Bearcats, Lions to have cat fight
Senior running back Alley Broussard breaks a PSU tackle on his 67-yard touchdown run last week.
The Missouri Southern students that arrived early to the game received free “Beat Pitt State” T-shirts to project a cleaner message to the opposing team. Inset
Last week was quite the character test for the Missouri Southern Lions only losing by three points to Pittsburg State. This week Southern should be able to go on the road for its next victory as the team faces the Southwest Baptist Bearcats.
This year the Bearcats are winless in three attempts losing two games in the last minutes of the fourth quarter.
In no way should Southern overlook this Bearcat team.
The SBU offense is highly skilled in the passing game, as they already have accumulated over 897 yards through the air giving them an average of 229 yards per game.
This week the Lion secondary will need to continue its strong season and hopefully shut down the duo of freshman quarterback Steve Gachette and senior wide receiver Nick Smart. Last week those two hooked up 14 times for a total of 125 yards. The defense for Southern will be a huge key to the team’s success this week as they showed their toughness physically and mentally last week, holding PSU to only 10 points in the first half as well as holding the passing game to only 71 yards. If the Lions can shut down the Bearcat passing game, they should easily walk away with their third win of the season.
Not only is the defense important to a Southern victory, but also the offense. Last week, while the running game was pumping out yards and points, the passing game sputtered. While the passing game struggled to get a rhythm, Alley Broussard and the Southern offensive line kept the running game very much alive. Broussard rushed for 173 yards and all four of Southern’s touchdowns, earning co-player of the week honors in the MIAA. It seems as if all the pieces are starting to fall into place for Southern to make its presence known in the MIAA. The offense this year has the running game they so desperately needed last year and the passing game continues to produce, minus last week’s game. This game will be good for getting the Lion’s momentum back after the close loss to rival PSU.
After Southwest Baptist, the Lion’s will face MIAA-leading Emporia State, which should be a relatively close contest.
Although this week will be a good test for the Lions secondary, they should leave Bolivar with a victory. The game is away this week and starts at 6 p.m.
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