LEBANON, Ill. – McKendree University concluded the home portion of its 2022 schedule here Saturday afternoon as the Bearcats suffered a 49-31 loss to Southwest Baptist in Great Lakes Valley Conference play on both Homecoming and Senior Day 2022 at Leemon Field.
 
With the setback, McKendree falls to 5-4 overall and 2-3 in the GLVC, while SBU improved to 4-5 overall and 2-2 in the league. McKendree finishes the 2022 season with a 1-4 record at home.
 
Prior to Saturday's game, the Bearcats recognized their 25 seniors in a pregame ceremony. The 25 seniors honored on Saturday were defensive back Arnell Anderson (Chicago, Ill./Davenport), receiver Jacob Bachman (Eureka, Ill./Eureka), tight end Jacob Catron (Hoopeston, Ill./Hoopeston), offensive lineman Chase Colvis (Chester, Ill./Chester), linebacker Kavari Cunningham (Chicago, Ill./St. Rita), linebacker Luca Gualdoni (Johnston City, Ill./Johnston City), long snapper Wyatt Hall (Maynardsville, Ill./Union County), linebacker Travis Jones (Paxton, Ill./Paxton-Buckley-Loda), linebacker Iben King (Chicago, Ill./Brother Rice), defensive lineman Kevin Memminger (Philadephia, Pa./Golden West College), running back Jayden Mitchell (St. Louis, Mo./Parkway Central), tight end Antonio Munoz (Elmhurst, Ill./York), defensive back Darrwin Perkins (Crete, Ill./Marian Catholic), offensive lineman Nolan Puent (Washington, Ill./Washington), quarterback Turner Pullen (Shelbyville, Ill./Shelbyville), defensive lineman Shaun Reid (Centralia, Ill./Centralia), offensive lineman Jake Rich (Paxton, Ill./Paxton-Buckley-Loda), defensive back Kenneth Scarbrough II (East St. Louis, Ill./East St. Louis), receiver Tyler Siever (Carlyle, Ill./Carlyle), defensive lineman Trevon Stokes (Elk Grove Village, Ill./Elk Grove), linebacker Connor Thomason (Mahomet, Ill./Mahomet-Seymour), offensive lineman Kenny Thomason (Mahomet, Ill./Mahomet-Seymour), student assistant Taveous Bell (Rantoul, Ill./Rantoul), student assistant Isaac Boyd (Ste. Genevieve, Mo./Ste. Genevieve) and student assistant Dylan Powell (Galesburg, Ill./Galesburg).
 
"A lot of seniors, a lot of great guys. There are a lot of individuals in there that have really bled Purple and White the past four years and it's been an honor to coach them," McKendree head coach Mike Babcock said about this year's seniors. "I really like this group, obviously we wanted the win on Senior Day for those guys, but again, just a good group of young men and I love going to battle with them."
 
After both teams scored a touchdown in the opening quarter, SBU would score 42 of the 59 points to push out to a 49-24 lead heading into the fourth quarter. In the fourth quarter, McKendree only had possessed the ball twice in the fourth quarter with one of those drives stalling after a 15-yard penalty on a player from the bench and could only muster one score against SBU's defense.
 
"In life you have to be able to handle the positive, but also adversity and right now we have to be able to handle adversity," added Babock, who fell to 25-19 in home games at Leemon as McKendree's coach. "The guys hurt right. They were really excited about this game and obviously we didn't produce. Hopefully, we can bounce back with our next games on the road against quality opponents."  
 
Despite the loss, Pullen etched his name on the school's single season passing yard chart as the top passer in Division II football this season was 29-for-40 for 287 yards and had one touchdown and one interception. With the 287 passing yards, Pullen pushed his season passing yard total to 3,063 yards and that passed Isaac Fisher's old single season mark of 2,792 yards set in 2015. Pullen is now the first quarterback in school history to throw for 3,000 yards in a season.
 
In addition, Pullen pushed his career passing yardage mark to 8,275 and is now just 233 yards shy of Fisher's career record of 8,508 yards as Pullen has now passed for 8,275 yards and holds the school's career record for passing touchdowns (75), interceptions (27) and is second in pass attempts (1,070) and pass completions (677) and total offense (9,137 yards).
 
With his touchdown pass, which came 12-yard reception to sophomore tight end Jordan Sprycha (Oak Lawn, Ill./Oak Lawn Community), Pullen extended his streak of passing touchdowns to 23 consecutive games dating to the 2019 season. Pullen's school record streak of 300 yard passing games was halted in Saturday's game.
 
The Bearcats won the coin toss for the seventh time this season and elected to possess the ball first and is all they did was drive 60 yards in nine plays and capped the drive with a 6-yard touchdown run by Mitchell to give the Bearcats a 7-0 leas just five minutes into the contest. The big play on the drive was a 22-yard run by Pullen on a third-and-10 play. Pullen had 45 yards rushing in the game to finish with 332 yards of total offense.
 
SBU, who snapped a four game losing skid to McKendree with the win, came right and marched 78 yards in eight plays and tied the game on a 20-yard touchdown pass from Cooper Callis to Curtis Cuillard.
 
On the ensuing possession, McKendree had driven to the SBU 5-yard line following a 60-yard pass completion from Pullen to sophomore running back Narkel Leflore (Chatham, Ill./Glenwood), but on the next play following the big pass play to Leflore, Leflore would fumble the ball and the ball would be recovered by SBU's Jeran Seabolt.
 
In the first quarter, the two teams combined to run 32 plays for 252 yards as McKendree gained 151 yards on 18 plays, while SBU gained 101 yards on 14 plays.
 
