Lakeland/Wis. Lutheran Game Notes   PDF

The Lakeland University football team looks for its third straight Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference win when it hosts Wisconsin Lutheran College Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. at Taylor Field.

The Muskies will try to continue the dominance of their last two games, when they defeated Concordia University Wisconsin and Rockford University by a combined score of 120-21. Individual milestones also are in sight for several Lakeland players who have continued to climb up the school's single-season and all-time lists.

Lakeland (3-3 overall, 2-1 NACC) set a school single-game scoring record in a 76-21 win over Rockford last week. Dezmon Eddie (Sr.-Alexandria, La.) rushed for 226 yards on just nine carries, scoring on runs of 57, 57 and 52 yards. Mason Prunick (Jr.-Alexandria, La.) also took a short pass over the middle and outraced the defense 62 yards for a touchdown, and Larry Rivers (Jr.-Dearborn Heights, Mich.) continued to put up big rushing numbers with 29 carries for 180 yards and a touchdown. Lakeland also scored a pair of defensive touchdowns on interception returns for scores by Sam Bartlett (Sr.-Racine, Wis.) and Jayson Wilder (Fr.-Milwaukee, Wis.).

Wisconsin Lutheran was defeated by Benedictine 27-3 last week at home in Milwaukee. The Warriors scored the first points of the game but then would not score again, and Benedictine scored a touchdown just before halftime for a 14-3 lead and then two touchdowns in the final quarter. Todd Lehman led the offense carrying 19 times for 69 yards.

Rivers enters the game needing 94 yards to reach the 1,000 yard mark for the season and become Lakeland's fifth-ever 1,000-yard rusher and first in 24 years, since Kimani Chambers in 1995. He also is within 291 yards of the school single-season rushing record of 1,197 yards set by Mark Smith in 19990, and comes into the game still high in the NCAA Division III national rankings, too, entering fifth in both total rushing yards and rushing yards per game (151.0).

Eddie also continues to move up the Lakeland all-time rushing list, and his 2,433 career yards ranks fourth in school history, 69 yards behind third-place Pat Curran, who gained 2,502 yards from 1966-68 before a lengthy career in the NFL. Eddie and Rivers (currently sixth all-time with 2,287 career yards) both have their sights set on the career rush record of 2,733 yards set by Chambers from 1995-98.

Lakeland will provide live stats and live video for the game at http://www.lakelandmuskies.com/muskieslive. Lakeland student Nathan Golownia will call all the action.