GAME INFORMATION
Saturday, Oct. 21 • 1 pm CT
St. Vincent's Athletic Complex
Davenport, Iowa

Series History
Overall: St. Ambrose leads 17-12
First: St. Ambrose 21, at St. Francis 3 (11/21/87)
Last: at St. Francis 33, St. Ambrose 10 (10/22/22)
Streak: St. Francis has a two-game winning streak.
 
The Two Coaches
USF: Joe Curry
Alma Mater: USF 2001
Career: 62-59 (12th year)
at USF: 62-59 (12th year)

SAU: Vince Fillipp
Alma Mater: St. Ambrose University 2009
Career: 2-14 (2nd year)
At JU: 2-14 (2nd year)


TOP STORYLINES
• Saturday's game will be the 30th meeting between the two schools, which is the second-oldest rivalry for St. Francis.  The first-ever meeting came in the second year of the USF program, a first-round NAIA playoff matchup.

• St. Francis quarterback Carl Bew has both rushed and passed for better than 100 yards in each of his first two collegiate games, topped by his 170 rushing and 155 passing yards last week.

• One player St. Ambrose will not have to worry about on Saturday is the injured Sam Tumilty, who has scored nine touchdowns and rushed for 408 yards against the Fighting Bees over the last two seasons.  

• Kemon Reese has blocked a punt in each of his last two games.
 
• St. Ambrose is looking to snap a string of 11 straight losses dating back to last year.


GAME NOTES

THE HEAD COACH: Joe Curry is in his 12th season as the Saints' head coach, which makes him the longest serving coach in school history.  He has surpassed program founder Gordie Gillespie, who served as the head coach for eight seasons, and his own coach, Mike Slovick.  Slovick served the program from 1994 through 2004.  Curry is also the winningest coach in the program with 62 victories and second in winning percentage (.512).  Gillespie maintains the top spot in winning percentage at .593.

ABOUT ST. AMBROSE: The Fighting Bees return to action on Saturday after a quirk of the schedule left them without an opponent each of the past two weeks.  SAU is hopeful that the two-week layoff has its unit back healthy and having regrouped after an 0-6 start to the season.  The problem, thus far, has come on the defensive end, where St. Ambrose has yielded an average of 436.3 yards per game, including 200-plus yards on the ground, and 33.8 points per contest.  Offensively, the Bees have scored at a 17.8-point clip with a 2:1 ratio between its passing (199.5) and rushing (100.2) numbers.  Against both Wisconsin-Stout and Roosevelt, SAU managed just over 200 yards of total offense.  Senior Tom Casey is back directing the offense full-time after splitting the duties the first two weeks of the season and missing the middle two games.  He has completed 57.4 percent of his passes (54-of-94) for 644 yards with five touchdowns opposite four interceptions.  Senior wide receiver Yemi Ward is Casey's main target, having produced nine of the team's 11 touchdown catches.  He has also registered a third of the receptions with his 33 going for 548 yards, or a 91.3-yard average per game.  Mikey Hellwig is next in line with 19 catches for 211 yards.  On the ground, the Bees rely on Kaden King and Jeffery Elms.  Both are averaging 4.5 yards per carry with King rushing 77 times for 347 yards (57.8 per game avg.) and Elms checking in with 49 rushes for 215 yards (35.8 avg.).  Along the front line, St. Ambrose is young with three of its five starters being underclassmen.  Defensively, linebackers George Litgen III and Micheal Robinson are the top two tacklers, averaging just over seven stops per contest.  Rolondo Sepulveda, the other linebacker, has a team-high 4.5 tackles for loss.  As a unit, SAU has produced just three sacks all season.  On the special teams front, Tyler Locke handles the punting duties (38.3 avg.) with Joe Namio on kicking detail.  The latter has made 11 of his 12 PAT kicks and 2-of-5 field goals with a long of 41 yards.  Ten different Bees have returned a kickoff this season with Jeremiah Crawford topping the list with his seven returns for 160 yards.  On the punt return side, SAU has registered just three returns for a total of eight yards.  St. Ambrose converts at a 36 percent rate on third downs, but is 50 percent on fourth-down plays (10-of-20).  The Bees are looking to snap an 11-game losing streak dating back to last year.  Their last win came on Oct. 8, a 58-22 decision over Judson.               

THEY HAVE BEEN TOGETHER A LONG TIME: Saturday's contest between St. Francis and St. Ambrose will be the 30th all-time meeting with the first matchup coinciding with USF's first playoff appearance back in 1987, the second year of the program.  The series is the second-longest in USF history, ranking only behind USF vs. Olivet Nazarene, next week's opponent.

2-FOR-2: Playing in place of the injured Sam Tumilty, Carl Bew registered his second collegiate victory in as many starts as a true freshman last Saturday in the win over Judson University.  His other victory came in Week 3 when he and the Saints edged out Lawrence Tech 14-12.

A TOP PERFORMANCE: Bew's 24 carries and 170 rushing yards were both season-high efforts for a St. Francis ballcarrier and led to him earning his first collegiate honor, being named the Mid-States Football Association Midwest League Offensive Player of the Week.  Bew, who completed 10 of his 12 pass attempts for 155 yards in the game, directed six scoring drives of at least seven plays and 52 yards.  The two longest drives went for 99 yards (nine plays) and 86 yards (13 plays).    

