Football heads on the road Saturday at No. 21 Friends

By KWU Athletics Release September 19, 2024

The Coyotes head south Saturday for a Kansas Conference game against Friends. Kickoff is 6 p.m. at Adair-Austin Stadium in Wichita. The Falcons are 21st in the latest NAIA GoRout Coaches’ Poll.

LIVE COVERAGE

RECORDS

  • Kansas Wesleyan 1-2
  • Friends 3-0

THE SERIES

  • KWU has won the last nine games and has a 16-7 lead since 2001. The Coyotes upset the Falcons 35-28 last season at JRI Stadium and the Graves Family Sports Complex. Friends entered the game 3-0 and KWU 1-2. Wesleyan scored 344 points in the five games played between 2018 and 2022.
  • KWU leads the all-time series between the teams 43-37-1. The teams first met in 1914, and have played annually since 1952, except in 1969 and 1970, the last time the KCAC was divided into two divisions, and teams only played intra-divisional opponents in the regular season.

KANSAS WESLEYAN AT A GLANCE

  • The Coyotes lost to Southwestern 44-14 last Saturday at JRI Stadium. KWU trailed 17-7 at halftime and the Moundbuilders took control with three touchdowns in span of 1:46 early in the fourth quarter. The Coyotes were hampered by three turnovers, 10 penalties and two special teams mistakes.
  • Southwestern finished with 436 total yards and KWU 228. Luke Armstrong led the Wesleyan offense with 67 yards rushing on 10 carries and a touchdown – a six-yard run in the second quarter.
  • Linebacker Myles Elam, a freshman from McKinney, Texas, had an outstanding game finishing with 19 tackles, 13 of them solo. Junior safety Colby Klieman had another strong outing with 11 tackles, five of them solo.
  • Nick Allsman ran for 124 yards and a touchdown and Tyler Boston had 96 yards and a touchdown in KWU’s victory over Friends last season. The Coyotes had 245 yards rushing on 43 attempts – 5.7 yards per carry.
  • The game was tied 7-7 at halftime before KWU scored 21 points in the third quarter and led 28-14 entering the final 15 minutes. Quarterback Richard Lara’s six-yard touchdown run with 4:52 left made it 35-21. Friends scored with 2:25 remaining but KWU hung on.

FRIENDS AT A GLANCE

  • The Falcons routed Avila 56-10 last Saturday in Kansas City, Missouri. They defeated Saint Mary and Ottawa in their first two games and are averaging just under 49 points.
  • Their flexbone offense tops the NAIA in rushing with 503.7 yards per game. Elias Pino leads the way with 367 yards, averages 20.4 per carry and has five touchdowns. Quarterback K’Vonte Baker has 307 yards, averages 10.6 and has four TDs. Three other backs have at least 120 yards.
  • Friends averages just 67.7 yards passing. Baker is 4 of 10 for 119 yards and no touchdowns; D.J. Dingle is 4 for 8 for 84 yards and no scores.
  • The defense has been stingy. Opponents are averaging 7.7 points (seventh in the NAIA) and 181.7 total yards – 21.7 rushing (fourth in the NAIA).
  • Coach Terry Harrison is in his third season after spending the previous four seasons at Bethel. He coached Wichita Heights High School for five seasons before going to Bethel.

KWU COACH MATT MYERS
“(Elam) played a really good game (Saturday). He tackled well, he’s one of our better tacklers. He’s a red-shirt freshman so he’s getting big playing time and he made the most of it. Colby had a big day on the back end with a pass breakup and had a bunch of tackles coming down and playing in the box.

“(Friends) is going to be super tough; their offense is very tough. They’re going to run the ball the majority of the time so we have to be assignment sound for as many snaps as they get off. We feel confident with our guys and the scheme we’ll have going into it. It’s just executing it, making sure that we have the right guys in at the right times and making sure we’re staying fresh.

“(Baker) is one of the best players in the conference, he’s a good player. We’ll have to make sure that we have a plan for him and make sure that we keep him under wraps as much as possible.”

KWU LINEBACKER MYLES ELAM
“Obviously would have been better if we came out with the win (Saturday) but it was definitely hunting season. I knew what I had to do, I had to turn it up a notch from the past two games, so just being better.

“(Baker) is definitely a factor but I feel like we all do our jobs we’ll get them up and out of there. It’s all because they play together so if we play together, we’ll be fine. It’s all on us, we’ve got to be the ones attacking, we can’t let them attack us. That’s how we’re going to treat it this week and the weeks ahead.”

“We are athletes out there, even on the D-line. I feel like we move fast, we’ve just got to put it in the right way and mesh it together.”

NEXT WEEK
The Coyotes return home for a KCAC game against Bethel. Kickoff is 6 p.m. at JRI Stadium and the Graves Family Sports Complex.