Galesburg, IL – The Prairie Fire seniors, playing the last home game of their careers, went out with a big win against Lawrence University while a junior running back had a record-setting day.

Knox defeated the Vikings 63-42 on Senior and Parents’ Day on Stisser Field at the Knosher Bowl on Saturday.  Derek Mortensen (Crystal Lake, IL, Crystal Lake South) played a huge role in the victory as he set five new school records after rushing for 203 yards on 29 carries and scoring six touchdowns.  It’s the sixth game he’s rushed for over 100 yards this season (#2 all-time), fourth straight overall (tied for #2 all-time), and his second game of at least 200 yards rushing in a single season (tied for #1 all-time).

Mortensen is averaging 134.2 rushing yards per game (#2 all-time in a season), has 230 rushing attempts this season (#2 all-time in a season), and has 2482 career yards (#4 all-time).

The Prairie Fire (2-7, 2-6 MWC) snapped a three-game losing streak against Lawrence (2-7, 2-6 MWC), who beat Knox 62-42 last season at the Knosher Bowl.  The Fire hadn’t beaten the Vikings since the 2008 season at home. 

The 63 points scored by Knox, the fifth-most in the history of the football program, is the most since the team scored a record 75 in 1919 against Lake Forest College.

While Mortensen and the Prairie Fire run game, which churned out a season-high 394 yards, were unstoppable, the Knox defense had a lot to do with the game’s outcome as well.  The Fire sacked Vikings’ quarterback Luke Barthelmess, who entered the game second in the Midwest Conference in passing yards per game (198) and touchdown passes (13), eight times.

Senior defensive lineman Lloyd Scott (Chicago, IL, Mount Carmel) had 2.5 sacks and recovered a fumble while senior linebacker Mike Hendrick (Smithton, IL, Freeburg) added two sacks, 10 tackles, four tackles for a loss, a forced fumble, and an interception for Knox.  Junior linebacker Matt Hendrick (Smithton, IL, Freeburg) and senior defensive lineman Patrick McGinty (Bridgeton, MO, Pattonville) each had a sack as well, junior defensive lineman Steve Bora (Northfield, IL, New Trier) had 1.5 sacks, and sophomore cornerback Chaz Benton (Galesburg, IL, Galesburg) picked off Barthelmess twice.

Mortensen scored the first touchdown of the game on a 12-yard run with 4:13 in the first quarter, capping a 7-play, 32-yard drive that began when Lawrence fumbled the football at the Knox 32 yard line on the first possession of the game.  The extra point attempt failed, preventing the Prairie Fire from adding on to its 6-0 lead.

The Vikings (2-7, 2-6 MWC) committed four of their five turnovers in the first half – three interceptions and two fumbles.  Knox scored 21 points off of the Lawrence miscues.

The Vikings took their only lead of the game at 7-6 with 9:05 remaining in the second quarter on a 1-yard run by Ben Hartman. 

Lawrence didn’t have the lead for long as Mortensen found the end zone from 10-yards out just 42 seconds after Lawrence scored.  Mortensen’s number was also called on the two-point conversion and he answered with a successful run that gave the Prairie Fire a 14-7 lead.

The Knox defense intercepted a Barthelmess pass on Lawrence’s next offensive possession, and on the fourth play of the drive Mortensen scored his third rushing touchdown of the game – this time from 15-yards – to extend the advantage to 21-7.

The Vikings marched 72 yards in nine plays on their next possession and scored on an 11-yard pass from Barthelmess to Tyler Mazur to cut the Knox lead to 21-14 with 2:27 to play in the first half. 

Both teams had one more possession in the first half but neither could add any more points before the break as the Prairie Fire maintained a seven point lead.

Knox exploded for 28 points in the third quarter.  Three of the four touchdowns were by Mortensen and the other was a 7-yard run by fellow junior running back Cort Scheel (Wilmington, IL, University of Dubuque) with 9:21 to go in the third stanza.  Scheel rushed 12 times for a career-high 100 yards.  The contest against Lawrence marked the first time since 2007, and the 12th time in Knox football history, that multiple running backs had 100 or more yards in the same game.