A DOUBLE-DOUBLE: Bew has both rushed and passed for 100-plus yards in each of his first two games.  He threw for 102 yards and ran for another 115 yards in the Lawrence Tech game.

WHERE IS HE?: Through his first two games, Bew is averaging 142.5 yards per game rushing, which would put him third on the NAIA leader board in that category.  To qualify, however, a player has to have appeared in 75 percent of their team's games.    

THEY WON'T MISS HIM: St. Ambrose will be one team happy not to see Sam Tumilty in uniform on Saturday after the junior quarterback rushed for 408 yards and nine touchdowns in their last two meetings.  Tumilty tied single-game school records for most rushing touchdowns, most total touchdowns and most points scored with his five touchdowns and 30 points two years ago when he rushed for 211 yards.  Last year, he had 197 yards on the ground with four touchdowns.  

A FRESH LOOK: All eight of USF's touchdowns came from either true or redshirt freshmen last week, topped by Joey Tumilty's three scores.  Bew and Gavin Day each had their first multi-TD game with two each, while Karsen Hansen got in on the act from a defensive standpoint with his recovery of a blocked punt in the end zone.

HOW TO SCORE 14 POINTS ON ONE OFFENSIVE PLAY: The Saints made it happen on Saturday when they scored their first touchdown on the Hansen recovery on Judson's first possession and their second after the Eagles fumbled the ball on their second punt attempt.  That gave USF possession at the JU 16-yard line and Joey Tumilty took it in from there, putting the Saints up 14-0 after just the first 3:22.  The two quick scores led to a 21-point first quarter for USF and a 35-14 lead at the break.  For the season, St. Francis has outscored its opponents 136-48 in the opening 30 minutes.

TWO TUMILTYS DOWN, BUT ONE STILL TO STOP: Any thought of the Tumilty family touchdown streak coming to an end with both Sam and Scott Tumilty out with injuries was quickly extinguished with Joey Tumilty's score just three minutes into the contest.  That extended the scoring streak to 26 games in a row.

TAKING OVER THE TOP SPOT: With his three touchdowns and 18 points, Joey Tumilty also took over the team lead in scoring from his brother Sam with his nine touchdowns and 54 total points.  He currently sits 17th in the nation with his 84.7 yards per game receiving average.

ALSO GAINING THE SPOTLIGHT: For the first time this season and the second time in his career, Brian Maday was named the MSFA Special Teams Player of the Week.  The junior placekicker was a perfect 8-for-8 on PATs last week, dropped his lone punt attempt inside the 20-yard line and recovered his own onside kick.

ONE OF 19 PERFECTIONISTS: With his unblemished 30-for-30 mark on PATs this season, Maday is one of 19 placekickers in the NAIA to have not missed a kick this year with ten or more attempts.  Taking his mark back to last year, he has made 33 straight PATs.

THE 400 CLUB: USF's 422 yards of offense against Judson was the second straight week that the Saints hit the 400-yard plateau and the third time this season.  They had 426 yards against Roosevelt and a season-high 507 versus Waldorf.

SCORE, SCORE, SCORE, SCORE: The Saints scored in all four quarters last week for the second time this season.

T(WO)D: Hansen's touchdown marked the second score by a defensive player this season.  Logan Johnson recorded the first one on a fumble recovery in the Taylor game.

DO IT AGAIN, DO IT AGAIN: Kemon Reese will enter Saturday's contest with a two-game blocked punt streak.  His two against Judson and Roosevelt led to ten St. Francis points.

HE'S BACK:  Michael R. Johnson will be back in the starting lineup on Saturday after missing the last two games.  The graduate student lineman is tied for the team lead in sacks with three and has 20 total stops on the year.  

TAKING ADVANTAGE OF NAUGHTY BOYS: With five more first downs via penalty last week, the Saints are now up to 19 on the year in that category, which moved them up from No. 19 last week to No. 4 this week.

RANKING THE SAINTS: St. Francis can be found in the Top 15 of all NAIA teams in no less than seven categories, topped by its red zone touchdown percentage (.767), which places it ninth.  The Saints are also tenth in rushing touchdowns (18) and punt returns (20), 11th in passing yards per attempt (8.8), 12th in passing yards per completion (14.6), 14th in total rushes (277) and 15th in red zone scores (25).

AIR JORDAN: One reason for USF's high rankings in both yards per completion and attempts has a little something to do with Dezzion Jordan.  With his second-longest reception of the year of 48 yards last week, the junior wide receiver now has eight catches covering at least 20 yards and 11 of his 15 going for no less than 10 yards.  Jordan's 15 receptions have resulted in 354 yards this year, or an average of 23.6 yards per reception.

ON THE DOWN LOW: USF's 15 fumbles are the seventh-most in the nation.  

IDENTICAL TWINS: Both USF and St. Ambrose have converted 50 percent of their fourth-down plays.  The Saints are 8-of-16, while the Bees are 10-of-20.

FOR THE RECORD: The Saints are 170-227 all time, 141-168 in day games and 81-126 on the road.