Scots Fall to No. 4 Wartburg in Football Opener

by Nathan Baliva

MONMOUTH, Ill. (09/08/2024) — The Monmouth College football team began their season with a 38-24 home loss to No. 4 Wartburg on Saturday night under the lights at April Zorn Memorial Stadium. The Scots (0-1) racked up nearly 400 total yards against last year's national semifinalist.

Wartburg started the game with the ball and scored a touchdown on 11 plays for a 7-0 lead. Brayden Deem (Andalusia, Illinois) made his first career start under center and completed an early pass to Nate Wrublik (Lemont, Illinois) for a first down. However, the first drive stalled at the Monmouth 44 and the Scots punted. A 3-and-out got the ball right back thanks to a third down stop in the backfield by Anthony Cikauskas (Oswego, Illinois).

Monmouth's second drive covered 30 yards on eight plays and resulted in a 36-yard field goal by Cody Szelc (Riverview, Florida). Wartburg turned the ball over on downs early in the second quarter and the Scots went to work. Deem hit Nate Thornton (Peoria, Illinois) for 12 yards to the 43 for a first down. The two hooked up again on the next play for a 57-yard touchdown and a 10-7 Monmouth lead.

The Knights regained the lead on a 9-play drive that covered 65 yards and both teams punted with Monmouth starting a drive on their own 13. The Scots moved the ball down to the Knights 34 with a 40-yard pass to Jackson Bergren (Monmouth, Illinois). The Knights held strong and picked up a sack on fourth down to end the drive and get the ball back with 1:38 left in the half. They took a 21-10 lead with 18 seconds left in the half on an 11-yard touchdown pass.

The Scots came out of the locker room and got the ball to start the second half. Deem hit Bergren for 12 yards and then hooked up with the senior again for 11 yards. Wrublik broke a couple tackles and sprinted 49 yards to the end zone to cut the Knights lead to 21-17.

Wartburg fumbled the ensuing kickoff and Monmouth got the ball back on the Knights 29. But after a 5-yard gain, the drive stalled out and the Scots came away without any points. Wartburg swung the momentum immediately with a couple of big plays and a 26-yard touchdown pass. Monmouth punted and Wartburg scored again for a 35-17 lead early in the fourth quarter.

Down 38-17, the Scots closed the gap with a series of big plays between Deem and Bergren. They hooked up for 20 yards to the Monmouth 39 and then got another hook up for 37 yards. The third straight play between the duo resulted in a 24-yard touchdown to cut the Wartburg lead to 38-24. However, the Knights ran out the clock with an 11-play, 58-yard drive that used up just over six minutes on the clock,

In his first college start, Deem threw for 302 yards with two touchdowns and no turnovers while completing 19-of-31 passing.. Bergren caught seven passes for 153 yards while Thornton caught six passes for 114 yards. Both seniors caught touchdown passes from Deem. Wrublik led the Scots on the ground with 56 yards and a touchdown. Derek Chandler (Monmouth, Illinois) led the Scots with 12 tackles..

MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Thornton has seven career games of at least 100 yards receiving while Bergren has six ... Harris had his first career sack ... Thornton has 2661 receiving yards for his career, 124 behind Matt Shepherd (2007-10) for second all-time ,,, Has passed Shepherd on Saturday for third place in touchdowns with his 28th career score ... Cikauskas had 3.5 tackles for loss ... Monmouth was 2-for-9 on third down while Wartburg was 13-for-19 ... Wartburg leads the all-time series 11-2 with five wins in a row ... Saturday's game was the first on the new field turf ... Monmouth will play the Midwest Conference opener next Saturday at Chicago with a 1 p.m. kickoffThe next home game is at 1 p.m. on Sept. 21 against Lawrence.