Wrublik Runs for 219 Yards as Scots Beat Ripon 56-7

by Nathan Balvia

MONMOUTH, Ill.. (09/27/2026) — The Monmouth College football team scored touchdowns in each of their first eight drives in an impressive 56-7 Family Weekend win over Ripon College on Saturday. The Fighting Scots (2-2, 2-0) had four big-play scores on the day and racked up nearly 600 yards of total offense.

"We came out of the gate playing well today against a talented team," said head coach Chad Braun. "We did a great job taking the life out of them early and our guys really came to play. This has been a tough four-week stretch with a lot of travel and we responded well going into the bye week."

The Scots forced a 3-and-out on Ripon's first drive and took over at their own 28. Nate Wrublik (Lemont, Illinois) ran for a first down and on third down, Silas Braun (Monmouth, Illinois) hit Chase Newman (Morrison, Illinois) for a 55-yard touchdown. After another Ripon 3-and-out, Monmouth started their second drive on the Red Hawks 42. Braun hit Newman down the right sideline on the first play for a 42-yard touchdown.

Ripon moved the ball into the red zone on their next drive by Tashawn Ruffin (Bloomington, Illinois) intercepted a pass on the 5-yard line The Scots went backwards on the first play but Wrublik took off down the far sideline and went untouched 92 yards for a touchdown and a 21-0 lead.

"We did a good job getting the ball to our playmakers early and letting them work," said Braun. "Wrublik has been very explosive this year and he got out there for a big run and its good to see the offense make the explosive plays today."

The Scots got the ball back for another first quarter possession. Wrublik ran for 10 and 16 yards for first downs across midfield. He added another run for 11 and early in the second quarter, took the ball inside the red zone. Braun capped the 11-play drive with a 10-yard touchdown run before Aidan Sensabaugh (East Moline, Illinois) hit another extra point.

Wrublik ran for another long score on the next possession but the play came back on a holding penalty. Hudson Ault (Fairview, Illinois) ran for 10 yards and Wrublik added another 11-yard run. Braun hit Da'Von Patterson (Ponte Vedre, Florida) for 38 yards down to the seven and Wrublik scored on the next play for a 35-0 lead.

Nick Huston (Monmouth, Illinois) blew up the next Ripon drive with a sack and Monmouth started on their own 43. Braun hit Ault for 19 yards and then found Jeremiah Williams (Oviedo, Florida) for eight. A pass to Mason Emin (Sterling, Illinois) went for 14 yards and the Scots made it 42-0 as Braun hit Gunner Bryant (Curryville, Missouri) for a 3-yard score.

The Scots started the second half with the ball and Braun hit Aidan Podowicz (Clifton, Illinois) for seven yards before Wrublik ran for a first down. Wrublik took the ball across midfield before Braun ran for 16 down to the red zone. Wrublik scored for the third time and his 6-yard run made it 49-0.

Monmouth went to backup quarterback John Kostuch (Kissimmee, Florida) on the next drive. John Ahlden (Ashkum, Illinois) ran for 21 yards to the Monmouth 43 and Ault ran for 17 yards on two plays. In his debut, Kostuch hit Caden Johannessen for nine yards and Ahlden ran for four. Kostuch fired a pass over the middle to Jerry Reed (Danville, Illinois) who took it to the end zone for a 27-yard score. Mylee Hansen (Pekin, Illinois) converted the extra point for a 56-0 lead.
Ripon scored with 1:08 to play to avoid the shutout. Quarterback Payton Salomon (Ankeny, Iowa) who played the previous drive in the fourth quarter in his Monmouth debut, took two knees to finish the game.

"We have started to toughen up defensively in the red zone," said Braun. "Our defense was very solid today and played hard all the way to the end."

Braun was 9-for-15 for 197 yards with three passing touchdowns while also rushing for 28 yards and a touchdown. Kostuch was 3-for-4 for 48 yards with a passing touchdown. Wrublik ran 22 times for 219 yards and three touchdowns. Ault ran for 63 yards and Ahlden added 28. Newman had two catches for 97 yards and two touchdowns while Patterson had 38 yards and Reed had 27.

Defensively, Carson Strating (Morrison, Illinois) had 10 tackles while Huston had six. Huston had two sacks while Ruffin had an interception.

MONMOUTH MOMENTS: With three rushing touchdowns, Wrublik moved past DeAndre Wright for second in Monmouth history with 46 ... The career record is 60 by Trey Yocum ... He passed Mike Blodgett for fourth on the total touchdowns list with 46 ... His 219 rushing yards are a career-high and the sixth most in a single game in MC history,, ... He moved past Blodgett, Wright and Joey Biel to rank third in career points scored with 276 ... Wrublik tied Dante Daniels for third in 100-yard rushing games with 11 ... In two MWC games, Wrublik has 389 rushing yards and seven touchdowns ... Newman is the seventh player in school history with 20 receiving touchdowns ... Kostuch had his first career appearance, completion and touchdown pass ... Reed and Bryant both had their first touchdown receptions ... Reed, Podowicz and Johannessen had their first career receptions ... Monmouth completed 12 passes to 11 different receivers with only Newman catching more than one pass ... The Scots had five rushers on the day ... On defense, 26 different players made a tackle ... Hansen has made an extra point in three straight seasons ... Huston had his first two career sacksRuffin had his first career interception ... The Scots had seven tackles for loss ... Ripon leads the all-time series 35-32-3 though the Scots have won nine in a row ... Monmouth won 58-3 last year at home and 56-13 on the road in 2024 ... Monmouth was 8-for-12 on third down while holding Ripon to 3-for-13 ... The Scots gained a season-best 583 yards of offense ... The Scots had 340 rushing yards on 43 attempts to average 7.9 per carry ... Ripon ran 33 times for 83 yards ... Monmouth had 24 first downs on the day ... The Scots are off next week before hosting Luther at 2 p.m. on Saturday, October 10 for Homecoming.