LEBANON, Ill. – McKendree University Football is slated to open its seven-game slate of Great Lakes Valley Conference contests here Saturday afternoon as the Bearcats host William Jewell College for a 1 p.m. kickoff at Leemon Field. The Bearcat Sports Network will provide live video of the game beginning with Colin Suhre's pregame show beginning at 12:50 p.m. at www.glvcsn.com/mckendree.
 
The Bearcats wrapped up non-conference play last Saturday with a 24-10 win at Walsh University in Canton, Ohio. The win, which snapped a four-game losing skid for the Bearcats dating to last season, was keyed by an offense that recorded a season-high 24 first downs, scored a season-high 24 points, held the Cavaliers to 242 yards of offense and 34 yards rushing on 24 carries. In addition, McKendree's defense also recorded five sacks, seven tackles for loss and forced two turnovers.
 
In the win over Walsh, senior running back Jace Franklin IV (Springfield, Ill./Minnesota State) gained 94 yards rushing on 22 carries to move to 10th on the school's all-time rushing chart with 1,702 yards. In addition to Franklin, redshirt sophomore receiver/return specialist Jacob Bachman (Eureka, Ill./Eureka), who was named this week's GLVC Special Teams Player of the Week, gained 181 all-purpose yards as he caught six passes for 72 yards, carried the ball two times for 19 yards and scored the final score of the game on a 3-yard run with 4:07 left in the game and added 99 yards on three kickoff returns. His 181 all-purpose yards are the most this season by a Bearcat and the most in a game in Bachman's collegiate career.
 
Redshirt sophomore quarterback Turner Pullen (Shelbyville, Ill./Shelbyville), who made his return to the line-up after missing the Lake Erie game after suffering an injury on a hit out of bounds at Delta State, was 15-for-28 passing for 135 yards and had one touchdown pass and gained 36 yards rushing on 10 carries and scored on a 7-yard run early in the third quarter to give McKendree a 17-7 lead. With his 171 yards of offense, Pullen pushed his career total offense total to 3,443 yards and has now been responsible for 41 touchdowns in his career, which is fourth-most in school history.
 
On defense, redshirt sophomore linebacker KeShon Spraggins (St. Louis, Mo./Lutheran South) paced the Bearcats defense with seven tackles, including six solo stops, a tackle for loss and a forced fumble, while senior linebacker Michael Tucker (Chicago, Ill./North Lawndale Prep) and sophomore defensive lineman Sidney Houston (Cahokia, Ill./East St. Louis) each had 1.5 sacks and combined for 2.5 tackles for loss and Houston had a quarterback hurry.   
 
Coming into Saturday's GLVC opener, Franklin is third in the league in rushing as he is averaging 89 yards per game and as he has gained 287 yards on 49 carries and is averaging 5.4 yards per carry, while redshirt freshman running back Brady Feldmann (Highland, Ill./Highland) is sixth in the rushing as he is averaging 52 yards per game and 5.0 yards per carry as he has gained 208 yards on 42 carries. Bachman is fourth in the league in receptions per game as he is averaging 5.3 per game and is averaging 97.5 all-purpose yards per game and 26.4 yards per kickoff return and sophomore kicker Ryan Kastl (Washington, Ill./Washington) is second in the league in field goals as he is averaging 1.33 per game as he is 5-for-7 and is a perfect 8-for-8 on extra points and is fifth in league in kick scoring as he is averaging 5.8 points per game.
 
On defense, the Bearcats are third in total defense as they are allowing 343.3 yards per game and is third in rushing defense as they are allowing 138.3 yards per game and are fourth in the league in sacks with 11. Houston is tied for first in the league with 3.5 sacks, while Tucker has recorded three sacks and is fourth in the league in tackles as he is averaging 8.8 tackles per game and is first in the league in tackles for loss (1.5 tackles for loss per game).
 
Bearcats sixth year senior center Jake Stevenson (Ludlow, Ill./Paxton-Buckley-Loda) will make his 40th consecutive start under center on Saturday and that is believed to be one of the longest consecutive starting streaks in school history. Stevenson has started every game for the Bearcats since the beginning of the 2017 season.
 
