Knox College Prairie Fire (0-1)
at Beloit College Buccaneers (0-1)
Saturday, September 10, 2016, 1:00 p.m.
Strong Stadium, Beloit, Wis.
The Bucs look to rebound from their season-opening loss as they open the home season against the Prairie Fire of Knox College…
The Series: The Buccaneers and Prairie Fire are meeting for the 100th time in a series Beloit leads 54-43 with two ties. Beloit won the most recent meeting on November 14, 2015, 24-21 at Strong Stadium as part of MWC Championship Saturday. The Buccaneers have won six of the last eight between the teams. KC's most recent win in the series came on October 12, 2013, 31-21 in Beloit. The programs first met in the final game of the 1899 season, a 6-6 tie…
Bucs Most Recent Game: The Beloit College Football team couldn't get their offense to click early and Lake Forest College took advantage with four unanswered touchdowns to pull away in a 34-20 loss to open the season Saturday. The Buccaneers got a 36-yard field goal by Kam Sallee for the only scoring in the first quarter before Sallee added a 43-yarder at the 6:12 mark of the second quarter prior to the Foresters starting their run. A 15-yard TD run with 2:03 left in the half gave LFC a 7-6 lead. Then, with 34 seconds remaining, Lake Forest capitalized on a blocked punt with a 24-yard scoring pass to head into the lockerroom up 14-6. A short six-yard run capped an 11-play drive for LFC accounting for the only scoring in the third quarter to make it 20-6 and then a 41-yard TD pass made it 27-6 less than a minute into the fourth. The Bucs stopped the burst at the 10:30 mark of the final quarter on Danny May's one-yard run, capping an eight-play drive. After the Foresters struck on a 16-yard pass play with 4:51 remaining in the game Beloit closed out the scoring with just under a minute left when May hit Michael Nolden on a one-yard scoring play. May led the Buccaneers with 233 passing yards and another 78 on the ground. Both Sallee and Nolden had 57 yards receiving, Sallee with seven catches and Nolden with five. Defensively, Riley Pearson was credited with 10 tackles, seven solo. Henry Jacobsen had seven tackles while both Quin Dixon and Jack Sommer had sacks and Caleb Wachel a fumble recovery.
Bucs' Last Time vs. the Prairie Fire: The Beloit College Football team closed their 2015 season on a high note with a 24-21 win over Knox College as a part of MWC Championship Saturday at Strong Stadium on November 14, 2015. The Buccaneer scored the only points of the opening quarter on the opening possession of the game, with Mason Dixon scoring from two yards out to cap a 12-play, 75-yard drive. The Prairie Fire evened it up less than two minutes into the second quarter with a 13-play, 77-yard drive that ended with a two-yard scoring pass. But Dixon scored on a 33-yard run three minutes later to regain the lead and Kam Sallee kicked a 23-yard field four minutes later to make it 17-7. Knox pulled back within 17-14 two seconds before the end of the half on a seven-yard pass play. KC grabbed a 21-17 lead with the only score of the third quarter on an eight-yard scoring pass. The Buccaneers tallied the game-winner at the 10:30 mark of the final quarter, capping off a 12-play, 72-yard drive with Dixon's third rushing TD of the game, this one from 13 yards away. The defense then took over, stopping two Knox drives before the Bucs ran out the final 5:23 for the win. Beloit finished with 392 yards of offense while holding KC to 232. The Bucs rushed for 256 yards with a 5.6 average per rush. Dixon had 145 yards on the ground on 32 carries, capping off his third straight 1,000-yard rushing season. Danny May threw for 136 yards and rushed for 92. His 2088 yards passing are the fourth-most in a season for the Buccaneers. Mike Nolden caught seven passes for 61 yards and Sallee had seven catches for 59 yards. Nolden's 841 yards receiving are the fifth-most in a season while his 63 catches rank third in a season. Sallee's 60 catches tie for fourth. On defense, Danny Quijas had nine tackles while Henry Jacobsen and Joey Casa had six each. Riley Pearson and Jack Sommer had sacks.
Home Openers: The Buccaneers have won two straight home openers and have split their last 10. 2016 is the sixth time in the last 40 years that Knox College has been the opponent for the home opener, with the most recent coming in 1996. Beloit holds a 3-2 edge over the Prairie Fire in those contests, the most recent being a 15-10 KC win in the '96 game…
Notes & Notables: Kam Sallee's second field goal last Saturday, from 43 yards, is the fifth-longest in Beloit history. He now has the third, fourth and fifth-longest. Plus his two field goals broke a tie with Matt Laszlo (1988-91) for second all-time in made field goals. His 19 trail only all-time leader Greg Dummer (1982-85), who had 22…The Buccaneers are still searching for their first season-opening victory since 2009. They've dropped seven straight…
Up Ahead for the Bucs: It's back to the road as Beloit opens Midwest Conference play at Grinnell College on September 17. They then return to Strong Stadium on September 24 for the Homecoming Game when they'll host Cornell College. After that it's back on the road to begin October, playing at Lawrence University in Appleton on the month.