The Lowdown: No. 22 Friends University at Bethany College

Location: Lindsborg, Kan.     

Kickoff: Nov. 16, 1:00 pm

Live Stream: https://kcacnetwork.com/

Live Stats: https://naiastats.prestosports.com/sports/fball/2024-25/boxscores/20241116_2yqs.xml

What's at State: With a victory at Bethany College, the Falcons would clinch the KCAC Kessinger Division championship and their first NAIA Football Championship Series appearance since 2008.

Flying with the Falcons: The now No. 22-ranked Friends University Falcons came away with another big road victory, this time 36-35 at (RV) McPherson College last Saturday (Nov. 9). The win assures the Falcons control their own destiny to win the KCAC Kessinger Division championship with a win at Bethany.

The game at McPherson didn't come down to the last play like the victory at now No. 21-ranked Southwestern, but it did come down to the final drive for McPherson.

Leading 36-35 in an offensive shootout, it was the Falcon defense that made the final stand by forcing a turnover on downs with 1:57 remaining.

With the Bulldogs out of timeouts, the Falcons were able to go into victory formation to close out the big road victory.

K'Vonte Baker led the Falcons (9-1, 3-1 KCAC Kessinger Division) with 118 rushing yards and threw for 42 yards, with Kaden Rigsby (91 yards) and Nick Cordova (64 yards) also having strong days on the ground.

Marquis Willoughby, Nolan Ewing and Leshaon Davis each had eight tackles to lead the Falcon defensive unit.

Elias Pino (82.0) and Baker (81.8) lead a potent Falcon ground attack, with Baker rushing for a team-leading 11 touchdowns.

Defensively, Barrett Roads leads the Falcons with 5.5 sacks, with Leshaon Davis (four) and Marco Torres (three) ranking right behind. Nolan Ewing (51), Marquis Willoughby (37), Brock Zerger (35), Cooper Skrobecki (34) and Torres (27) are the leading tacklers overall this season for Friends.

The winner of three KCAC Special Teams Player of the Week awards this season, Cole Thompson has hit 8-of-10 field goals and 45-of-48 extra-point attempts for the Falcons.

Scouting the Swedes: The Bethany College Swedes are 3-7 overall and 0-4 in the KCAC Kessinger Division. The Swedes went an even 3-3 in non-divisional games before dropping all four games thus far in the Kessinger.

Landry Shields has thrown for a team-high 795 passing yards with nine touchdowns and seven interceptions but hasn't played since week 5 at Saint Mary. Trapper Enzor is next with 419 passing yards and has thrown one touchdown and five interceptions. Zamarion Spencer leads the Swedes with 492 rushing yards and four touchdowns, while Michael Young has four receiving scores and a team-leading 405 yards through the air.

Julian Carpenter leads the Bethany defense with 88 tackles on the season and Terry McCutcheon has a team-high three sacks.

The Series: The Falcons have dominated the Swedes recently, winning seven straight meetings and 15 of 19 matchups since 2004. Friends is also 5-4 in Lindsborg, Kan. during that time frame.  Friends blasted Bethany 68-6 last year in Wichita to close out the 2023 season.  

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.

So Offensive: The Falcons have accumulated more total offense than the opposition in eight of 10 games so far this season, with a perfect 8-0 record in those outings.

Good Beginnings: The Falcons have entered the locker room with a halftime lead in nine of 10 games so far this season, with the lone exception being last Saturday's win at McPherson that Friends trailed 28-23 at the break.

Rush Hour: The 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 405.6 rushing yards per game this season, nearly 100 yards ahead of second-place Taylor (314.4).  K'Vonte Baker (818 yards), Elias Pino (738 yards), Nick Cordova (622 yards), Treylan Gross (453 yards), Kaden Rigsby (346 yards), Jett Cheatham (287 yards, Jud Cheatham (203 yards), Laken Clowdus (131 yards) and Michael Lopez (116 yards) have given the Falcons an unbelievably deep and well-rounded rushing unit this season. This rushing success particularly correlates with 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 has accumulated a team-leading 818 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: 9-1

KCAC Kessinger Division: 3-1

Home: 4-1

Away: 5-0

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: 1-1

Scoring 28 points+: 8-0

Allowing 0-6 points: 3-0

Allowing 7-13 points: 2-0

Allowing 14-20 points: 1-0

Allowing 21-27 points: 1-1

Allowing 28 points+: 2-0

Scoring first: 7-1

Opponent scores first: 2-0

Leading at halftime: 8-1

Trailing at halftime: 1-0

Tied at halftime: 0-0

Committing fewer turnovers: 4-0

Committing more turnovers: 4-1

Turnovers are even: 1-0

Leading in total offense: 8-0

Trailing in total offense: 1-1

Winning time of possession: 6-1

Losing time of possession: 3-0

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 in 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.

Mike Grossner is in his second season as head coach of the Bethany College football program.

Prior to arriving at Bethany, Grossner was the head coach for the Leicester Falcons, an American football team located in Leicester, England. He helped Leicester to a No. 7-ranking; the program's highest ever ranking before guiding the team to a conference championship the following season.

Grossner is best known for his 15-year tenure at Baker University, where he directed the team to seven NAIA playoff berths, six HAAC titles and 12 consecutive winning seasons. He was a two-time AFCA Region Coach of the Year and won the HAAC's top coaching honor on three occasions.

His playing career was highlighted by setting the all-time career passing yardage and touchdown record for the Nottingham Hoods.

Up Next: Should the Falcons win at Bethany, they will clinch the KCAC Kessinger Division title and learn their opponent in the first round of the NAIA Football Championship Series during the NAIA Selection Show Sunday evening (Nov. 17) at 6 pm.