The Lowdown: No. 23 Friends University at No. 21 Southwestern College

Location: Winfield, Kan.    

Kickoff: Oct. 19, 1:00 pm

Live Stream: https://kcacnetwork.com/

Live Stats: https://naiastats.prestosports.com/sports/fball/2024-25/boxscores/20241019_q1y2.xml

Flying with the Falcons: The No. 23-ranked Friends University Falcons are coming off the bye week in good shape with a perfect 6-0 record heading into the critical KCAC Kessinger Division play. Friends put away Sterling 59-14 on Homecoming Saturday (Oct. 5) for their sixth consecutive win to open the season.

Elias Pino leads a powerful rushing unit and is second in the KCAC with 100.2 rushing yards per game. K'Vonte Baker is second on the team and sixth in the league with 79.8 yards per game on the ground while ranking tied for first with nine rushing touchdowns on the season.

Defensively, Leshaon Davis (4.0) is third in the KCAC in sacks per game, with Barrett Roads (3.5) and Marco Torres (3.0) ranking right behind. Torres also has a team-leading 7.5 tackles for loss for the Falcons, while Nolan Ewing (22), Andrew Arnold (19) and Marquis Willoughby (19) are the leading tacklers overall this season.

The winner of the past three KCAC Special Teams Player of the Week awards, Cole Thompson has hit 6-of-7 field goals and 31-of-33 extra-point attempts this season for the Falcons.

Scouting the Builders: The No. 21-ranked Southwestern College Moundbuilders are also 6-0 on the season, led by the efficient downfield passing of quarterback Braden Howell. Howell is pacing the KCAC in passing yards per game (249.3) and is tied for first in the NAIA with 21 passing touchdowns.

Martez Jones leads the Builders' ground attack with 99 rushing yards per game and JB Burnett averages 89.8 yards per game on the ground with a team-leading five touchdowns to give Southwestern a potent 1-2 rushing punch.

Matthew Holthusen is Southwestern's leading receiver at 87 yards per game and seven touchdowns, with Josh Edson contributing six scores through the air.

Jacardon Hardemon leads the KCAC with 5.5 sacks on the season and Joey Mars has recorded a team-high 30 tackles for Southwestern.

The Series: The Falcons defeated the Builders 35-20 at home last season to snap a five-game losing streak in the series. Friends had won 13 of 14 games over Southwestern prior to the five-game losing skid. The Falcons are also 5-3 against the Builders in Winfield, Kan. since 2004.

SCHEELS: We are proud to have Scheels as a sponsor of Friends University Athletics this season!  Click HERE for more info on the Scheels store in Wichita.

Kessinger Division Opening Day: The Falcons matchup at Southwestern marks the beginning of Kessinger Division action for the 2024 season. In the inaugural year of divisional play last season, the Falcons went 4-1 and finished one game behind Evangel University.

Irresistible Force meets the Immovable Object(s): The Friends University Falcons and Southwestern College Moundbuilders are both undefeated this season and have gone about it with their own unique style of football. The Falcons are the NAIA's top rushing offense (446.0), while the Builders have forged the nation's 10^th ranked rushing offense (218.8) and 11^th ranked passing offense (296.3).

Sack Masters: The Falcons are ranked third in the NAIA with 22 sacks, led by Leshaon Davis (4.0 sacks), Barrett Roads (3.5 sacks) and Marco Torres (3.0 sacks). Overall, 12 Falcons have at least one sack through six games.  

Easy as 1-2-3: For the third straight week, Cole Thompson is the KCAC's top Special Teams player. Thompson won his most recent award after making all nine of his kicks, going 8-of-8 on extra-point tries along with a 40-yard field-goal in the Falcons' 59-14 Homecoming victory over Sterling College (Oct. 5). Thompson also blasted five of his 10 kickoffs into the end zone for touchbacks while pinning his only punt attempt inside the 20-yard line. The Round Rock, Texas native hast hit 6-of-7 of his field-goal attempts on the season and 31-of-33 on extra-point attempts

Rush Hour: The Friends University Falcons have led the NAIA in rushing in both years of head coach Terry Harrison's tenure and appear poised to do it for a third straight season. The Falcons are first in the nation with 446 rushing yards per game this season, over 100 yards ahead of second-place Taylor (343.8).  Elias Pino (501 yards), K'Vonte Baker (479 yards), Nick Cordova (361 yards), Treylan Gross (281 yards), Jett Cheatham (223 yards), Kerrion Hadnot (187 yards), Jud Cheatham (170 yards) and Laken Clowdus (131 yards) have given the Falcons a deep and well-rounded rushing unit this season. This rushing success particularly correlates to Harrison, as he's now coached the last five NAIA team leaders in rushing (his last three years at Bethel and both seasons at Friends).

