Lakeland University will welcome an old foe it hasn't seen in a while and will also try to play the role of spoiler in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference race when it hosts undefeated Eureka (Ill.) College Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. for Senior Day at Taylor Field.
The Muskies (3-5 overall, 3-2 NACC) will try to knock off the Red Devils (8-0 overall, 5-0 NACC), who are in their first season in the NACCÂ and need just one more win to clinch the regular season title and the league's automatic berth to the NCAA Division III playoffs. Eureka has received votes in national Division III top 25 polls in recent weeks and also features one of the most explosive players in the country in running back Le'Anthony Reasnover, who leads D-III in rushing yards and leads all levels of NCAA football in rushing touchdowns.
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Lakeland comes in off a high after a 52-42 win over Benedictine last week. The Muskies have had their own share of success rushing the last two weeks and boasted three 100-yard rushers for the second straight week, with
Larry Rivers (162 yards),
Charl'Tez Nunnery (145) and
Michael Moreau (106) all topping the century mark.
Diante Moses led the defense with 15 tackles, the Muskies finished with five sacks (including two by
Albert Journet) and
Andrew Cardiel intercepted an Eagles pass in the final seconds for his first collegiate pick and to preserve the win.
Eureka comes in after winning a wild one with Concordia Wisconsin last week, scoring the winning touchdown with 19 seconds left for a 48-45 victory. Reasnover ran it in from four yards out for the final of his 320 yards rushing and five touchdowns, and Ronald Reagan's alma mater won a back-and-forth game that had five lead changes in the final 21 minutes.
Saturday will mark Senior Day for 12 Lakeland players, who will be honored before the game. The list of seniors includesÂ
T.J. Corona,
Ryan Frahm,
Jamal Hawkins-Sconiers,
Michael Hilliard, Christopher Jackson,
Cedric Logan,
Ivan Martinez,
Eldrada Meeks,
Michael Moreau,
Diante Moses,
Chandler Watson and
Marcus Williams.
Lakeland and Eureka have played plenty of times over the years, and the two schools will square off for the 46th time but meet for the first time since 2007. Lakeland holds a 32-12-1 lead in the all-time series and has won the last 12 matchups, the most recent being a 32-9 victory at home on Oct. 6, 2007. The two teams met every year except for one from 1962-2007, missing only 1979, and the two were members together of the Illini-Badger Football Conference from 1976-2007 and also the Gateway Conference in the 1960s.
Lakeland will provide live stats and live video for the game at
http://www.lakelandmuskies.com/muskieslive. Lakeland students Nathan Golownia and Austin Hansen will call all the action.
For the rest of Saturday's game notes please click
here
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