Boyer, Thornton Lead Scots to 43-6 Win

Monmouth defense forces two Cornell turnovers

by Nathan Baliva

MONMOUTH, Ill. (10/14/2023) — The Monmouth College football team rolled up 574 yards and knocked off Cornell 43-6 on Saturday. The Scots (4-2, 4-1) scored 34 unanswered and shut out the Rams in the second half.

Monmouth stopped Cornell on 4th and short on the 33 to gain possession but had to punt the ball away after three plays. Monmouth's second drive started on their own two. After two run plays for a first down, Carter Boyer (Carthage, Illinois) hit Nate Thornton (Peoria, Illinois) for 21 yards out to the 35. A 31-yard pass to Nick Obsaint (Naples, Florida) moved the ball to the Cornell 23 and two plays later, Boyer hit Jackson Bergren (Monmouth, Illinois) for a touchdown and a 6-0 lead.

The first drive of the second quarter ended on downs at the Cornell 1. The Rams had to punt from their own end zone and Monmouth took over at the Rams 45. Four plays later, Alec Hesson (Plattsburg, Missouri) made his first career field goal, a 19-yarder, for a 9-0 lead. The Rams returned the ensuing kickoff 83 yards for a touchdown and Monmouth's Anthony Cikauskas (Oswego, Illinois) blocked the extra point. Later in the half, Monmouth started a drive on their own 28 with 1:32 to play. Boyer hit Bergren, Brendon Bishop (Sherman, Illinois) and Thornton to move the ball to midfield. After a timeout with 37 seconds left. Boyer hit Thornton for a 50-yard touchdown and a 16-6 lead.

"Little bit of a slow start for us and glad we got that touchdown in at the end of the quarter," said head coach Chad Braun. "We just couldn't put them away early and they had the kickoff return. Field position was huge early and their punter pinned us back a lot."

Monmouth got the ball to start the second half and went right to work. Runs by McKade Brooks (Astoria, Illinois) and Nate Wrublik (Lemont, Illinois) moved the ball across midfield. Boyer completed four straight passes to cover the last 37 yards of the drive with Bergren scoring from 8-yards out for a 23-6 lead. Cikauskas forced and recovered a fumble later in the quarter and the Scots used the short field to score on the next play as Boyer hit Thornton for a 19-yard touchdown.

Monmouth started the fourth quarter with a 29-6 lead and Brooks ran five straight times before Boyer hit Thornton for 15 yards. Boyer picked up a first down with his legs and Wrublik scored two plays later for a 36-6 lead. On the first play of the next drive, Tanner Tomaschke (Greenville, Illinois) picked off the first pass of his career. On 4th and 4 from the Cornell 46, Boyer hit Thornton for 20 yards and two plays later, Boyer ran for 16 yards down to the 12. Brooks capped the drive with a 4-yard touchdown run for a 43-6 lead.

"Tough situation without the student section here today," said Braun. "I thought our guys did a good job of bringing the energy. We got rolling in the second half and played a great half. Finally got some turnovers which have been lacking and they gave our offense a short field. Flying around on defense and playing well there is key for us and it is good to see #12 (Thonrton) get the ball in his hands and make some big plays today."

Boyer was 23-for-34 passing for 338 yards and four touchdowns. Brooks ran 23 times for 113 yards and Boyer added 95 yards on the ground. Thornton caught eight passes for 181 yards and two touchdowns. Obsaint had 57 yards on three receptions, Bergren had three catches for 37 yards and two touchdowns and Bishop had three catches for 36 yards. Tevin Baker (Kewanee, Illinois) had 3.5 sacks while Cikauskas had a sack, forced fumble, fumble recovery and a blocked extra point. Baker led the Scots with seven total tackles while four players had six tackles.

MONMOUTH MOMENTS: The all-time series is tied 39-39-1 as the Scots have won nine in a row against Cornell. Braun is 8-0 against Cornell with average wins of 48.9 to 8.4. The Scots have held Cornell to 14 points or less in every game since 2013. Monmouth is 37-0 under Braun when scoring at least 40 points and 30-1 at home overall in Braun's tenure against MWC teams. Boyer has seven career 300+ yard passing games and 15 multi-TD games. He now ranks fourth on the Monmouth career list in completions, fifth in attempts and fifth in passing touchdowns. Thornton went over 2,000 career receiving yards as he passed Jake Uryasz on the career list. Michael Blodgett, Matt Shepherd, Evan Haffner and Nathan Gaskill are the only other 2,000 yard receivers in school history. Brooks had a career-high 23 rushing attempts and his third 100-yard game of the season. Boyer had a career-high 95 rushing yards. Thornton has five 100-yard games in his career. Bergren also had two touchdowns against Lawrence. Baker moved into ninth on the career sacks list with 17.5 and he is tied for 14th on the career tackles for loss list with 29. The Scots play at Beloit College next Saturday with a 1 p.m. kickoff. The next home game is at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 4 against Lake Forest.