Game Notes at Cornell

RIPON, Wis. - The 2017 Ripon College football season will come to an end Saturday when the Red Hawks travel to Cornell College in what will be the fourth-place game on Midwest Conference Championship weekend. Both team come into the game with identical 4-5 records. Ripon is 3-2 in the MWC North Division, and is riding a two-game winning streak, while looking for a third straight for what would be their longest win streak of the season. A win would also give Ripon a .500 record or better for the 24th time in the last 27 years. Cornell is 2-3 in the MWC South, and like the Red Hawks, have won two straight.

"I'm looking for us to play our best game of the year," Ripon Head Coach Ron Ernst said. "We've been playing pretty well leading up to this game and we'd like to see our players go out on a positive note."

This is the 62nd meeting between thee two teams in a series that dates back to the first meeting in 1924. Cornell holds a 33-26-2 advantage in the series, and have won two of the last three meetings since re-joining the MWC a few years ago, including a 31-28 triumph in Mount Vernon, Iowa last season.

Cornell enters Saturday's contest ranking fourth in the MWC in scoring offense with 33.9 points per game, but rank 10th in scoring defense, allowing 45 points per contest. The Rams are fourth in the league in both total offense (376.7 ypg) and rushing offense (200.1 ypg), while ranking 12th out of the 12 MWC teams in total defense (504.2 ypg) and pass defense (266.9 ypg), and 11th in rushing defense (237.3 ypg).

"Cornell has given up a lot of points, but they've also scored a bunch of points and they always play extremely hard," Ernst said. "They do some things that we haven't seen much from the teams that we've played, so we're going to have to be ready for what they throw at us."

Despite the yardage and point totals that Cornell has given up, the Rams have some very talented players on that side of the ball, including Senior Defensive End Andrew Joseph, who leads the MWC in sacks this season with nine, which is two more than the next-highest total. Joseph has also recorded 85 tackles on the year, which is third in the conference, while his 17 tackles for a loss are second in the MWC.

"They have a few very good players on that defense," Ernst said. "We're going to stick to our game plan. In a triple option offense, we don't have to worry too much about them getting to the quarterback in the backfield."

Leading Ripon's triple-option attack is freshman quarterback Julian Patton, who ranks fourth in the MWC in rushing touchdowns with 12, which is one shy of the ninth-highest single season total in school history. He also ranks fifth in the league for rushing yards per game with 85.2, and has rushed for more than 100 yards in a game three times this season, which is tied for fourth-most in the MWC. Patton leads an offense that leads the league in rushing with 236.8 yards per game. The Red Hawks are averaging 25.3 points per contest.

"Julian is feeling a lot more comfortable than he was at the beginning of the season, and the game is slowing down for him, which is great to see," Ernst said. "He's playing very well and is doing some good things. We've shown flashes of brilliance on the offensive side of the ball, and we just need to continue to improve. The pieces are coming together for having a young team."

On defense, Ripon is allowing 23.8 points per game, which is fourth-best in the MWC. They also rank fourth in total defense (305.4 ypg) and are tied for second in rushing defense, allowing 98.8 yards per game, which would rank fifth in school history, just seven yards per game shy of the school record of 91.8, which was set in Ripon's 1966 MWC Championship season.

"Defensively, we're playing at a very high level," Ernst said. "We've had a good season and I like our attitude and the way that we've been playing."

Saturday's game will kickoff at 1 p.m. in Mount Vernon. It can be seen live at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/ripon/.

"We've stressed that we want to win the last game because it would give us three wins in a row and would springboard us into the recruiting season," Ernst said. "We started off with a very tough non-conference schedule and had some bumps along the way, but to be able to finish on a high note would be great for the entire team."