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Matt Myers' strategy for his Kansas Wesleyan football team in its game Saturday at Ottawa is straightfoward: duplicate last week's performance.
The Coyotes had 430 yards on offense, limited Tabor 76 yards (minus-33 in the first half), sacked the Bluejays' two quarterbacks five times and placekicker Aaron Main (SR/Tulsa, Okla.) connected on field goals of 47 yards and a school-record tying 51 yards. The result was a 62-0 Kansas Conference and Homecoming victory last Saturday at JRI Stadium and Graves Family Sports Complex.
Myers and his staff would appreciate a repeat effort against the Braves in their 1 p.m. conference contest at AdventHealth Field in Ottawa. KWU (5-2 overall and KCAC) has won its last two games while Ottawa (1-6 and 1-6) defeated Friends 28-13 last week for its first victory under new head coach Nick Davis.
Wesleyan's defense manhandled Tabor limiting the Bluejays to a minus-2 yards rushing and just 1.2 yards per play for the game. The Coyotes haven't allowed a point in the last six quarters.
"We changed our rotation a little bit up front but overarching that we just didn't make any mistakes," Myers said. "I preach consistency, violent consistency throughout the game and if we do that we'll be alright defensively.
"The other thing that we did a better job of is getting the quarterback on the ground with five sacks. The defensive staff drew up a couple of different blitzes just to change it up to get a little bit more pressure on the quarterback and we defended well on the back end."
Ottawa's offense presents a similar challenge. Quarterback Billy Maples threw for 247 yards in the victory over Friends and has 997 yards, six touchdowns and three interceptions on the season. The Braves also have two capable running backs in Jared Daniels and James Reeder – Daniels 383 yards rushing and two touchdowns and Reeder 296 yards.
"They'll try to stretch the defense laterally with the run game," Myers said. "They've got two really talented backs so it's kind of the same thing as McPherson. They have the ability to run a long way.
"The pass game they do take shots downfield and were able to complete a couple on some busted coverages against Friends So, if we keep them in front of us, I think it'll be difficult for them to drive the ball on us. Their quarterback is good, makes decent decisions, not overly athletic."
KWU's offense broke loose against Tabor after a couple of lackluster games. Quarterback Richard Lara (SO/Bakersfield, Calif.), making his second start, was 13 of 22 for 162 yards with two touchdowns and an interception.
"He did distribute the ball across the field which is what we expect our quarterback to do," Myers said. "I expect him to go out and have another good game as he gets more and more comfortable within the offense."
Mark Benjamin (SO/Houston, Texas) led the ground attack with 86 yards rushing on five carries – one a 73-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. Nick Allsman (SO/Belleville, Kan.) added 52 yards on nine carries and two TDs while Tyler Boston (JR/Dixon, Calif.) had 41 yards on 11 carries and Steven Harvey (SR/Oakland, Calif.) 32 yards on four tries.
"In order for us to be successful we have to run the ball and we ran it well last week (256 yards). But with every interior run play there's an RPO (run pass option) attached so the quarterbacks have to make quality decisions play after play for us to move the ball down the field. They need to make sure they're delivering the ball to where it needs to go along with our interior run game."
Despite the lopsided victory the Coyotes dropped out of this week's NAIA coaches' poll after being ranked 25th last week.
Myers is unfazed, though.
"I don't really look at the polls that often," he said. "They're based on human beings across the country that are rating teams. The focus is on us and what we do. We had the ability to have our destiny in our own hands early in the season but that got away from us, unfortunately. We couldn't finish a couple of games.
"So really the overall focus for me is what we do and what we can control. I can't control what other people think or how they vote so until I'm a voter I'll continually focus on us and make sure that we don't leave it up to other people."
KWU has won seven in a row against Ottawa including a 35-21 victory last season in Salina.
