LEBANON, Ill. – The McKendree University football team concluded the home portion its 2021 schedule here Saturday afternoon by suffering a 44-13 setback to Senior Day to Truman State in front of nearly 1,800 fans at Leemon Field.
 
Prior to Saturday's game, the Bearcats honored their 20 seniors in a pregame ceremony. The 2021 Bearcat seniors honored were punter Andrew Anckle (Riverview, Fla./SIU-Carbondale), student assistant Sean Brewer (Springfield, Ill./Rochester), offensive lineman Larry Davis III (Country Clubs Hills, Ill./Rich Central), quarterback Brenden Dickmann (Edwardsville, Ill./Edwardsville), defensive back Kenneth Garrett, Jr. (Memphis, Tenn./Whitehaven), offensive lineman Austin Huls (St. Charles, Mo./Pattonville), defensive lineman Jamari Johnson (Chicago, Ill./Goode STEM Academy), tight end Jace Kennedy (Dwight, Ill./Dwight), linebacker Iben King (Chicago, Ill./Brother Rice), student assistant Liam Maher (Alton, Ill./Marquette Catholic), defensive back Devon Myles (Chicago, Ill./Westinghouse College Prep), quarterback Elijah Oltean (St. Joseph, Ill./St. Joseph-Ogden), defensive back Tony Pisoni (Arnold, Mo./Fox), linebacker Bennett Richter (Breese, Ill./Breese Central), offensive lineman Dea'Veon Harden-Smith (Zion, Ill./Zion Benton Township), center Jake Stevenson (Ludlow, Ill./Paxton-Buckley-Ludlow), receiver Steven Towns, Jr. (Normal, Ill./Normal Community), linebacker Michael Tucker (Chicago, Ill./North Lawndale Prep), receiver Jonathan Turner, Jr. (Chicago, Ill./Hubbard) and defensive lineman Isaiah Ward (Peoria, Ill./Peoria Notre Dame).
 
"I love these seniors. These seniors are the best and that's the hard thing is that the wins don't even look at what these seniors have done for this team and where they're at," McKendree head coach Mike Babcock said about his seniors following Saturday's game. "They deserve to have more wins than what they got, but unfortunately, that is what it is. I especially love my two senior captains, Devon Myles and Jake Stevenson. Devon is one of the best leaders I've ever had and is great in everything he does. Jake is solid. We were down a coach this week, he stepped in and filled the coaches role and was able to help us out."
 
The loss dropped the Bearcats record to 4-6 overall and 3-3 in the GLVC, while Truman State improved to 8-2 overall and 4-2 in the league with one week left in the regular season. McKendree is also now 17-8 in Senior Day contests since 1996.
 
Truman State jumped out to a 21-0 lead and outscored the Bearcats, 17-0, in the second half to post its third straight overall win and fourth consecutive victory in the series over the Bearcats.
 
"We knew it would be a physical battle. They are good at running the ball and that is what we saw here today," McKendree head football coach Mike Babcock said following the game. "Unfortunately, we just couldn't get anything going offensively."
 
McKendree, who concluded its 2021 home schedule with a 1-4 record, made things interesting in the second quarter after Truman used a 1-yard touchdown run by Cody Schrader to push in front 21-0 with 9:28 left in the quarter as they would get on the scoreboard on a 23-yard touchdown run by second-year freshman running back Narkel Leflore (Chatham, Ill./Chatham). Leflore's score completed a seven play, 69-yard drive by the Bearcats. The point-after by redshirt freshman kicker Kaleb Barry (Kirkwood, Mo./Kirkwood) was missed to make the score 21-6.
 
Following Leflore's score, the Bulldogs responded by driving 72 yards in nine plays and capping the drive with a 5-yard touchdown run by Schrader to push Truman's lead to 27-6. The point-after by Josh Scheiderer was blocked by sophomore defensive lineman Sidney Houston (Cahokia, Ill./East St. Louis).
 
McKendree, though, would respond on its following drive as they drove 66 yards in nine plays and capped the drive with a 32-yard touchdown pass from redshirt sophomore quarterback Turner Pullen (Shelbyville, Ill./Shelbyville) to freshman tight end Jordan Sprycha (Oak Lawn, Ill./Oak Lawn Community) with no time on the clock and Barry added the point-after to make the score 27-13 in Truman's favor at the half.
 
