Galesburg, IL - One of the oldest rivalries in college football resumes Saturday when the Prairie Fire and Monmouth College resume a series that began in 1888.
Knox and Monmouth square off in the 123rd Bronze Turkey Game, the regular season finale for both schools, on the Fighting Scots' home turf.
The football rivalry is the third-longest in NCAA Division III and the sixth-longest in all NCAA divisions. Monmouth holds the edge in the series with a record of 62-50-10.
The last two meetings have been played at the Knosher Bowl. The Scots won last year's game 42-6, their 12th straight victory in the series.
Two co-captains on this year's Prairie Fire squad led the offense against Monmouth. Sophomore quarterback Drew Diaz (Niles, IL, Niles Notre Dame High School) completed 20 passes for 188 yards and senior wide receiver Clarke Cuthbert (Oak Park, IL, Oak Park-River Forest High School) had five catches for 76 yards.
Defensively, another Knox co-captain, defensive lineman Elliot Madison (Holden, MA, Saint John's) picked off a pass and had five tackles, four of them solo stops. Senior cornerback Adam Mize (Wood River, IL, East Alton- Wood River High School) also had an interception, and junior linebacker Mike Hendrick (Smithton, IL, Freeburg High School) recorded a game-high 15 tackles.
Hendrick is on the verge of setting a new single-season school record for tackles. He has 140 going into the game at Monmouth and needs one to tie and two to break the mark of 141 set by Tracy Rodgers during the 1991 season.
Hendrick leads the Midwest Conference and NCAA Division III in total tackles. He's ranked third in the nation with an average 15.56 tackles per game, which is tops among all MWC defensive players.
In addition, Hendrick is #1 in the Midwest Conference with 16 tackles for a loss (1.78 per game average) totaling 81 yards, and he's #2 in the league with eight quarterback sacks.
Hendrick already owns school records for tackles in a game (26 - 2011), solo tackles in a game (14 - 2010), and solo tackles in a season (69 - 2011).
Knox lost its 2011 home finale 31-27 last Saturday against Lake Forest College. The Prairie Fire, after trailing 24-7 with 5:27 left in third quarter, scored 20 unanswered points. A 16-yard touchdown run by Diaz, his second of the afternoon, gave the Fire a 27-24 lead with 4:48 to play in the game.
Lake Forest responded with an 8-play, 71-yard drive to escape with the win.
The Fighting Scots clinched at least a share of the MWC title with a 69-14 win at Carroll University.
The Prairie Fire will try to prevent Monmouth from claiming the league crown outright. A Knox victory would force the Scots to share the league championship with Illinois College.
Fans are encouraged to bring canned goods to the game, which kicks off at 1:00 p.m. The food collected will be donated to the food pantries in both Monmouth and Galesburg.
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