maly, too: Valparaiso Can't Rain On Drake's Parade: Schmudlach Catches 7 Passes for 143 Yards, Scores One Touchdown In 35-21 Victory That Improves Pioneer League Record To 4-0

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Valparaiso Can't Rain On Drake's Parade: Schmudlach Catches 7 Passes for 143 Yards, Scores One Touchdown In 35-21 Victory That Improves Pioneer League Record To 4-0

Drake's football team overcame rainy conditions and a determined Valparaiso squad Saturday to defeat the Crusaders, 35-21, in a Pioneer Football League game at Valparaiso's Brown Field.

Jacob Schmudlach (Carthage, Ill.) had a career day for the Bulldogs, leading the receiving corps with 143 yards on seven catches and a touchdown on the ground. Despite the soggy conditions, quarterback Mike Piatkowski (Wheaton, Ill.) remained accurate, completing 22 of his 36 passes for 327 yards and a touchdown. Trey Morse (Elmo, Texas) led Drake in rushing with 67 yards on 12 carries and a touchdown.

Defensively, Drake (5-2, 4-0 PFL) held strong when needed, limiting the Crusaders’ (0-6, 0-3 PFL) scoring opportunities. Travis Merritt (Johnston, Iowa) paced the defense with 10 tackles while John Hugunin (Oswego, Ill.) added nine stops

Drake set the tone for the game on the opening kickoff as senior Mike Ratelle (Edina, Minn.) returned the kickoff 88 yards to give the Bulldogs the early 7-0 advantage. Ratelle’s touchdown return was the first for the Blue and White since the 2007 season. He also added eight tackles and a sack.

“It was great to start the game off like that,” head coach Chris Creighton said. “This is a tough place to play and the whole kickoff return team and Mike Ratelle made a great run. That was an awesome start to the game.”

Although Valpo was within striking distance after recovering a botched snap in the middle of the first quarter, Drake forced a turnover just three plays later with an interception by Jake Underwood (Cary, Ill.) at the Drake 3-yard line. Underwood returned the ball 14 yards and set up the Bulldogs with good field position after drawing a personal foul penalty for a late hit. Piatkowski found Schmudlach on the drive, for 31 and 16 yards, before connecting with T.J. James (Des Moines) for his first touchdown pass of the day on a screen pass from 10 yards out.

The downpour hindered Drake’s offense early as the pace was slowed by officials replacing wet balls on every down. However, the weather conditions did impact the game again until Drake’s second turnover of the day, a dropped punt return that set up the Crusaders at the Drake 28-yard line.

“We wanted to play with tempo and that was the No. 1 part of our game plan, to play with tempo and we couldn’t,” Creighton said. “The weather is not an excuse, but of course it impacts the game. Everyone plays in the same conditions so you’ve got to win no matter what and I thought we responded pretty well to the weather.”

After dropping a pass in the end zone on second down, Valparaiso’s Eric Slenk redeemed himself on fourth down, hauling in a floater to give sophomore quarterback Ben Lehman his first career touchdown pass with 2:17 remaining in the first quarter.

The Drake offense picked up pace in the closing minutes of the first half with Piatkowski leading the Bulldogs on an eight-play, 80-yard drive that concluded with a one-yard touchdown run by Schmudlach to give the Bulldogs a 21-7 halftime lead.

“I thought Mike [Piatkowski] called a great game,” Creighton said. “He just manages the game and does such a great job with that.”

Senior Trey Morse (Elmo, Texas) was instrumental on the drive, rushing for 16-yards on four carries, and one reception for nine yards, to set up the Schmudlach touchdown.

The Crusaders fought back on the opening drive in the second half, however, capitalizing on a penalty that nullified an interception. It looked as if John Bloss (Wheaton, Ill.) had ended Valpo’s scoring threat with an interception at the 11-yard line, but a roughing the passer penalty allowed the drive to continue. The Crusaders used their second chance to cap the 16-play, 69-yard drive with a Ryan Lehr rushing touchdown to pull the Crusaders within one score at 21-14.

The following Drake drive saw the Bulldogs take advantage of a pass interference call on Valparaiso that extended the Bulldogs drive. After penalties set the offense back 20 yards, Drake elected to keep the offense on the field on 4^th-and-22. While Piatkowski’s pass fell incomplete to Nick Rosa (Owasso, Okla.), the Crusaders were called for pass interference to extend the drive. Drake made the most of the second chance and extended its lead, 28-14, on Piatkowski’s 1-yard sneak with 3:48 remaining in the third quarter.

