[Football] Friends Football Gameday Preview: Falcons Return Home to Host Saint Mary Tomorrow
The Lowdown: University of Saint Mary at Friends University
Location: Adair-Austin Stadium
Kickoff: 1 pm
Broadcast: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/friends/
Flying with the Falcons: For the first time since Oct. 6 and only the second time since Sept. 15, the Friends University Falcons will return to friendly confines of Adair-Austin Stadium.
The Falcons will hope to emulate their last home appearance, which resulted in their only win of the 2018 season, a 48-34 victory over Bethany College on Homecoming in front of a national ESPN3 audience.
Starting quarterback Brennan Whitaker (SR/Iowa Park, Texas) is throwing for 274 yards per game through the air for the Falcons, with 11 touchdowns, 12 interceptions and passing efficiency of 123.4. In the win over Bethany, Whitaker tossed a career-high five touchdowns along with a career-best 386 passing yards that earned him KCAC Offensive Player of the Week honors.
Noah Diaz (SO/Sun Prairie, Wis.) leads the Falcons with 386 yards on the ground and three touchdowns, while Quincy Brown (JR/Redding, Calif. ) has also rushed for three scores.
Cade Nagy (FR/Broken Arrow, Okla. ) has team-highs in receptions (26), receiving yards (351) and touchdowns (four).
Nick Navarro (FR/Wichita, Kan. ) leads the Falcons in overall scoring, hitting five field goals and 10-16 extra points in his first season with the program.
Defensively, Drake Damon (SO/Goddard, Kan. ) leads Friends with three interceptions and Desean McKinnon (SR/Mansfield, Texas) has a team-best 65 tackles. Javon Polk (SR/Senatobia, Miss.) has a team-high nine tackles for loss, with Adam Brown (FR/Wichita, Kan. ) and Jeremiah Pharms (JR/Stockton, Calif. ) each registering a pair of sacks.
Scouting the Spires: The University of Saint Mary Spires have a 2-5 mark both overall and in the KCAC, but are coming off a 30-19 win over Bethany College last Saturday (Oct. 20).
Quarterback Drew Cortez has thrown for 1380 yards this season, with 12 touchdowns and 14 interceptions.
Demontrel Wilson leads the Spires with seven rushing scores and 469 yards, with Bryan Barnhart pulling in team-highs of 21 catches and 296 receiving yards with three touchdowns. Tae Turner and Michael Brown have also caught three touchdown passes for Saint Mary.
The Series: The Falcons have won 10 of the last 14 meetings vs. Saint Mary, dating back to the 2004 season. The Falcons are 5-1 against the Spires at home during that stretch.
Heroes' Day: All military, veterans, first responders and their families will receive free admission into the football game and also the volleyball matches on Saturday.
Also joining us – U.S. Army National Guard, U.S. Air Force National Guard, U.S. Air Force, Wichita Police Department, Wichita Fire Department, Wichita JR ROTC and Midwest Battle Buddies.
For the Football game, the National Anthem will be performed by the McConnell Airmen and the Presentation of the Flag by the McConnell Honor Guard.
Falcons by the Numbers:
When scoring:
0-6 points: 0-2
7-13 points: 0-1
14-20 points: 0-0
21-27 points: 0-3
28 points+: 1-1
When allowing:
0-6 points: 0-0
7-13 points: 0-0
14-20 points: 0-0
21-27 points: 0-0
28 points+: 1-7
When leading at halftime: 1-0
When trailing at halftime: 0-7
When winning the turnover battle: 0-0
When losing the turnover battle: 1-7
Quoting Head Coach Dion Meneley: "Saint Mary is going to be a good test for us after the bye week. We have been improving each week and hope to put all three phases of the game together as we look to get our second win. This is a resilient group and I'm excited to see them play."
The Coaches:
Dion Meneley in his second season at the helm of the Friends University Football program. He was named the 17th head coach on March 23, 2017 after a brief stint as the Falcon's defensive coordinator when he was originally hired by the university in February of that year.
In his first season, Meneley oversaw a Falcons' defensive unit that featured the KCAC Defensive Player of the Year, Tim Hamilton, in his debut season.
Overall, the Falcons led the KCAC in sacks (26.5), yards allowed per game (300.9), rushing yards allowed per game (112.5) and opponent first downs (181) last season. The Falcons were also a close second in the league in points allowed per game (22.8 ppg).
Meneley helped establish a prowess in the classroom, as 11 Falcons earned KCAC Scholar Athlete honors, eight were on the National Football Foundation Hampshire Honor Society list and five received NAIA Scholar Athlete recognition. The Falcons' Hampshire Honor Society honorees ranked second among NAIA schools, behind only Peru State's nine recipients.
Prior to coming to Friends, Meneley was in his fifth season at Hutchinson Community College as the assistant head coach, defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. In his first four seasons at Hutchinson, Meneley's defenses produced six NJCAA All-Americans and 31 all-Jayhawk Conference performers. In 2012, the Blue Dragons led the Jayhawk conference in pass defense scoring, they were second in total defense and second in rush defense.
In 2014, Meneley's defense was one of the best in the Jayhawk Conference. The 2014 Blue Dragons captured the program's first conference title and had its highest final national ranking of No. 4 after a record 11-1 season.
A native of Topeka, Meneley came to Hutchinson with experience at the NAIA and NCAA Division ll levels. Before Hutchinson, Meneley was an assistant coach at Fort Hays State University where he was the defensive coordinator for the Tigers in 2011. He also coached the defensive line. Before that, he spent four seasons as the defensive coordinator at Southwestern College in Winfield.
Meneley was a two-time All-MIAA selection at outside linebacker and one-time All-MIAA selection at defensive end for Pittsburg State. During his playing career, he was a part of three MIAA championships and the 1995 team that finished as the NCAA Division ll runner-up. He was a team captain for the Gorillas in 1999.
Meneley received his bachelor's degree in general studies from Pittsburg State University and his master's degree in leadership from Southwestern College.
Meneley received his bachelor's degree in general studies from Pittsburg State University and his master's degree in leadership from Southwestern College.
Jay Osborne is in his fifth season as head coach of the University of Saint Mary Spires and ninth year overall with the program. Osborne's best season came in 2016, when he guided the Spires to a school record 8-3 mark and was named the KCAC Coach of the Year. Under Osborne, the Spires received the 2017 NAIA Buffalo Funds Champions of Character team honor and also a pair of KCAC Champions of Character awards in 2014 & 2015.
Up Next: The Falcons will wrap up home portion of the 2018 season against Bethel College next Saturday (Nov. 3) at 1 pm.