PELLA—A pair of teams coming off season-opening victories match up as the Central College football team makes another home appearance Saturday.
           
The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire struck late for a 30-27 non-conference win over American Rivers foe Loras College at home Saturday. Taking over on their own 40-yard line with 1:11 remaining, the Blugolds won it with a 24-yard TD pass from sophomore quarterback Harry Roubidoux to senior wide receiver Nicholas Kudick at the 26-second mark.
           
Central posted its 18th consecutive regular-season win, subduing St. Olaf College (Minn,) 44-13 at home. The Dutch moved up a notch to No. 13 in this week's D3football.com top 25 poll.
           
Game time Saturday is 1 p.m. at Ron and Joyce Schipper Stadium.
           
On the air and online—The Voice of the Dutch, Trevor Castle, is starting his 22nd season of calling the action on KRLS-FM (92.1), with NFCA Hall of Fame softball coach George Wares providing the color. The KRLS pregame show will air at 12:35 p.m. The broadcast can be accessed through www.kniakrls.com or directly at rdo.to/krls. It's also accessible via mobile device with the KRLS app available through iTunes and other outlets.
Castle also hosts "Coaches' Corner" with coach Jeff McMartin each Monday at 6 p.m. on KRLS and is available on demand online.
           
The series—This is only the teams' second meeting. In 1998, the Blugolds were 28-21 winners in a first-round NCAA Division III playoff game at Pella.
           
The Blugolds—Coach Wesley Beschorner is in just his third season at Wis.-Eau Claire, posting a 7-14 record. The Blugolds were 5-5 a year ago and return 12 starters from that squad. They're picked to finish seventh in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, but the powerful league has four teams ranked in D3football.com's top 25 and a fifth school receiving votes.
           
Senior offensive lineman Sean Mitchell was a second-team all-conference pick last year while senior tight end Joe Swanson received honorable mention.
           
Roubidoux completed 13 of 22 passes for 160 yards and two touchdowns Saturday and the Blugolds were 17-of-27 for 190 yards overall. Roubidoux also ran four times for 31 yards and a score.
           
"Their quarterback is very poised, he can make plays," McMartin said. "Their running backs do a great job of finding space and their tight ends are very good. Their receivers fit their offense well and come up with big catches."

Safety Ryan Kuechle had 10 tackles Saturday against Loras and linebacker Noah Nephew had seven.

"They're big up front," McMartin said. "They've got a big defensive line. Their
linebackers are really active and the secondary is sound in its techniques and what they do in their coverages. There are no weaknesses in their secondary."
           
Wis.-Eau Claire lists 11 sophomores in its starting lineup.

Looking for the week-two leap—As is often the case with season
openers, Saturday's was a mixed bag for the Dutch, although McMartin came away encouraged.
           
St. Olaf controlled the ball for nearly 40 of the game's 60 minutes. That was less of a concern for McMartin than the Oles' nine third-down conversions. Facing a physical team like Wis.-Eau Claire--with four offensive linemen weighing 300 pounds or more--could take a toll if the defense stays on the field for extended drives.
           
"We're definitely going to have to improve this week and make some changes to what we do to be better against the running game and better on third down," McMartin said. "The credit to our defense is that we only gave up 13 points. But it could have been a lot worse. We gave up some big plays and we gave up a lot of yards. Those are things that have got to change."
           
There are no changes in Central's two-deep lineup this week and McMartin said he believes in the team the Dutch put on the field.
           
"I that we're playing the right guys, it's just a matter of cleaning up some things and modifying a few things that we do," he said. "The goal is to get better between week one and week two. I feel like we traditionally have done a good job of that."
           
New faces—Making the biggest statement on defense among those seeing more extended action than last year was sophomore linebacker Reid Pakkebier (Cedar Rapids, Kennedy HS), who had a game-high 17 tackles, including 3.0 for loss with a sack and an interception. Free safety Brody Klein (junior, Rainier, Wash.) and new starting linebacker Nathan Rahn (senior, Chadwick, Ill., Milledgeville HS) each had 10 tackles. Two other new starters, linebacker Tate Hagen (junior, Britt, West Hancock HS) and cornerback Stevie Maddox, Jr. (senior, Mesa, Ariz., Tempe HS) each had nine stops.
           
"Tate's playing a lot bigger role," McMartin said. "He really worked this off-season. He brings a lot of leadership and energy to our defense.
           
"Stevie rotated in and out last year and now this year we really utilize him a lot more. He was able to defend people well and we're going to need him to have a great season."
           
McMartin was also happy with some contributions off the bench from senior inside linebacker David Bakol (senior, Houston, Texas, Alief Elsik HS). He had a team-high three quarterback hurries to go with four tackles.
           
"David played really well in pass situations and certain run situations," McMartin said. "He brings a level of explosiveness to our defense."
           
McMartin applauded defensive lineman Derrick Voss (senior, Cedar Rapids, Xavier HS), who was on the field for the majority of St. Olaf's 96 offensive snaps. He finished with four tackles.
           
"Derrick had an unsung hero kind of game," McMartin said. "You hate to have an offense run 90 plays on you and he played at least 70. And (defensive lineman) Tom Adolph (5th-year, Coralville, Iowa City West HS) played a lot, too. Those are things that we're going to have to address as a staff as far as what we want to do going forward."
          
They were special teams again—Central typically gains an edge in special
teams and that was the case again last week. All-conference kicker Logan Sunvold (junior, Monroe, Southeast Polk HS) converted all three of his field goal tries, including a 43-yarder, was perfect on five extra-point attempts and had touchbacks on six of his nine kickoffs, averaging 60.9 yards.            Punter Austin Burns (junior, Williamsburg) averaged 40.5 yards on six punts, leaving one inside the opponent's 20-yard line.
           
"Logan had a great day," McMartin said. "He looked good. I thought our protections held up and I thought we punted really well. Austin punted into the wind a number of times and they were really good punts."
           
Record-setting debut for Ketchum—McMartin liked what he saw in Brady Ketchum's (sophomore, Mount Vernon) first start at quarterback. He completed 24 of 38 passes for 360 yards with no interceptions and four touchdowns.
           
That's the most passing yards in school history for a quarterback in his first start and ranks ninth on Central's list of most passing yards in a game. Every other top-10 mark was established by 2021 Gagliardi Trophy winner Blaine Hawkins.
           
Central threw for 399 yards overall but mustered just 96 yards on the ground, 68 of which came late in the game from freshman quarterback Keegan Glover (Benton, Ill.).
           
"Our running game wasn't as effective Saturday as we'd like it to be," McMartin said. "We got in long-yardage situations early in the drives and that caused us to have to throw the football. That gave us our best chance to win but certainly, we feel like we have capable people in the running game. A good offense is an offense that can be balanced, not necessarily in the number of plays, but being able to do both well. We don't want to be one-dimensional."
           
Honors watch—Pakkebier was named the American Rivers Male Athlete of the Week while receiver Ryan Neu (junior, West Des Moines, Valley HS) was tabbed as the league's offensive player of the week. Neu, in his second career start, had seven catches for a career-high 215 yards and two touchdowns, including a 70-yarder that put Central on top in the first quarter.
           
Neu and Pakkebier were each named to the D3football.com Team of the Week as well.
           
Notes—Central continues to receive encouraging signs from its newcomers. The junior varsity squad opened its season with a 34-0 win over William Penn at Pella Monday evening…Central's last Schipper Stadium loss was Oct. 12, 2019 against the University of Dubuque. Since 1985, the Dutch are 154-26 (.855) at home…With four TD passes Saturday, Ketchum now needs 59 more to tie the all-divisions NCAA record set last year by Hawkins.