The Bearcats would take a 10-7 lead just a little over a minute into the second quarter as junior kicker Ryan Kastl (Washington, Ill./Washington) connected on a 46-yard field goal to cap an eight-play, 23-yard drive.
 
McKendree's lead would be shortlived as SBU would strike with a big play thanks to a 75-yard touchdown run by Abel Carter to take a 14-10 lead with 13:27 left in the second quarter.
 
SBU's lead grew to 21-10 following a 2-yard touchdown run by Kamerin Ferguson with 8:29 left in the quarter.
 
The Bearcats of McKendree, though, would come right back and answered SBU's score as they drove 74 yards in 11 plays and capped the drive with a 21-yard touchdown run by Mitchell to pull McK within 21-17 with 2:20 left in quarter.
 
SBU would once again answer right back as Jordan Kent caught a 17-yard touchdown pass from Callis to give the visitors a 28-17 lead with 32 seconds left in the period.
 
McKendree took the over the ball with three timeouts and 26 seconds and had a chance to put points on the board right before halftime as they drove 50 yards in three plays, but a 43-yard field goal by Kastl was wide left to give SBU its 28-7 lead at the half. The big play on the drive was a 35-yard pass completion from Pullen to sophomore receiver Yogi Flager, Jr. (Belleville, Ill./Butler University).
 
The Bearcats of SBU would extend its lead to 35-17 as they took the opening possession of the third quarter and drove 75 yards in six plays and capped the drive with a 27-yard touchdown run by Carter.
 
McKendree, though, would answer right back as they used a four-play 68-yard drive that was capped by a Sprycha's 12-yard pass reception from Pullen to pull McKendree within 35-24 just a little over four minutes into the third quarter.
 
SBU would be stopped on its next possession, but a fumble on a punt return by Flager, Jr., gave SBU the ball of McK's 39-yard line and they needed only three plays to take a 42-24 lead following a 41-yard touchdown pass from Callis to Rodrick Weaver with 7:59 left in the period.
 
McKendree would put together a solid drive on the ensuing possession as they got into the red zone as they drove eight plays in 52 yards, but Pullen's pass into the end zone was intercepted by Seabolt to stop a scoring drive by the Bearcats. The big play on the drive was a 21-yard pass reception from Pullen to sophomore receiver Diontay Griffin (Bloomington, Ill./Bloomington).
 
That interception led to an 87-yard touchdown run by Carter to give SBU a 49-24 lead late in the third quarter. The 87 yard run by Carter was the longest offensive play allowed by McKendree this season.
 
McKendree would once again respond to an SBU score as they controlled the ball for almost six minutes as they drove 93 yards in 13 plays and capped the drive with a 2-run touchdown run by Mitchell to bring McKendree within 49-31.
 
On the ensuing possession by SBU, they drove to the McK 18-yard line, but Logan Turner missed a 35-yard field goal wide right. The drive was set up by a 56-yard kickoff return by Kylan Herrera.
 
McKendree would move the ball into SBU territory on its next possession, including getting to the 31-yard line following an 18-yard pass play on a third-and-4 play from Pullen to Bachman, but following the play, a player on McK's bench was flagged for an unsportsmanlike penalty and that pushed the ball back near midfield. The drive would stall as a fourth-and-6 pass from Pullen to Siever fell one yard shy of a first down.
 
For the game, McKendree finished with 540 yards of offense as they rushed for a season-high 253 yards as Mitchell led the way with 140 yards on 15 carries and averaged 9.3 yards per carry and scored three touchdowns. It marks the second straight week that McKendree had a running back score three times as Leflore scored three rushing score in last Saturday's 42-35 win at Missouri S&T.
 
"I thought our offense did good, especially considering we lost Narkel early on in the first half and then Yogi took a hard hit on that punt return late in the third quarter and was limited in reps the rest of the game," Babcock added. "We didn't score enough points today."
 
Bachman led the receivers with 10 catches for 68 yards, while Leflore caught four passes for 75 yards before leaving the game with a concussion.
Flagler, Jr., who entered the game leading the GLVC in receiving yards and receiving touchdowns, was held to just two catches for 46 yards before being injured following that punt return play where he fumbled the ball.
 
Meanwhile, SBU gained 603 yards as they rushed the ball 33 times for 337 yards, including Carter gaining 243 yards and scoring three times.
 
Cooper, who was the GLVC Offensive Player of the Year in 2021, was 16-for-23 passing for 266 yards and three touchdown passes and no interceptions. Cuillard caught four passes for 63 yards, while Weaver caught three passes for 72 yards.
 
For the first time in GLVC play, McKendree's defense failed to force a turnover as they entered the game third in league in turnover margin at +6, but that margin fell to +3 following McKendree's season high three turnovers.
 
Both teams were strong on third down in the game as McKendree was 7-for-11 and SBU was 9-for-12 and McKendree held a nearly seven minute edge in time of possession (33:29-26:31).
 
The teams were each also strong on kickoff returns as McK returned seven kicks for 128 yards, including 56 return yards by sophomore receiver Timothy Middleton II (Mascoutah, Ill./Mascoutah), while SBU returned five kickoffs for 127 yards with all of those coming from Herrera.
 
McKendree will look to get back on track as they close out their GLVC schedule for a 12 p.m. contest next Saturday, Nov. 5 in Kirksville, Mo., against Truman State, who is 7-1 overall and 4-0 in the league following its 59-32 win Saturday at Quincy. The Bulldogs have won seven straight games since opening the season with a 20-19 home loss to Davenport (Mich.).