Mortensen’s 2-yard touchdown run with 3:09 left in the third quarter gave the Prairie Fire its biggest lead of the game at 49-14.  The Vikings stopped the 28-0 Knox run with a pair of scores to end the quarter trailing 49-28.  Barthelmess rushed for an 8-yard touchdown at the 1:27 mark, and then he hit Taylor Mandich with a 10-yard scoring pass with no time left on the clock.

Lawrence never got closer as Knox scored on an 85-yard pass for a touchdown from first-year quarterback Luke Oosterbaan (Palos Heights, IL, Marist) to junior receiver Dustin Armstrong (Cincinnati, OH, Country Day) with 12:52 in the game for a 56-28 lead.  The 85-yard touchdown pass and catch is tied for the fourth-longest in Knox football history.  Barthelmess scored his second rushing touchdown of the afternoon with 10:01 in the fourth quarter to shave the Prairie Fire lead to 56-35. 

Senior running back Mike Youkhana (Glenview, IL, Glenbrook South) electrified his teammates and the crowd at the Knosher Bowl with a 1-yard scoring run, his first career touchdown, to put the Prairie Fire up 63-35 with 2:36 remaining. 

Barthelmess connected with Mazur on a 3-yard touchdown pass 2:00 later for the final points.

Knox finished the game with 520 yards of offense, averaged 8.1 yards per play, and scored touchdowns all eight times in the red zone. 

Oosterbaan was 5-of-9 passing for 140 yards.  Armstrong had two receptions for 95 yards.

Barthelmess was 27-of-50 passing for 386 yards and three touchdowns while he rushed for 52 yards and a pair of scores for Lawrence.  Dominique Dirden caught 11 passes for 184 yards and Mazur had eight grabs for 104 and two touchdowns.  Hartman had a team-high 89 rushing yards for the Vikings, who finished with 197 on the ground and 583 total yards of offense.

Mortensen’s six rushing touchdowns broke the previous record of five by Estelle Roberts in 1905.  His six touchdowns in the game also established a new all-time mark, topping Knox greats Roberts and Ziggy Hamblin. Hamblin tied Roberts for the previous record of 33 points in a game in 1919.  Mortensen had 38 against the Vikings, a new single-game Knox football record.  He was credited with 36 points for his six touchdown runs and two more points when he ran the football in for a 2-point conversion that gave the Prairie Fire the lead back for good at 14-7 with 8:37 remaining in the second quarter. The two other records Mortensen set were rushing touchdowns in a season and career rushing touchdowns.  He now has 15 touchdowns on the ground in 2012 and 28 in his career.

Mortensen's six rushing touchdowns are the second-most by a player in a game in Midwest Conference history.  The Prairie Fire tied the conference's all-time rushing touchdown record by a team in a game with eight against the Vikings.

Mortensen, with 1208 rushing yards this season, needs 110 on November 10 at Monmouth College in the 124th Bronze Turkey game to tie Drew Sherman for the most rushing yards in a season at Knox.  Sherman had 1318 yards in 1999.

In addition, the Prairie Fire could set a new record for points scored in a season.  Knox has 276 points through the first nine games and needs 19 to tie and 20 to surpass the 295 points scored by the 1919 team.

The Fighting Scots (4-5, 4-4 MWC) lost 50-47 on Saturday at Ripon College (4-5, 4-4 MWC) after leading 40-29 going into the fourth quarter.  It was the second straight defeat for Monmouth and their fourth in the last five games.

The Scots have won the last 13 games against the Prairie Fire and lead the all-time series 63-50-10.  Monmouth's last loss against Knox was in 1998 at home.

The game between Knox and Monmouth kicks off at 1:00 p.m.  It will be streamed live on the Web beginning at 12:50 p.m. at http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/monmouth.portal#

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