The Monmouth College football team made it 25 Turkey Bowl wins in a row as they extinguished rival Knox 49-0 on Saturday in Galesburg. The Fighting Scots (8-2, 8-1) know they will play next week and now wait to find out if it will be in the NCAA Playoffs or the Lakefront Bowl. Senior wideout Nate Thornton (Peoria, Illinois) broke both the single-season and career records for receiving touchdowns with three more scores on Saturday.
“This was a great way for us to finish the regular season,” said head coach Chad Braun. “A little of a slow start for the offense but they really got rolling in the second half. The defense was really dominant all game long.”
Knox started the game with the ball and punted from midfield. Brayden Deem (Andalusia, Illinois) completed a 7-yard pass to Thornton but the Scots had to punt. On the first play, Tevin Baker (Kewanee, Illinois) sacked the Knox QB, forcing a fumble that was recovered by Jeremiah Hardnett (O’Fallon, Illinois) on the Knox 22. Deem hit Chase Newman (Morrison, Illinois) for 19 yards and Nate Wrublik (Lemont, Illinois) scored on 3rd and goal from the 1. Knox punted but the Scots turned the ball over on downs on the KC 20 and the quarter ended with Monmouth leading 7-0.
Monmouth’s second drive of the second quarter started on their own nine yard line. Newman caught a 9-yard pass for a first down on 3rd and 8 and Deem ran for six yards before a pass interference moved the ball to the 41. Passes to Newman and Thornton and an 18-yard run by Wrublik took the ball to the 20. A holding penalty moved the Scots backwards but Wrublik scored on a 30 yard run and Cody Szelc (Riverview, Florida) hit the extra point for a 14-0 lead.
Monmouth got the ball back after a punt and started on their own 42. Wrublik ran for eight yards on two plays and Deem scrambled for 22. Angel Duarte (Mt. Sterling, Illinois) ran for 16 yards and Deem hit Thornton for a 7-yard touchdown. The score by Thornton is his 44th career receiving touchdown, breaking the career record held by M Club Hall of Famer Michael Blodgett.
The Scots forced another 3-and-out and got the ball back on their own 20 with 1:16 to play in the half. Deem hit Thornton for eight yards and then unleashed a bomb down the middle of the field for Newman. The freshman caught the ball in stride on the KC 35, broke one tackle and sprinted to the end zone for a 72-yard touchdown and a 28-0 lead with 57 seconds left in the half.
Monmouth started the second half on their own 23 and Wrublik ran twice for nine yards. Deem hit Gunnar Bryant (Curryville, Missouri) for seven yards and Wrublik ran for 12. Wrublik scored for the third time in the game on a 45-yard run for a 35-0 lead. Baker forced another fumble and this time he also got the recovery on the Knox 31. Deem immediately cashed in as he hit Thornton for a 31-yard score and a 42-0 lead. Damien Brown (East Peoria, Illinois) forced a fumble on the next Monmouth possession and Ethan James (Carthage, Illinois) recovered, returning the ball to midfield. An interception ended the drive and the quarter ended with Monmouth on top 42-0.
Duarte and Deem picked up first downs on the ground as the ball moved inside the 30. Thornton set a new single-season touchdown record for receivers with a 25-yard score to end the first drive of the fourth quarter. The score was Thornton’s third of the game and Szelc’s seventh extra point made it 49-0. With the starters out of the game, Blake Regenold (Downs, Illinois) and Elijah Cherelus (Kissimmee, Florida) picked up first downs on the ground. Ashton Summers (Mt. Zion, Illinois) threw for a first down to Jeremiah Williams (Oviedo, Florida) but the Scots eventually punted. Jonah Hutton (Bluffs, Illinois) had an interception on the last play of the game.
Deem completed 14-of-26 passes for 216 yards with four touchdowns and one interception while also rushing for 64 yards. Wrublik ran 16 times for 140 yards, an 8.8 average, and he scored three times. Thornton caught seven passes for 99 yards and three touchdowns while Newman caught five balls for 110 yards and a touchdown.
Defensively, Brant Baltes (Lisbon, Iowa) had 10 tackles with 1.5 TFL. Baker had two sacks, 3.5 TFL, forced two fumbles and recovered one. Anthony Cikauskas (Oswego, Illinois) had a sack and two TFL and Derek Chandler (Monmouth, Illinois) had 1.5 TFL.
MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Thornton has 19 touchdowns on the season, breaking Blodgett’s record of 18 in 2011…Thornton has 45 touchdowns in 42 games while Blodgett scored 43 in 45 games…Thornton is the third player in school history with at least 200 receptions…His 201 rank behind Matt Shepherd (247) and Blodgett (297)…He also went over the 3500 yard plateau and sits in second with 3512 yards to Blodgett’s 4087…Thornton ranks second on the MC career list with 276 points, 98 behind Trey Yocum’s record of 374…He moved into sixth on the single-season yards list (965) and eighth on the single-season receptions list with 59…Thornton also tied Charlie Corle from 1986 for second on the single-season points list with 114…Cikauskas picked up his 50th career TFL, passing Korbyn Personett for third on the Monmouth list while Baker is now fifth with 48.5…They are also fourth and fifth on the career sacks list (Cikauskas 28.5. Baker 26,5)…Baker has 15 TFL, tied for the 16th most in a season…With 35 touchdown passes, Deem ranks fourth in MC history, behind three Alex Tanney seasons…Deem is also ninth on the single-season yards list with 2494, eighth on the completions list with 167 and seventh on the attempts list with 285…Szelc is fifth on the single-season extra-points list with 55 makes and fifth on the kicking points list with 73 this season, two behind his career high in 2022…The Scots have won 25 straight Turkey Bowl games and lead the all-time series 75-50-10…The last two games in Galesburg have been shutouts, 49-0 and 56-0…Knox hasn’t scored more than 10 points since 2012..,Braun’s teams have outscored Knox 446-52.
***Courtesy of Nathan Baliva, Monmouth College***