Hometown Hero: A Wichita Heights HS product, K'Vonte Baker was named KCAC Player of the Year last season after leading the NAIA in rushing scores (25) and ranking third in rushing yards per game (115.3). His 1268 total rushing yards were the most by a Falcon since 2016 (Jesse Rogers). This season, Baker is averaging 79.8 yards on the ground, bolstered by a career-high 214 rushing yards in a 56-10 victory at Avila University (Sept. 14).

Falcons by the Numbers:

Overall: 6-0

KCAC Kessinger Division: 0-0

Home: 3-0

Away: 3-0

The Falcons record when …

Scoring 0-6 points: 0-0

Scoring 7-13 points: 0-0

Scoring 14-20 points: 0-0

Scoring 21-27 points: 1-0

Scoring 28 points+: 5-0

Allowing 0-6 points: 2-0

Allowing 7-13 points: 2-0

Allowing 14-20 points: 1-0

Allowing 21-27 points: 1-0

Allowing 28 points+: 0-0

Scoring first: 4-0

Opponent scores first: 2-0

Leading at halftime: 6-0

Trailing at halftime: 0-0

Tied at halftime: 0-0

Committing fewer turnovers: 3-0

Committing more turnovers: 2-0

Turnovers are even: 1-0

Leading in total offense: 6-0

Trailing in total offense: 0-0

Winning time of possession: 4-0

Losing time of possession: 2-0

The Coaches:

Terry Harrison is in his third season as the Friends University head football coach.

Harrison appeared to be the perfect choice to lead the Falcon program and has done nothing to change that perception now into his third season at the helm.

In his two seasons thus far, Harrison has overseen the NAIA's top rushing offense in total yards and yards per game.

Last season, Harrison guided the Falcons to their first winning record since 2014 (9-2) and coached 20 All-KCAC players, including KCAC Player of the Year K'Vonte Baker along with NAIA All-American and Rimington Award winner Keegan Martin.

Harrison arrived on campus after transforming fellow KCAC member Bethel College into a conference and national power.

After taking over a Bethel program in 2018 that was 1-9 and at the bottom of the league the previous season, Harrison's impact was felt immediately as he installed the flexbone offense and guided the team to finish third in the NAIA in rushing offense (274.4) per game.

The following season, Harrison would begin to affect the wins column by leading the Threshers to a second-place showing in the KCAC with an 8-3 overall record. Bethel continued to climb the leaderboard nationally, finishing tops in the NAIA in total rushing offense (4,084) and rushing offense per game (371.3) while ranking third in passing efficiency (180.3).

The best was yet to come as the next season, Harrison and the Threshers captured a Co-KCAC regular season championship and an NAIA national playoff berth to wind up No. 13 in the final NAIA FirstDown PlayBook Top 25 poll. The conference championship was the Threshers' first since 2007 and the national playoff appearance represented the first since the 2006 campaign and only the third in school history.

Brad Griffin is in his 10th season as head coach of the Southwestern College Moundbuilders and has guided the program to elite status both in the conference and nationally.  In 2022, Griffin led the Builders to a second consecutive co-KCAC regular season championship, the school's first two conference titles.  The Builders qualified for the NAIA Football Championship series in both the 2021 and 2022 seasons after not advancing to the postseason since the 1999 season.

Before arriving at Southwestern, Griffin served 11 seasons as Defensive Coordinator at William Penn University and also worked with the linebackers.

Griffin earned the Midwest League Tri-Assistant Coach of the Year in 2011 after his defense led the league in scoring defense and ranked second in yards allowed.    

Up Next: The Falcons will have another key Kessinger Division contest when No. 20-ranked and currently undefeated Evangel University comes to Wichita for a 1 pm kickoff next Saturday (Oct. 26) at Adair-Austin Stadium.