DULUTH, Minn. (
csssaints.com) – The St. Scholastica football team faces a Crown College squad Saturday that is in search of its first victory of the season.
Where:
KleinBank Stadium – St. Bonifacius, Minn.
When:
Saturday at 1 p.m.
Watch: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/crown/
Stats: https://www.crown.edu/fileadmin/livestats/xlive.htm
CROWN GAME NOTES
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St. Scholastica Saints
Stats
Record: 6-1, 6-0 UMAC
Upper Midwest Athletic Conference: Standings | Stats
Last Action: The Saints jumped out to a 42-0 halftime lead en route to a 56-21 victory over Martin Luther College last Saturday at Public Schools Stadium ... The game was the 100
th in program history for the Saints …
Hunter Thompson (Buffalo, Minn./Buffalo HS) had a pair of touchdown receptions and, in doing so, became the third Saint in program history to have at least 20 receiving touchdowns in a career …
Ben Buthe (New Prague, Minn./New Prague HS) also ran in a pair of scores …
Jonathan Senger (Buffalo, Minn./Buffalo HS) recorded a team-high 12 tackles … CSS was 5-of-6 in fourth down …
Donovan Blatz (Shoreview, Minn./Mounds View HS) was a career-best 8-for-8 on extra points … The 56 points scored were the fifth-most in program history.
Where They Stand: The Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) will be decided in the next three weeks … MacMurray College (Ill.) and CSS are the lone unbeatens, while Eureka College (Ill.) is one game back … Each team controls its own destiny to the championship … Eureka travels to MacMurray this Saturday … If MacMurray defeats Eureka and CSS defeats Crown on Saturday, that guarantees the MacMurray/CSS regular season finale in Duluth on November 4 will be for the conference title … If Eureka defeats MacMurray on Saturday, that would make next week's CSS/Eureka game in Illinois loom even larger.
Peru Named Player of the Week: Senior
Jack Peru (Phoenix, Ariz./Trevor G. Browne HS (Phoenix College)) was named the UMAC Special Teams Player of the Week on Monday … Peru had the first kickoff return for a touchdown since the 2015 season in Saturday's win over Martin Luther and collected 113 kick return yards in the contest.
Ground Game: The Saints have had over 50 rushing attempts in each of the last two games … That has not happened since the 2012 season when they had a program record 54 carries against Greenville College (Ill.), followed by 51 carries against Martin Luther the following week.
Air it Out: Zach Edwards (West St. Paul, Minn./Henry Sibley HS) continues to lead NCAA Division III in passing yards per completion (19.9) and is second in the nation in yards per pass attempt (10.5) … He ranks 18
th in the country with a passing efficiency rating of 167.2 … Thompson ranks eighth in the country, averaging 25.8 yards per reception.
Still Racking Up Penalties: Of the 243 teams ranked in NCAA Division III, the Saints continue to be ranked 243
rd with 77 penalties and rank 242
nd with 630 penalty yards
Out in Front Early: The Saints are out-scoring league opponents 79-7 in the first quarter and 128-16 in the first half.
Record Watch: Hunter Thompson (Buffalo, Minn./Buffalo HS) is 104 receiving yards shy of Keegan O'Neill's program record of 1,925 yards in a career … Thompson has 25 total touchdowns in a career, which tied for the second-most in program history … He is four TDs shy of Jake Jensen's record of 29.
UMAC Preseason Poll
1. St. Scholastica – 73 points (3 First Place Votes)
2. Northwestern – 72 points (5 First Place Votes)
3. MacMurray – 61 points
4. Eureka – 54 points (2 First Place Votes)
5. Westminster – 49 points
6. Greenville – 41 points
7. Crown – 35 points
8. Minnesota Morris – 30 points
9. Iowa Wesleyan – 21 points
10. Martin Luther – 14 points
Upcoming Opponent
Crown Storm
Record: 0-7, 0-6 UMAC
The Storm have allowed at least 40 points in six of their seven losses this season … Crown is coming off a 56-15 loss at Westminster College (Mo.) on Saturday … After scoring at least 20 points in three straight games, the Storm have been limited to one offensive touchdown in each of the last three games … Taylor Watkins was the starting quarterback for the first six weeks, but Luke Lithander started last week … Derek Chilcoate leads the ground attack with 295 yards and four touchdowns … Chilcoate is averaging 4.2 yards per carry … David McIntosh is tied for second in the UMAC with 32 receptions and ranks third with 495 receiving yards … McIntosh is tied with Thompson for the most TD receptions in the conference (7) … The Storm defense ranks last in the conference in points allowed, total defense and rushing defense … Jeremiah Jones leads the defense with 57 tackles and is tied for the conference lead with 37 total tackles.
Series Record: CSS leads 8-1
(Last Meeting: 49-13 CSS – 9/24/2016)
Series History: The Saints have won eight straight against the Storm, scoring at least 35 points in seven of those eight wins … In its last trip to St. Bonifacius, CSS blanked Crown by a final of 45-0 … However, two of the previous four trips to Crown have been decided by 10 points or less.
Looking Ahead: The Saints have their final road trip of the season when it faces Eureka College (Ill.) next Saturday. Kickoff is slated for noon.
