Michael Whitley leads the Muskies offense with his arm and his legs. Photo courtesy Lakeland Sports Information

It took three plays for the Lakeland Muskies to define their season last Saturday, in the fourth quarter on the road against the Benedictine Eagles.

The Eagles had just roared back from a third quarter deficit to score two touchdowns and a two-point conversion to take a 29-26 lead with less than six minutes to go in the contest. That was when Eldrada Meeks decided to score his first collegiate touchdown for Lakeland on the third play after the kickoff, a 54-yard run that proved to be the game-winner.

The Muskies still needed a big third down sack by Marcus Williams after Benedictine drove deep in Lakeland territory and a missed field goal to preserve a 32-29 win, but Colin Bruton said the game showed the character his team has established in his two years there as head coach.

"It seems like when there's a little bit of adversity, our guys really come together," Bruton said. "They play at a higher level when they are faced with those special situations. The Concordia (Wis.) game (a 16-7 win), we played in really terrible field conditions. Our field was a mud pit and we had to change our game plan when guys realized what it would take to win that game.

"In the Benedictine game, when we got down and needed a score and a stop, we just had a tremendous amount of confidence about getting that done and we just believed in making plays and believed in each other."

Lakeland is now 4-2 on the season and 2-0 in NACC play going down to the final four games of the season. Bruton pointed out that by no means is the conference race over for the defending conference champions, even though the Benedictine win puts them in the driver's seat.

"We just beat Wisconsin Lutheran (Saturday's opponent) by two points last year," Bruton said. "Aurora (the NACC's other undefeated team) took us to overtime last year. Concordia Chicago and Rockford are both improved. I told our players what we've done with the Benedictine win was to increase the target on our backs.

"We know that everybody is going to be giving us their best shot. We have to stay focused and not look ahead. If we get fortunate enough to win and get a playoff game, we know we have to be a better team than what we are right now to have a chance."

He said that's why the Muskies scheduled No. 7 UW-Platteville this year. He said that his squad's loss in the first round to nationally-ranked Wheaton was an eye-opener. Lakeland lost to UW-Platteville 56-0 earlier this year, but he said that experience has already helped his team.

"Our goal every year is to win the league and be a playoff team," Bruton said. "We were a little shell-shocked playing a team the caliber of Wheaton last year in the playoffs. We think for our program to be successful, we have to play teams like that.

"We know if we win the conference, we will likely draw a top 10 team in the first round. We wanted to get a taste of what that looks like. We did some good things early in that game but against a team like that you have to play your best for the whole 60 minutes and things kind of snowballed on us at the end of the second quarter and second half. It was important, though, to see that level of competition."

Offensively, Lakeland has been pretty good all season behind quarterback Michael Whitley. The junior has thrown for more than 1,000 yards this season, completing 51 percent of his passes (76-147-4, 1,009 yards). He has thrown for eight touchdown and run for another five. In the Benedictine game, he went over the 1,000-yard rushing mark for his career.

"He played against Benedictine with a high ankle (injury)," Bruton said. "Earlier in the week, we didn't know if we were going to have him and as the week went on, he told us there's no way he was going to miss the game.

"His toughness permeates through this entire program. He's taken some hits and was sacked quite a few times his first two years but he always managed to get up and back to the line of scrimmage."

Whitley has weapons to throw the ball to with Kezlow Smith (16 catches, 432 yards, four touchdowns) and Dezmen Morse (19 catches, 291 yards, two touchdowns), but Bruton said it was a pleasant sight to see sophomore running back Dezmon Eddie get his first 100-yard game against Benedictine.

"We've seen some light boxes; five-man, sometimes even four-man with teams daring us to run the ball," Bruton said. "Our offensive line was just outstanding Saturday and probably the best they've played this season and I think we have two dynamic running backs. Eddie is our home run threat every time he touches the ball and Meeks is similarly dynamic in the field and came up with that big fourth quarter run for us."

The Muskies, though, have given up quite a few points on defense, but Bruton said he believes that unit is coming along. Linebacker Airiss Hargrow was a running back last season, but is now leading the NACC in tackles with 68, 11.5 of those for losses, with three sacks.

"Hargrow is having an outstanding season at linebacker for us," Bruton said. "Our defensive backs, Dajuan Darling and Chris Dickson, both did an outstanding job Saturday. Benedictine has a great receiver (Elijah Walker) and we were able to hold him to two catches for six yards. We respect Benedictine's passing game a lot and it was a great effort in a lot of man situations."

Bruton said, though, that the main job for the Muskies right now is to stay focused like they did in the fourth quarter of last Saturday's win.

North Central takes Little Brass Bell

Some questions have been answered in the CCIW after No. 6 North Central (6-0, 4-0) scored a 35-25 win over No. 12 Wheaton (6-1, 4-1) in the clash of perennial power schools. The Cardinals got another outstanding performance out of freshman quarterback Broc Rutter, going 23 for 39 for 238 yards and three touchdowns, while Pat Cravens returned a punt 67 yards for another touchdown in the second quarter.

"It's a huge rivalry, and you want to have that hardware," North Central coach Jeff Thorne said, getting his first Little Brass Bell victory as head coach. "Getting it back is really important for the program, but it really is just another step toward us fulfilling our goal of winning a conference championship. You can't do that without the Bell. This step is done, now we've got to work toward the next step, which is the conference championship."

The contest also snapped Wheaton's school-record streak of 27 consecutive regular season wins. The last time Wheaton loss a conference game was to North Central in 2013.

One never wants to say it is smooth sailing for North Central from here with so much football left to play. With that said, it will take a surprising effort to beat the Cardinals and deny them their first conference title in three years.

Game of the Week

Rose-Hulman (5-2, 4-1 in HCAC) at No. 14 Franklin (5-1, 4-0 in HCAC): This game had more luster on it before the Fightin' Engineers surprisingly fell to Mount St. Joseph earlier this month, 45-27. Rose-Hulman has spent the past two years trying to wrestle the HCAC mantle from the Grizzlies, taking Franklin to the fourth quarter before succumbing. Now, the Fightin' Engineers need to bounce back playing against a squad that has been performing at a high level most of the season, particularly on offense with quarterback Chase Burton. Rose-Hulman also presents likely the last real challenge to Franklin. Franklin is No. 14 in the latest poll, and has to be a juicy target for a Rose-Hulman team that has come so close in recent years. The Grizzlies, though, are well established with six straight league titles and playoff appearances in eight of the last nine seasons.