Oct. 20, 2007

The Malone College football team, ranked 12th in the latest NAIA National Poll, extended its winning streak to six games on Saturday afternoon with a 21-7 victory on the road against NAIA #22 Urbana University.  Leading 14-7 early in the fourth quarter, the Pioneers took possession of the ball with 10:54 remaining in the game and proceeded to methodically march down the field on a 15-play, 85-yard scoring drive that was capped off by a 20-yard touchdown run by running back Bernard Payton (Sr., Pomona, CA).  The Blue Knights had gathered some momentum prior to Malone's possession, but the seven-minute, 46-second drive put the Pioneers ahead by two scores with only 3:08 left on the clock.  Urbana was then unable to cut into the deficit over the final minutes as the Malone defense stopped the Blue Knights deep in their own territory on a fourth-down passing play to preserve the hard-fought 21-7 Mid-States Football Association Mideast League victory. 

The Pioneers played well on defense throughout the afternoon as the unit limited Urbana to 143 yards passing and just five yards rushing for 148 total offensive yards.  Malone, meanwhile, posted 265 total yards of offense with 115 of those yards coming on the ground and 150 through the air.  Each team was hampered by penalties as the Blue Knights were flagged ten times for 60 yards while the Pioneers were penalized eight times for 65 yards.  However, Malone enjoyed a substantial advantage in time of possession, holding the ball for 34:42 compared to 25:18 for Urbana.  With the win, the Pioneers improved to 7-1 overall (4-0 MSFA Mideast) on the season while the Blue Knights dropped to 5-3 (2-2 MSFA Mideast). 

Malone grabbed an early lead after taking the opening kickoff and driving 74-yards to endzone on seven plays.  Quarterback Billy Bob Orsagh (Jr., Eastland, TX) finished off the drive with his 17th touchdown pass of the season, a nine-yard toss to Payton.  Despite very windy conditions, placekicker Mike Skvor (Jr., Long Beach, CA) tacked on an extra point to put the Pioneers in front 7-0 just over three minutes into the game.  The score then remained unchanged until midway through the second stanza when Payton plunged into the endzone from three yards out to extend the Malone lead to 14-0.

Urbana got on the board at the 10:21 mark of the third quarter when Blue Knight running back Rodney Holmes snagged a short pass from quarterback Ryan Gehlert and jetted to endzone for a 64-yard TD reception, pulling his squad within seven points at 14-7.  Urbana then seemed to slowly gather momentum with aggressive defensive play that stifled the Malone offense over the remainder of the third stanza.  An Urbana interception at the start of the fourth quarter then set the Blue Knight offense up with a first and ten on the Malone 41-yardline, but the Pioneer defense held strong as defensive lineman Kyle Slutz (Sr., Tusky Valley H.S.) came up with a crucial third-down sack to force a punt and keep the hosts off the scoreboard.  The Malone offense then responded after the big stop, sealing the win with the long scoring drive.

Payton posted his fourth consecutive 100-yard rushing performance as he finished the day with 119 yards on 30 carries.  He also led the squad with nine pass receptions for 40 yards and scored three touchdowns (two rushing, one receiving).  Payton has now racked up a total of 19 TD's on the season which ties a Pioneer single-season record (running back Norris Petty also scored 19 touchdowns during the 1998 season).  With his three scores, the 6'1" senior running back also broke the Malone single-season record for points scored.  He has now accounted for 116 points on the year (19 TD's, one two-point conversion) which surpassed Petty's '98 mark of 114 points scored.

Orsagh completed 18 of his 23 passes for 150 yards with one touchdown and one interception.  Wide receiver Josh Settlemire (Jr., Howland H.S.) caught three passes for 45 yards while fellow wideout Derek Deardorff (Jr., Kenton H.S.) pulled in two receptions for 37 yards.

Defensively, linebacker Dan Hromada (Sr., Padua Franciscan H.S.) led the way with a game-high 12 tackles (four solo, 2.0 TFL, one sack).  Defensive lineman Ronell Lee (So., Collinwood H.S.) followed with nine tackles (four solo, 3.5 TFL, 2.0 sacks) and one forced fumble while linebackers Jamal Gambrell (Sr., Maple Heights H.S.) and Justin Murphy (Sr., Minerva H.S.) each recorded seven stops.

On special teams, Tyler Parry (Jr., North Loxahatchee, FL) punted six times in the gusty conditions for 231 yards (38.5 average) with three of his kicks downed inside the 20-yardline.

This week, #12 Malone (7-1, 4-0 MSFA Mideast) will travel to Chicago, Illinois for a 1:00 p.m. CDT (2:00 p.m. EDT) contest with NAIA #6 Saint Xavier University (7-1, 3-1 MSFA Mideast).  The Pioneers hold a 4-2 advantage in the all-time series with the Cougars, including a 24-21 win at Saint Xavier last season (the Cougars were ranked fifth in the nation entering last year's contest with Malone).

Pioneer Notes: Malone's six-game winning streak is the second longest in the history of the program (the squad won nine straight games from October 1994 to October 1995)...Payton needs just seven rushing yards to become the fourth Pioneer to rush for 1000 yards in a season (Joel Peterson posted 1165 yards in 2001, Eric Smith tallied 1012 yards in 2004 and Dan DeGeorge gained 1003 yards in 1994).