The Lakeland University football team faces a familiar season debut foe and will look to keep its recent success in openers going when it travels to face Carroll University Saturday at 1 p.m. at Schneider Stadium in Waukesha.
The Muskies and Pioneers will play their respective season openers against each other for the ninth straight year, and Lakeland will try to keep up its recent success in the series. The Muskies have defeated Carroll each of the last three years, including a 43-29 win at Taylor Memorial Field to open the 2017 season.
Lakeland finished 8-3 overall last year and is coming off its fourth consecutive Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference championship and third straight trip to the NCAA Division III playoffs. The Muskies must replace All-American quarterback
Michael Whitley and 11 starters in all, but still return seven players who received all-NACCÂ recognition, including offensive linemen
Jonah Carlson (
Jr.-Kingsford, Mich.),
Ryan Frahm (
Sr.-Rhinelander, Wis.) and
Steve Ragin (
Jr.-Hobart, Ind.) and disruptive defenders
Jerry Stokes (
Jr.-Missouri City, Texas) and
McNemon Vincent (
So.-Vernon Hills, Ill.).
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Head coach
Colin Bruton enters his fourth season leading the Muskies and has a career 23-10 record. Lakeland was pegged as the favorite in the NACC's preseason poll and is 27-3 in NACC contests over the last five years, 36-17 overall in that time, and its string of four consecutive conference titles is the second-longest in school history. The Lakeland teams coached by John Thome from 1967-71 won five straight championships in the old Gateway Conference, going 18-0 in league games over a five-year stretch.
Carroll is coming off a 1-9 season in the tough College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin last year. The Pioneers have gone 1-9 each of the past two seasons in the CCIW after considerable success in the Midwest Conference, but they return 30 seniors this year.
Carroll also leads the all-time series with Lakeland 5-3, having won the first five meetings from 2010-14. Lakeland did win the last meeting at Carroll, scoring a narrow 27-24 win Sept. 3, 2016.
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