Blocked Kick Preserves Win for Scots on Saturday

Monmouth can clinch share of MWC title next week

by Nathan Baliva

MONMOUTH, Ill. (11/04/2023) — The Monmouth College football team held on to win with a wild ending on Saturday as Tevin Baker (Kewanee, Illinois) blocked a field goal attempt in the final 30 seconds for a 16-14 win over Lake Forest. The Scots (7-2, 7-1) can clinch a share of the Midwest Conference championship next Saturday with a home win over Knox in the Turkey Bowl.

"We did a great job of keeping the fans in the stands and making it hard on my heart," said head coach Chad Braun. "Our players were really resilient today and made a lot of plays."

The Scots forced Lake Forest to go 3-and-out on the first possession and started on their own 31. McKade Brooks (Astoria, Illinois) ran for 10 yards and then converted a 3rd-and-3 into a first down as well. Carter Boyer (Carthage, Illinois) completed a pass to Nate Thornton (Peoria, Illinois) down to the Lake Forest 29 and the duo connected on another pass for 22 yards. After a Foresters penalty, Nate Wrublik (Lemont, Illinois) scored on a 1-yard run and Alec Hesson (Plattsburg, Missouri) made the extra point for a 7-0 lead.

The teams traded punts and Monmouth got the ball back with 3:14 to play in the quarter when Rockyen Spinks (Galesburg, Illinois) intercepted a pass and returned it to the LFC 26. Boyer converted a 4th-and-14 with a 19-yard pass to Jackson Bergren (Monmouth, Illinois) and then hit Nick Obsaint (Naples, Florida) for seven yards down to the LFC 4. On the second play of the second quarter, Hesson nailed a 21-yard-field goal for a 10-0 lead.

Lake Forest fumbled on their next drive as senior Nick Harris (Winter Haven, Florida) forced and recovered the fumble on the Monmouth 31. However, Boyer was intercepted while going deep for Thornton and the Foresters started on their own 11. Neither team could do anything with their next drive. Lake Forest lined up to punt on their own 42 and Bergren broke through to block the punt with Michael Lord (LaHarpe, Illinois) recovering the loose ball on the LFC 15. Lord returned the ball to the 12 and was injured on the play. Two plays later, Boyer hit Thornton for a 12-yard touchdown pass but the extra point was missed for a 16-0 Monmouth lead.

The Scots started the second half with the ball and a 16-point lead. Both teams went 3-and-out on their first drive of the half and Monmouth moved the ball into Lake Forest territory before punting on their next two drives. Lake Forest got on the board with 2:06 left in the quarter on a 71-yard pass play.

On Monmouth's first drive of the fourth quarter, Wrublik fumbled on the first play and LFC recovered on the Monmouth 38. They went 4-and-out with Caleb Endicott (St. Cloud, Florida) breaking up a 4th-and-9 pass play. With 10:01 to play, Monmouth fumbled again as Boyer lost the ball on the Monmouth 32. This time the Foresters converted with a 23-yard touchdown run on 4th-and-1. Leading 16-14, the Scots went 3-and-out and Lake Forest returned the punt to their own 41. On 3rd-and-1 from the 50, Spinks picked off his second pass of the game to give Monmouth the ball on their own 5-yard-line with 4:40 to play. Monmouth picked up a first down on a Boyer pass to Thornton but had to punt with 2:10 left.

Nick Serrano (Miami, Florida) stopped the first down play for no gain and Harris picked off a pass on second down to give Monmouth the ball on their own 20. Lake Forest used a pair of timeouts and stopped the Scots on 3rd down. They blocked a punt with 29 seconds left and returned the ball to the 14-yard line. With no timeouts left, Lake Forest lined up for a go-ahead 32-yard field goal. Baker broke through to block the kick to preserve the win as Boyer took a knee to end the game.

"I thought we were really good on defense forcing four turnovers," said Braun. "On offense we made enough plays to win. The blocked punt at the end of the half to set up a score was huge in a game that was really physical on both sides of the ball."

Boyer completed 16-of-30 passes for 165 yards while also rushing for 41 yards. He had a touchdown pass and an interception in the game. Brooks ran for 48 yards while Wrublik ran for 15 yards and a touchdown. Thornton caught five passes for 75 yards and a touchdown while Bergren caught four passes for 50 yards.

Jermaih Glenn-Louis Charles (Bloomington, Illinois) led the defense with 10 tackles and Nick Serrano (Miami, Florida) had nine. Anthony Cikauskas (Oswego, Illinois) had two sacks and Serrano had one. Spinks had two interceptions, Harris had one interception and a fumble recovery.

MONMOUTH MOMENTS: The all-time series is led by Monmouth, 32-21-2 but Lake Forest had won the last two games. The Scots are 56-3 under Braun when allowing 20 points or less. Monmouth is 8-3 under Braun in games decided by six points or less. Boyer moved into a tie for 6th with Tanner Matlick for games played by a quarterback. He is now third in passing yards with 6,363 and fifth in rushing yards by a quarterback. On the single-season list he moved into fifth with 2,892 total yards and sixth with 397 rushing yards while also breaking into the top 10 in attempts and passing yards. Thornton passed Jacolby Maxwell and Jake Uryasz for fifth on the career receptions list with 135. He is now 10th on the single-season receiving yards (810) list and touchdown (10) list. Cikauskas moved into seventh on the career sacks list with 20 and third on the single-season sack list with 13. He is also seventh on the single-season TFL (18.5) list. Harris moved into the top 15 for career pass break ups with 14. Monmouth held Lake Forest to 200 total yards, 69 on the ground. Monmouth hosts Knox in the Turkey Bowl next Saturday at Noon. A win assures the Scots of sharing the MWC Championship for the second straight year.