GREENVILLE, Ill.- The University of Northwestern Football team has a distinguished 50 year history as a program. In the history of that program, two players have ever had over 200 yards receiving in a single game. Chad Ruskinovich did it in 2011 with 202 yards in a game against Eureka.
Beau Burk (Ogilvie, Minn./Ogilvie), including Saturday's contest against Greenville University, has now accomplished that feat three times. Burk had 206 yards receiving (the third most in a game in school history; the junior has the top three receiving performances in school history) to lead the Eagles to a 32-12 win over the Panthers on Saturday afternoon.
With the road victory over Greenville, UNW has moved to a perfect 3-0 in UMAC play this season. Saturday's win followed a similar script as the Eagles' first two conference victories as they used a dominant second half to soar to the win.
Greenville, playing on their home field in front of a Homecoming crowd, got on the scoreboard first with a 27 yard touchdown pass almost seven minutes into the first quarter. The extra point was no good and the Eagles found themselves facing an early 6-0 deficit. That score held until the end of the first quarter.
Only four seconds into the second quarter, UNW took their first lead of the afternoon. UNW's offense went on an eight play drive that went for 86 yards and was capped off with an
Ashton Lofton (Colorado Springs, Col./Colorado Springs Christian) touchdown run.
Dominic Borges (Tualatin, Ore./Tualatin) nailed the extra point to put the Eagles on top 7-6.
Right before the half, Greenville went on a long and methodical drive that covered 54 yards in 14 plays and lasted nearly six and a half minutes. The drive ended with a 32 yard field goal that put the home team back in front with only 25 seconds left in the first half. The two teams would enter their respective locker rooms with the score reading 9-7 in favor of Greenville.
In the Eagles' first conference win of the season over Martin Luther, they had outscored the Knights 21-7 in the second half. In their second conference victory which took place two weeks ago against Crown, the Eagles outscored the Polars 37-7 in the second half. The Eagles continued to live up to their reputation as a second half team in Saturday's win over the Panthers. UNW would outscore Greenville 25-3 in the second half on their way to their fourth win of the season.
Head Coach
Matt Moore and his coaching staff decided to dial up a gamble to start the second half. The Eagles were kicking off to the Panthers and caught them by surprise with an onside kick that saw the team in all purple jerseys fall on it. A Greenville penalty would put UNW in even better field position and the Eagles cashed in with a touchdown after only two plays from scrimmage.
Ashton Lofton (Colorado Springs, Col./Colorado Springs Christian) ran it in from nine yards out for his second touchdown of the day. The Eagles were back in front 14-9.
Greenville would respond with a field goal approximately four minutes later to cut their deficit to 14-12. However, the next play the Panthers' special teams unit would make would not be as successful. In the final minute of the third quarter, the Panthers lined up to punt from their own end zone. The long snapper to punter snap exchange would not be a clean one and the ball was loose in the end zone.
Christian Raya (Moline, Ill./Moline) fell on it for the Eagles and the UNW special teams produced yet another touchdown in this 2023 season. The Eagles' lead was extended to 21-12.
The Eagles would put up 10 more points in the contest to secure the victory. With 12:31 remaining in the game, the Eagles scored another touchdown. With 2:12 remaining in the game,
Dominic Borges (Tualatin, Ore./Tualatin) made a 30 yard field goal. The Eagles won the contest 32-12.
Saturday's win was a big one for the UNW Football team. The Eagles and the Panthers finished in a tie for first place in the UMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll. The coaches around the league speculated in the preseason that the Eagles and the Panthers would be in the mix for the UMAC Championship and the automatic bid to the NCAA DIII Playoffs. Coach Moore's squad knows that there still is a lot of work yet to be done, but Saturday's win puts the Eagles in a favorable position as they head down the stretch of the 2023 season.
Caden Cantrell (Snowflake, Ariz./Snowflake) finished the game with 266 yards passing completing 14 of 21 attempts. He threw a touchdown pass and no interceptions.
Beau Burk (Ogilvie, Minn./Ogilvie) used eight catches to go for 206 yards.
Ashton Lofton (Colorado Springs, Col./Colorado Springs Christian) carried the ball nine times for 46 yards and two touchdowns.
Jayden Goodwin (New Richmond, Wis./Saint Croix Central) had 11 tackles and a forced fumble to lead the Eagle defense. Two of his tackles were tackles for loss.
Jah'Kiing Joseph (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./Heritage) finished with 11 tackles.
Brad Kulinski (Milwaukee, Wis./Martin Luther) had eight tackles and two pass breakups.
Jeffrey Markvicka II (Brooklyn Center, Minn./Fridley) had five tackles and the lone Eagle sack on the day.
Luke Malamisuro (Cambridge Isanti, Minn./Cambridge Isanti) picked up his team-leading third interception on the season in the contest.
The Eagles have three games left in the season. All three of them are against UMAC opponents, but only two of them will be counted as conference contests. The Eagles will host Martin Luther this upcoming Saturday (October 28
th) in a nonconference matchup. This marks the second meeting between the Eagles and the Knights this season. UNW defeated MLC 42-38 back on September 30
th. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:00pm from Reynolds Field.
