Football
Bearcat Football Going For Four In A Row on Saturday in Bolivar
By
Sep 29, 2008, 11:59

BOLIVAR, Mo. -- The SBU Bearcats will face Central Oklahoma at home on Saturday, looking for their fourth consecutive win, which would equal their longest winning streak in school history. SBU has won four straight twice, when they went 4-0 to open the 1986 season and when they repeated the feat a year later, by winning four to begin the 1987 season. The teams have only played one contest, which was won by Central Oklahoma (30-7 on September 13, 2003, in Bolivar).

THE OPPONENT: The Bronchos bring an overall record of 1-4 into Saturday’s game with the Bearcats. Central Oklahoma, who has played only once on the road, is coming off their first win of the season, a 21-13 defeat of Texas A&M - Commerce. They have averaged 59 yards rushing per game, and 177.2 yards passing per game. After playing Pittsburg State closely in a 12-16 loss in their season opener, the Bronchos gave up more than 40 points in weeks #2, #3, and #4. Through their first five games, Central Oklahoma’s defense has given up 1400 yards in the air (280 yards per game) and 833 yards on the ground (166.6 yards per game).

TRENDS: Through SBU’s first five games of the 2008 season, Steve Gachette has averaged 292.6 yards passing and 52.2 yards rushing. Johnnie King has been SBU’s leading receiver, with 42 catches (12.5) for 524 yards (104.8 average). Reuben Hartzler has 27 grabs for 288 yards. Jeff Finnell has gained 423 yards (84.6 average) on the ground, which includes 6 touchdowns on the season. Jarred Schumpert has 46 tackles (31 solo) on the season, followed by Tyrin Holt, who has 40 tackles (19 solo). The Bearcats have 19 sacks as a team, led by Clint Carroz, who has 5. Carroz picked up three sacks in Saturday’s contest at Wesleyan.

NATION’S BEST: The SBU Bearcats came into last week’s game as the national leader in first downs, with 28.5 per game. Against Kentucky Wesleyan on Saturday, SBU moved the chains 28 more times.

CAREER TD PASSES: With his three touchdown passes on Saturday, Steve Gachette stands at 28 for his career, only 4 behind Robert Clardy’s career record of 32 (2003-06). Clardy is now an assistant coach for the Bearcats. This season, Gachette has 13 touchdown passes, and stands 6 behind Chris Lowe’s single-season record of 19 (2001). Despite his record-setting pace, Gachette has yet to throw 2 touchdowns to the same player in the same game this season.

SCORING STREAK: SBU is on track to break their ‘consecutive games without being shutout’ in the last game of this season. Should the Bearcats score in all 11 games in the 2008 campaign, they will have avoided the shutout for 44 straight times against Missouri S&T on November 8, which passes the old mark of 43 set in the 10th game of the 1992 season.

COACH ALLEN ON SATURDAY’S WIN: "It feels good to be 3-2 right now," said SBU’s head coach, Keith Allen. "We came out in the first half and executed well, on both sides of the ball. We moved the ball down the field like we wanted, and we shut them down defensively. But we were sloppy at the end of the first half with penalties, which we will address by the next game. That sloppiness carried over into the second half, especially on the offensive side of the ball. The bottom line tonight is that we made way too many errors as a team to be happy with this win."

Game Notes