Game Notes at Monmouth College

RIPON, Wis. - The Ripon football team is in the midst of a four-game winning streak after last week's 27-14 win over Lake Forest College in which they scored 27 unanswered points and allowed a season-low 14 points for the second consecutive week. The Red Hawks will aim for their fifth consecutive win this weekend at Monmouth College, which would be their longest win streak since winning their first five games of the 2010 season.

"We have to put last week's win behind us very quickly and realize that mathematically, we're still in the hunt for the MWC Championship," said Head Coach Ron Ernst.

With a win on Saturday and losses by both Illinois College and St. Norbert, the Red Hawks would remain in the hunt for a conference championship entering the final week of the season. A victory against Monmouth would also be the biggest milestone yet for Ernst, who is in his 23rd season as the team's head coach. Currently with 149 career victories, Ernst needs just one more to become the second coach in MWC history to reach the 150-win plateau. He is 10 wins shy of the conference record of 159, which was set by Cornell's Jerry Clark, who coached from 1959-85 and again in 1987.

"It would obviously be a nice achievement, but it's not something that I set out to do at the start of my career," Ernst said. "No head coach ever gets to this point without having some very good players and assistants that have helped win every one of those games."

To achieve that milestone this weekend won't be easy against a Monmouth team that is 3-5 overall and 3-4 in the MWC. Although the record doesn't reflect it, the Fighting Scots have had a chance to win nearly every game, losing four games by eight or less points, including three by three points or less.

Offensively, Monmouth is one of the top teams in the conference, ranking third in scoring (29.8 ppg) and total offense (415.5 ypg) and fourth in passing offense (206.1 ypg) and rushing offense (209.4 ypg). The Fighting Scots also rank second in the MWC in red zone offense (.757) and lead the league in both fourth down conversions (.667) and fewest sacks allowed (6).

"Monmouth is probably the best 3-5 team in the country," Ernst said. "They are a team with a good tradition and they have some very talented players. They've had some close games against some good teams and are just a couple plays away from having one or two conference losses. They're a good football team and we're going to have our hands full."

One player that will give the Ripon defense a handful is senior running back Trey Yocum, who is in his fourth season as the starter in the Fighting Scots backfield. Yocum ranks third in the MWC with 1,187 rushing yards (148.4 yards per game) and is averaging 5.8 yards per carry, while scoring a league-best 13 touchdowns. Yocum is also tied for third in the MWC with six 100-yard rushing performances this season. That includes a season-high of 277 yards, which is the highest rushing total by a player in the MWC this year.

"Yocum is a very hard runner and in my mind may be the best running back in the league," Ernst said. "He's just an outstanding athlete and we'll have to know where he is at all times on Saturday and our defense will have to get as many hats on him as possible."

When Ripon has the ball, they will feature an offense that leads the MWC in rushing (287.9 ypg) and third down conversions (.466), while ranking second in first downs (22.0/game) and fourth in both scoring (28.0 ppg) and total offense (391.5 ypg).

Defensively, the Red Hawks are coming off arguably their best game of the season in which they forced a season-high three interceptions, while tying a season-high with three sacks.

"We stressed all last week that we needed to force turnovers," Ernst said. "Lake Forest is a very good team and one reason we won was a combination of us creating those three turnovers and our offense not turning the ball over at all."

Ripon's defense will hope to build on that performance on Saturday in a game that is set to begin at 1 p.m. in Monmouth, Ill and can be seen live on http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/ripon.portal#.

"This is an intense rivalry and has been that way for a long time. Saturday's game will be no different, so we'll  just try to score as many points as we can and hold them to as few as possible, which will hopefully help us come out on top."