Posted: Nov 11, 2013
Football drops 37-7 contest to McPherson College
By Paul K. Mogenson
The Salina Journal
LINDSBORG—One week after pulling off the biggest upset in the KCAC this season, the Bethany Swedes fell flat on their faces Saturdayafternoon and were throttled on Senior Day by McPherson 37-7 at Anderson Stadium.
The loss drops Bethany to 1-7 in conference play and assures them of no better than a ninth place finish. Overall, the Swedes are 2-8.
McPherson was able to move into a tie for sixth place with a week to go at 3-5. Overall the Bulldogs are 4-6.
McPherson's defense controlled the game from the outset allowing Bethany 152 total yards on 50 plays for the game while the Dog offense snapped the ball 89 times good for 402 total yards.
Running the short passing game McPherson favors, Jordan Hoffman completed 18 of 36 passes for 202 yards and a pair of touchdowns, but it was the ground game that punished Bethany as much as anything, led by Havelock Pomele. Pomele, a 5-8, 245 pound running back pounded out 111 yards on 22 carries.
"When Jordan is able to stand in the pocket and throw I felt there were some things that we would be able to exploit," said Pete Sterbick, McPherson's coach. "Tremon Robinson is a pretty key guy for us in the pass game so we were able to get him the ball downfield."
Robinson, a 6-1, 215 senior wideout, hauled in 11 balls for 161 yards.
But it was Pomele's presence that augmented the McPherson attack.
"We haven't had him most of the season," Sterbick said of Pomele, who had suffered a series of injuries and only recently returned to the lineup.
"He's pretty dynamic. There's times when there's a guy there to stop him at the point of attack and they have trouble with him."
But for all the yards McPherson gained, it was the Bulldog defense had truly dictated the outcome.
The Swedes ventured into Dog territory only once in the first three quarters and on that possession, their second, when they took over the ball at midfield and reached the 30 before being stopped on downs.
"We felt, if we played base defense and the pass rush could affect (Bethany quarterback Zach Dovenbarger), we'd have a great chance to win.
"It was pretty simple really, we didn't do anything extravagant, we just let the guys who line up go make plays and if we didn't get to him, he was a little bit off the mark."
"We were trying to throw the ball on them a little bit," said Manny Matsakis, Bethany's coach. "There were blown assignments in the passing game. Where we did things correctly a week ago (a 24-17 upset of 7th ranked Tabor), this week, no matter what, we didn't do things exactly the way we needed to."
Much of McPherson's scoring for three quarters came off the foot of Mike Phillips as he converted field goals of 22, 24 and 28 yards around Pomele's 10 yard touchdown burst and Hoffman's one yard sneak.
Hoffman tacked on touchdown passes of 1 and 14 yards to Jordan Brady and Gerald Hardridge respectively before the Swedes erased the goose egg on their side of the scoreboard.
After Dovenbarger had completed seven of 19 balls for only 21 yards and a pair of interceptions, Bo Savage had the final period to himself and he took the Swedes in for their only score.
Cody Linnebur recovered a McPherson fumble at the Dog 41 with 7:50 remaining in the contest to set up the drive. Savage completed a pair of passes to Prestyn Atherton and Joe Bennett for 22 yards before going the final four on a bootleg right with 5:06 to go.
Bethany will close the season next Saturday against Bethel in North Newton while McPherson concludes its campaign at Southwestern.
To see complete game stats, click here.