"It was kind of nice to score the touchdown right before the half to give us some juice, but we just could not get anything going in the second half and when you play a team like that runs the ball and likes to eat up the clock, we just didn't have a lot of time. We made some mistakes and couldn't overcome them."
 
The touchdown was the third in the last two games for Sprycha as he caught two touchdown passes in last Saturday's 45-42 win at Southwest Baptist. In addition, the touchdown pass by Pullen was his 20th of the season, which is fourth most in a season in school history.
 
Truman State would add a touchdown in the third quarter on a 35-yard run by Jaylen Jefferson and then added another touchdown early in the fourth quarter on an 8-yard touchdown pass from Nolan Hair to Schrader and then capped the scoring with a 25-yard field goal by Scheiderer with 3:51 left in the game.
 
In the second half, Truman outgained the Bearcats, 191 to 135 as McKendree passed for 124 yards and rushed for just 11 yards after halftime. Truman gained all but eight of those yards on the ground in the second half.
 
One of the bright spots in Saturday's game was the play of redshirt sophomore Jacob Bachman (Eureka, Ill./Eureka) as he was targeted 12 times and caught 11 passes for a game-high 62 yards. The 11 receptions helped Bachman set a new single season school mark for receptions as he has now caught 71 passes on the season and that betters the old mark of 64 set by Dewayne Gatti in 2013.
 
For the game, McKendree finished with 329 yards on offense as Pullen passed for 289 yards and the Bearcats rushed the ball 16 times for 40 yards.  The 40 yards rushing was the lowest total for the Bearcats since being held to 21 yard rushing on 21 carries in their last meeting against Truman State in 2019.
 
On the day, Pullen was 31-for-43 passing with one touchdown and one interception and carried the ball five times for minus-7 yards as he finished with 282 yards of total offense to push his season total to 2,543 yards, which is fifth on the school's single season chart. Additionally, his 289 passing yards pushed his season total to 2,253 yards and he is now one two quarterbacks since football was restarted in 1996 to record at least two seasons of passing for 2,000 or more yards. Pullen passed for 2,407 yards in 2019. Isaac Fisher passed for 2,000 yards in season twice in his record setting Bearcat career.
 
With his 282 yards of total offense against the Bulldogs, Pullen pushed his career total offense total to 5,578 yards, which is second on the school's all-time chart. Pullen passed Reece Metcalf, who gained 5,425 yards in his career as a Bearcat.
 
Leflore led the way in rushing for the Bearcats with 45 yards and added 71 yards on four kickoff returns as he recorded 114 all-purpose yards and pushed his season total to 1,034 all-purpose yards.
 
Tucker led the way defensively for the Bearcats with a game-high 11 tackles and had one tackle for loss, one pass break-up and one quarterback hurry, while Houston added 10 tackles, a half-tackle for loss, a blocked kick and a quarterback hurry. For the game, McKendree had five tackles for loss, but failed to record a quarterback sack for just the third time this season as they entered the game fifth in the league in sacks on the season.
 
Truman finished the game with 474 yards of offense as they passed for 165 yards and gained 309 yards rushing on 44 carries with Schrader gaining 217 of those yards on 30 carries and scored times on the ground and added a pass reception touchdown.
 
Hair was 11-for-17 passing for 165 yards and had two touchdown passes and added 23 yards rushing in the win. Matt Hall and Jacob Morris each caught three passes in the game for a combined 117 yards.
 
Hall had Hair's other touchdown reception as he tallied the first score of the game on a 7-yard pass from Hair just halfway through the first quarter.
 
Ben Thomas paced the Bulldogs defense with 10 tackles, including seven solo stops, while Ben Watson added nine stops and a tackle for loss.
 
The Bearcats will close out the 2021 season next Saturday, Nov. 13 as they travel to St. Charles, Mo., for a 1 p.m. game at Lindenwood University, who secured the 2021 GLVC regular season title with its 43-16 win Saturday at Missouri S&T. The Lions, who have won eight straight games, are sporting an 8-2 overall record and are 6-0 in the league this season.  
 
"Lindenwood is one of the top teams in the league. We're playing at their place on their Senior Day. I think all of our guys what to finish on a high note and beat a team that has the potential to go to the playoffs. There is still a lot riding on the season and I want to give our seniors that walked today the opportunity to finish out on top," the McKendree coach added.