finish with eight catches for 126 yards while Brault had three catches for 80 and Kam Sallee nine catches for 72. Mason Dixon was held to just 76 rushing yards on 14 carries. Defensively Antonio Jones had 23 tackles, 11 solo, the second-most tackles in a game in program history. Quin Dixon had 16 and Brenden Endrina 11. Jones and Dixon both recovered fumbles and David Lafayette had an interception. Danny Quijas had the lone sack for Beloit…
Bucs' Last Time vs. the Scots: Beloit enjoyed the first half against Macalester College at Strong Stadium on October 18, 2014. But not so much the second half. Macalester scored 18 third-quarter points and shut the Bucs down on the way to a 28-21 Midwest Conference North Division win. The Buccaneers struck first on Mason Dixon's one-yard run at 6:52 of the opening quarter before the Scots got into the end zone with a 26-yard scoring pass from Samson Bialostok to Victor Bordo two minutes later to make it 7-7 after one. MC grabbed a 10-7 lead 40 seconds into the second quarter with a 25-yard field goal from Michael Abramson but Beloit responded. Dixon scored his second one-yard TD 6:00 before halftime for the lead and Ryan Sughroue increased the advantage with a 14-yard TD reception from Evan Phillips just over two minutes later to give the Bucs a 21-10 halftime advantage. Macalester came out of the lockerroom fired up and pulled to within 21-17 at the 12:54 mark of the third quarter on a Bialostok to Garrett Eichhorn 26-yard scoring pass. They pulled to within 21-20 three-plus minutes later on a 29-yard field goal by Abramson and then took the lead with 1:44 left in the quarter on a 40-yard scoring run by Zandy Stowell. That finished up the scoring for the game as neither team could dent the end zone in the final quarter. Dixon finished with 98 yards rushing on 26 carries while Phillips threw for 125 yards. Michael Nolden caught six passes for 52 yards and Kam Sallee had five catches for 40 yards. Stowell ran for 219 yards on 29 carries and Bialostok threw for 249 yards to lead the Macs. On defense Dewight Walker had 13 tackles and a fumble recovery and Alan Ham 10 tackles. Riley Pearson had nine tackles and the Bucs' lone sack while Jake Fisher also recovered a fumble. Ryan Fleming finished with 13 tackles and an interception for MC. Trey Muraoka had a fumble recovery…
Notes & Notables: With his first non-100 yard rushing effort of the season, Mason Dixon moved into third on Beloit's career rushing list with 3,291 yards. He trails only #2 Lee Rankinen (2003-06, 3,759) and #1 Steve Dixon (1990-93, 4,792) on the list…The Buccaneers are averaging 489.8 yards of total offense per game in their first five games. Over a full season they haven't been over 400 yards per game since 2002 when they averaged 413.3…
Up Ahead for the Bucs: Beloit returns to Strong Stadium on October 24 to host St. Norbert College as they hit the regular season home stretch. They then travel to Ripon College on Halloween before Carroll University comes to town for the regular season finale on November 7.