Lakeland College

The Lakeland College football team wrapped up its third conference title in four seasons and senior wide receiver MacArthur White broke Lakeland's record for career receiving yards as the Muskies rolled over visiting Aurora, 34-3, in their season finale.

 

Lakeland and Concordia, Wis., both finish 6-1 in the IBFC to share the league title, as the Falcons slipped past Benedictine, 7-0, on Saturday. Concordia earn the league's automatic berth in the NCAA Division III playoffs thanks to their win over Lakeland two weeks ago in Mequon. The Muskies finish the season 6-4 overall.

 

White, who transferred to Lakeland from Northern Illinois University three seasons ago, caught five passes Saturday for 130 yards. He finishes a three-year career at Lakeland with 2,254 career receiving yards, which tops the Lakeland record of 2,239 yards set by 2002 Lakeland graduate Calvin Thomas. White also finished fifth all-time in career receptions with 146.

 

"When you think about how much Lakeland threw the ball in the late 1990s when Mark Novara was quarterback, that's an amazing accomplishment," said head coach Kevin Doherty. "And the fact that he did it in three seasons in unbelievable."

 

"I looked at some stats last night but I didn't know I was that close," said White, who caught three touchdown passes Saturday. "That's big because I only played three years here and I was able to break a four-year record."

 

The Muskies dominated Saturday, rolling up 437 total yards of offense while Lakeland's defense limited Aurora (4-5, 4-3) to 145 yards. Lakeland held Aurora sophomore running back Ryne Reder, the league's leading rusher at 121.4 yards per game, to 64 yards on 22 carries.

 

Lakeland picked off four Aurora passes as senior defensive backs Cleveland Pierce, Josh Schramm and Kempton Freeman and junior linebacker Brent Miller all had interceptions. Junior John Wagner had 10 tackles for Lakeland, while Miller and junior Stephan Johnson had nine each.

 

"We made some adjustments in the defensive secondary - we were using the same players but we moved them around a little bit," Doherty said. "That really put them in some nice situations. I was really excited about the way our defense played today. We focused all week on stopping Ryne Reder, and we did an outstanding job."

 

Offensively, the Muskies were as balanced as they had been all season. Senior quarterback Brad Wilk was 11 of 19 for 221 yards and four touchdowns, and the Muskies added 216 yards on the ground. Sophomore Antonio Humphrey had seven carries for 61 yards, senior Paul Resop had 60 yards on 21 carries and Lakeland's other TD and junior Brent Woodruff had 60 yards on nine carries.

 

"I was really pleased with our running game," Doherty said. "Paul Resop ran so hard today, and Woody (Brent Woodruff) ran hard and did a great job catching the ball. That really let us control the game. Brad did a great job making his reads today and we have really solid receivers."

 

Wilk finished the season with 22 passing touchdowns, the fifth best single season in Lakeland history. Wilk, a two-year starter, finished his Lakeland career fourth all-time in career TD passes (40) and fifth all-time in career passing yards (4,008) and career completions (296).

 

Lakeland scored twice in the first quarter as Wilk connected with White on a 57-yard TD pass, then Wilk hit junior Matt Pawlyk with a nine-yard TD pass after Schramm recovered a fumbled punt at the Aurora 9.

 

Wilk connected with White again in the third quarter on a 35-yard TD pass to stretch the lead to 21-7, and the Muskies added two more scores in the fourth quarter, a 5-yard TD pass from Wilk to White and a four-yard TD run for Resop.

 

The win sends Lakeland's 13 seniors out with a third IBFC title ring in four seasons, and gives Doherty and his coaching staff some conference hardware in their first season.

 

"Coming into this season we had a young coaching staff, and the conference picked us to finish third so we had a chip on our shoulder right away," White said. "For us to win the conference championship in this staff's first year is an awesome accomplishment."

 

"Our coaching staff has done a great job all season," Doherty said. "Our coaches kept this team focused and we were able to finish strong and win a conference title. Not bad for a young staff."

 

 

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