The Benedictine University football team returns to conference play on Saturday with a matchup on the road against Concordia University Chicago. Benedictine is aiming to claim back-to-back victories for the second time this season in the final road contest of the year.

DETAILS
KICKOFF: 12:00 p.m.
LOCATION: River Forest, IL
FACILITY: Concordia Stadium
VIDEO
LIVE STATS
NACC STANDINGS
BENEDICTINE STATS
CUC STATS
CUC TAILGATE INFO

COUGAR CHATTER
Concordia University Chicago broke a three-game slide with a 37-17 win over Concordia Wisconsin last week. Quarterback Shane Virnala completed 27 passes for 330 yards with four touchdowns. Virnala ranks third in the conference in passing yards per game at 237.2. Tylor Martens ran for 146 yards on just 16 carries while Ryan Allison snared nine passes for 136 yards with a pair of touchdowns. Allison is second to Brandon Moore in receiving yards per game at 94.8 and leads the conference in all-purpose yards. Concordia Chicago averages 23.5 points per game, third in the conference. Concordia Chicago was picked to finish sixth in the preseason poll and currently sits 3-3 with a record of 1-2 in the NACC. The Cougars opened the season with three consecutive non-conference wins including the conference's only victory in the MIAA-NACC Challenge. The middle contest of those wins does not count as it came against a provisional opponent in Lewis-Clark Valley College.

LAST YEAR
Benedictine celebrated senior day with a 47-3 win at home on November 5. Benedictine scored the final 40 points of the game and never trailed. Mark Hammond scored the final points with a 37-yard interception return for a touchdown. Ryan Sample finished with 207 yards and three touchdowns, all to different targets. Benedictine accumulated 414 yards of total offense while limiting Concordia Chicago to 260. Eight players ran the ball at least once with 10 different individuals coming away with a catch.
FULL RECAP
BOXSCORE

REWIND
Benedictine scored the final 15 points to rally past visiting Olivet College in the final non-conference game of the season last week at home. The 15 points came in succession in the final 3:13 of the contest. Brandon Moore returned a punt 72 yards for the first score and then caught a nine-yard touchdown to account for the final points with 1:03 left. Moore was one of two players to rack up over 100 yards receiving, finishing with 115 yards and two touchdowns. Matt Fleming finished with 107 yards and a score. Ryan Sample threw for 317 yards and three touchdowns. Benedictine led 21-16 at the half before falling behind by nine points on two occasions at 30-21 and 37-28. Neither team turned the ball over in a back-and-forth affair that featured nearly 900 yards of combined total offense. Tyreese Fontanez and Victor Johnson each led the defense with 13 tackles.

RECAP
BOXSCORE

UP NEXT
Benedictine finishes the season with a pair of games at home. The first of those contests comes at 1:00 p.m. next week against Wisconsin Lutheran. Wisconsin Lutheran plays a non-conference game this week at home against Albion. The Warriors were picked to finish fourth in the preseason poll, directly behind Benedictine, and are currently 2-5 with both wins coming in conference play. Benedictine bested Wisconsin Lutheran 23-19 last year.

SAMPLE SIZE
Ryan Sample now owns nearly every record for a quarterback at Benedictine. The senior, who has thrown for over 400 yards three times this season, became the career leader in attempts and yards in the win over Rockford to open the conference schedule on September 30. Sample threw for a season high five touchdowns with 413 yards in the win over Concordia Wisconsin on homecoming, finishing with just seven incompletions. Sample completed a season high 31 passes for 407 yards in the loss to Alma on September 16. Sample sported three 400+ performances last year and owns six in his career. The Manteno, IL product owns career records for touchdowns, yards, attempts and completions. Sample sits second in the conference in passing yards per game at 313.7, 11th nationally. The three-year starter set single season records for touchdowns (29), yards (3,299), completions (234) and attempts (402) last year. Sample threw his 50th career touchdown pass in the season opening loss to Wheaton and owns 68 in his career. Sample has thrown 19 touchdowns this season, second in the conference, against just five interceptions. Last year, Sample set the single game record for completions (38) and attempts (61) in a game at Wisconsin Lutheran while throwing for 475 yards at Olivet, a single game mark. Sample owns 2,196 passing yards this season, second in the conference and 12th in the country.

MOORE THAN BRANDON
Brandon Moore has rebounded in a big way in 2017 after seeing action in just four games last year due to injury. Moore leads the conference in receiving yards with 760, an average of 108.6, also the most in the conference. The Wheaton, IL native has reeled in 44 passes, most on the team and fourth in the NACC. Dean Pauley is right behind Moore with 43 grabs for 467 yards, tied for fifth in the conference. Moore also owns nine touchdowns, most in the conference and 19th in the nation. The junior has reeled in at least three passes in each of the seven games this year and owns four games with over 100 yards receiving. Moore caught just six passes last year. Moore was selected as the NACC Offensive Player of the Week following an eight-catch performance at St. Norbert that produced 181 yards and two scores. Moore returned a punt for a touchdown against Olivet, one of just two players in the conference to own a punt return touchdown this year.

CENTURY CLUB
Benedictine averages over 100 yards per game on the ground but has yet to see an individual accumulate 100 yards in a game. The team has carried the ball at least 25 times in all seven games with the most of 41 on homecoming against Concordia Wisconsin. The most yards in a game came at Rockford with 217 on 39 attempts. Joshua Williams and Grant Jochums have each racked up over 200 yards on the season, but 13 different individuals have handled the ball at least once on the ground. Jochums ran for 83 yards on 17 carries against Concordia Wisconsin, the most by an individual in a game this season. By contrast, Benedictine has seen seven receiving performances of over 100 yards including four from Brandon Moore, the leading receiver in the conference.

30 FOR 30
The Benedictine defense has been balanced all season. There are 10 different players who own 30 or more tackles. Austin Nirva leads the team with 47 tackles. Nirva, who joined the team after transferring from St. Joseph's College in Indiana which folded last year, tallied 12 tackles last week in the win over Olivet. Danny Drummond sits second with 44 tackles. Drummond owns a conference weekly award and was named to the D3football.com Team of the Week following his performance in the second game of the year at St. Norbert. Drummond leads the team with five sacks. Brad Nolan ranks third on the squad with 43 tackles while Evontrae Pierce owns 41. Nine different individuals own games with double-digit tackles this year. Tyreese Fontanez owns 30 tackles on the season, 25 of which have come in the past two games.

SCHEDULE STRENGTH
The non-conference schedule features four games in 2017 against three different conferences. The combined non-conference record of the Benedictine non-conference schedule so far is 19-10. All of the non-conference opponents have a record better than .500. Wheaton is ranked nationally while St. Norbert plays a big game in the Midwest Conference race this week.

PRESEASON POLL
Benedictine was slotted third in the preseason NACC poll released on August 22. Benedictine, who finished 6-4 last season, gathered three first place votes and 76 total points. Lakeland, who has won or shared three straight conference titles, received eight first pace votes and 85 points to earn the role of favorite. Aurora notched two first place votes and finished with 80 points.