Saturday's game will kick off the 10th season of competition in the GLVC for McKendree. The league's first season of football competition came in 2012, which also marked the Bearcats' first full year as league members. Since the 2012 season, the Bearcats have gone 35-28 in league play and have won at least five games in GLVC play four times with the most recent time coming in 2017.
 
Since the Bearcats returned to the gridiron in 1996, McKendree is 16-6 all-time in conference openers, including a 6-3 mark in GLVC openers. The Bearcats have won five of their last six league openers with four of those five wins coming against Saturday's opponent, William Jewell.
 
Meanwhile, William Jewell comes into their GLVC opener Saturday with McKendree in search of their first victory since opening the 2019 season with a 29-9 home win over Southwest Baptist. Since that win, the Cardinals have dropped 17 consecutive games, including losing all four games this season. The Cardinals come into to this week's game fresh off a 41-21 loss at Saturday at Kentucky Wesleyan. During its current 17 game winless streak, WJC has been outscored by 23.4 points per game, including being held to 12 points against McKendree in the team's most recent meeting in 2019 in Liberty, Mo.
 
Following Saturday's home game with William Jewell, McKendree will hit the road for two consecutive Saturdays as they travel to Indianapolis for a 5 p.m. CT game on Oct. 9 at the University of Indianapolis and then playing the following Saturday (Oct. 16) at Quincy, before returning home on Oct. 23 to host Missouri S&T for Homecoming at Leemon Field.
 
ABOUT WILLIAM JEWELL
The Cardinals bring an 0-4 overall record into Saturday's game with McKendree and come into the game in search of its first GLVC victory since 2018 as along with losing 17 consecutive games dating to 2019, the Cardinals have lost 14 straight league games since picking up a 14-10 win at home against Southwest Baptist on Oct. 6, 2018. The Cardinals' latest loss in this losing streak was a 41-21 loss in Owensboro, Ky., against Kentucky Wesleyan.
 
Against KWC, Jewell gained 286 yards of offense as they recorded just one yard rushing on 22 carries and passed for 285 yards and averaged 4.5 yards per play in the loss. Redshirt junior quarterback Bart Harris, who made his first career start, was 16-for-42 passing for 285 yards and had two touchdowns and three interceptions. The biggest target for Harris in the passing game was senior receiver Ishmial Mitchell, who caught six passes for 119 yards and a 73-yard touchdown pass from Harris. On defense, freshman linebacker Adam Callahan led the way with seven tackles as the Cardinals recorded 14 tackles for loss, had two sacks and two interceptions. In addition, WJC also blocked two kicks and are third in Division II in blocked punts with two on the year.
 
On the season, William Jewell is averaging 17.5 points per game and are averaging 339.3 yards per game on offense and are allowing 483.5 yards per game.  The Cardinals have picked off two passes and has forced two fumbles and has tallied four sacks and 27 tackles for loss.
 
Leading the way for Jewell's offense redshirt senior quarterback Anthony Pritzel as he is 45-for-92 passing for 548 yard and he has thrown three interceptions and four touchdowns and has completed 49 percent of his passes Freshman running back Tabren Yates leads the Cardinals ground attack as he has gained 150 yards on 40 carries and has scored one touchdown. Senior Jalik Jaggwe leads the receiving corps as he has caught 20 passes for 237 yards and has had two scores and junior Jesse Thomas has caught 14 passes for 152 yards and had caught two touchdown passes.
 
Defensively, three Bearcats have recorded 20 or more tackles on the year with sophomore linebacker Kian Betancourt leading the way with 27 tackles, including 14 solo stops and has had 4.5 tackles for loss, while junior linebacker Carson Anderson has had 25 tackles, including 15 solo stops and has tallied 2.5 tackles for loss, one interception and one forced fumble and sophomore Taveris Albury has had 22 tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss.
 
McKendree has won all eight meetings in football with William Jewell, including picking up a 42-12 win in the most recent meeting in 2019 on Jewell's home field. In that 2019 game, the Bearcats gained 433 yards of total offense as they passed for 290 yards and gained 143 yards rushing on 36 carries. Pullen was 19-for-26 passing for 280 yards and had three touchdowns, including a 68-yard touchdown pass to Matt Cole, while Franklin gained 65 yards rushing on 16 carries and scored a touchdown and Cole caught six passes for 123 yards and had two touchdowns and returned three punts for 95 yards, including 74 yard punt return for the Bearcats' final score of the game.