Statesmen Fall to #3 Morningside in Season Opener
William Penn University Athletics
by Wade Steinlage
Sioux City–By the time it lost its starting quarterback, the William Penn football team was already in trouble and unfortunately the situation did not get much better as the Statesmen came up short its season opener 49-21 to #3 Morningside Saturday.
WPU (0-1) was fairly successful on the offensive side with 365 total yards, but that paled in comparison to the NAIA’s top offense from a year ago; the Mustangs (1-0) racked up 518 yards.
The hosts needed less than two minutes to get on the board, but the navy and gold answered right back. Highlighted by a 62-yard pass from Tyler Wood (Jr., Newton, Iowa, Education) to Tyler Phillips (Sr., Altus, Okla., Physical Education), the visitors one-upped MC by requiring only four plays to march 71 yards for the tying score. Jesse Bade (Jr., Genoa, Ill., Physical Education), who tallied 18 yards and four carries, crossed the goal line from three yards out.
The good feelings quickly went away for Wood, though, as he departed with an injury in the second quarter. He attempted to come back in the second half, but was eventually pulled for the day. He will be re-evaluated in the coming days. The junior was 1-for-2 passing for 62 yards; he was limited in the ground game, managing just six yards on nine attempts.
His replacement, Alex Crehan (Jr., Troy, Ill., Business Management), more than held his own Saturday. The junior finished with 113 yards (long of 52) on 13 rushes and also had two completions for 18 yards.
Following the score, the defense then stood its ground and forced a punt. Unfortunately, a roughing the punter penalty gave MC new life and it went straight down the turf, recapturing the lead for good at 14-7.
Morningside punched it in twice more before the visitors recorded their second TD on a Ben Sherman (So., Troy, Pa., Elementary Education) one-yard plunge to make it 28-14 at halftime. The drive covered 76 yards on 15 plays and lasted 7:35, keeping the Mustang offense off the field for more than half of a quarter. Overall, WPU won the time of possession battle by more than three minutes.
William Penn again moved the pigskin effectively, opening the second half with a 57-yard drive. The drive ended abruptly, however, via a fumble and Morningside’s potent group took advantage with a lengthy scoring drive.
WPU’s scoring was capped in its next possession, going 75 yards in nine snaps with Sherman again locating paydirt, this time on a two-yard rush, cutting the deficit to 35-21 late in the third quarter. Sherman carried the ball a team-high 17 times for 69 yards.
Unfortunately, the Mustangs produced a response on their ensuing drive and ended the afternoon’s scoring midway through the concluding period.
At game’s end, William Penn notched 285 rushing yards (4.8 per attempt) with Amos Johnson (Sr., Rock Island, Ill., Mechanical Engineering) also tallying 52 yards.
Defensively, Jaidin Fletcher (Jr., Upland, Calif., Information Technology) paced the crew with 11 tackles. He also shared a sack with Resean Coleman (Jr., River Rouge, Mich., Exercise Science).
Mason Wisse (Sr., Oskaloosa, Iowa, Physical Education) was next with 10 stops, while Clive Manuao (Jr., Norwalk, Calif., General Accounting) had eight tackles and Jalan Cooper (Jr., Houston, Texas) and Rashaad Ollie (So., Foley, Ala., Sports Management) posted seven each.
Hunter Behm (Jr., West Haven, Utah, Mechanical Engineering) had a productive day in the kicking game as well. Making his first appearance since suffering a season-ending injury in 2017’s opener, the junior connected on all three of his extra points and also had three touchbacks on kickoffs.
“We played against a very good football team today,” Head Coach Todd Hafner said. “We made some mistakes that were costly and committed way too many penalties to beat a team like Morningside. This team is resilient and we will go back to work tomorrow to correct our mistakes. We know we have a good team and we know we will need to play much better than we did today to win games in our conference.”
“As coaches, we will trust our players and know they will come to the film session ready to learn and improve,” Hafner added. “We will do our part as well to make sure that it happens.”
Next Up: William Penn returns to Oskaloosa next Saturday to host #9 Baker in a Heart of America Athletic Conference crossover game at 2:30 p.m. The contest is the first of two ESPN3 games for the Statesmen.