Morse put the game out of reach late in the fourth quarter, taking a pitch for 29 yards, to extend Drake’s lead, 35-14, with 3:38 remaining in the game. Valparaiso tacked on a score with 2:05 left in the contest on a 23-yard Quinn Schafer reception from Eric Slenk to account for the 35-21 final.

The Bulldogs return to Drake Stadium next Saturday for another PFL matchup with Marist. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m.

[This story was written for Ron Maly by Ty Patton, Drake's assistant athletic director for communications].

Pioneer Football League Standings

	Conf	Pct	PF	PA	Overall	Pct	PF	PA	Home	Away	Streak
Jacksonville	4-0	1.000	119	72	6-1	.857	183	150	2-0	4-1	W6
Drake	4-0	1.000	136	63	5-2	.714	198	132	3-1	2-1	W4
Butler	4-0	1.000	129	56	5-2	.714	193	127	3-0	2-2	W4
San Diego	2-1	.667	105	52	3-3	.500	166	148	3-0	0-3	W1
Dayton	2-2	.500	107	72	3-4	.429	148	159	2-1	1-3	W2
Marist	1-2	.333	62	64	2-4	.333	123	103	1-2	1-2	L2
Morehead State	0-3	.000	69	107	1-5	.167	164	188	1-2	0-3	L5
Campbell	0-3	.000	21	114	1-5	.167	65	215	1-2	0-3	L4
Valparaiso	0-3	.000	52	142	0-6	.000	103	282	0-4	0-2	L6
Davidson	0-3	.000	48	106	0-6	.000	77	189	0-4	0-2	L6

JOLTIN' JOE GOT IT STARTED

When Ron Maly was a kid in Cedar Rapids, he wanted to enter an essay contest, and he did. He wrote about Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees being his favorite baseball player. For finishing second in the contest, Ron won a Louisville Slugger baseball bat autographed by DiMaggio. Ron later wanted to be the first person in his family to attend college, and he was. He earned a degree in political science from the University of Iowa, and did what all political science majors do. He became a sportswriter. He had, after all, covered high school football, basketball and baseball games for the Cedar Rapids Gazette while he worked parttime during his university days. Ron wanted to sit in the press box and write about an Iowa-Minnesota football game, and he did. It happened while he was the sports editor at the Albert Lea [Minn.] Tribune, and the game was at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis. Ron wanted to cover a World Series, and he did. Also when he was working for the Albert Lea newspaper. Ron wanted to cover Rose Bowls, Sugar Bowls, Orange Bowls, Cotton Bowls, Holiday Bowls, a Freedom Bowl, a Sun Bowl, a Super Bowl and NCAA basketball tournaments, and he did those things after he moved to Des Moines. Ron was a four-time sportswriter of the Year in the state of Iowa [the years were 1977, 1978, 1994 and 1996]. In 2006, he was named a charter member of the University of Iowa's media Wall of Fame in the Kinnick Stadium press box. A photo of the plaque that's displayed in the press box is displayed above this story. Following Ron's retirement from the newspaper business, a publisher asked him if he wanted to write a book about the rich football tradition at the University of Iowa, and he did. The hardback version of "Tales from the Iowa Sidelines" was a best-seller, and so was the revised, softback version. Now he's been asked by his publisher to update the book for a second time. He's in the process of doing that at the present time. Ron considers being asked to update a best-selling book for the second time to be the supreme compliment, considering the Hawkeyes won just four games in the 2012 season. When Ron isn't working on books, he's busy traveling and spending time with his family. Indeed, he attends the athletic, theatrical and musical [both vocal and instrumental] events in which his six grandchildren participate. He also writes about anything that interests him for his many websites. Every chance he gets, Ron proudly wears his America Needs Farmers T-shirt.

The Hawkeyes' Rich Football Tradition, Revisited

I mentioned a while back that I was in the process of updating my Tales from the Iowa Sidelines book. Updating it for the second time. The original hardback edition of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines [pictured at the right] was published in 2003, during the 10-3 season, when coach Kirk Ferentz and his Iowa football team had a 10-3 record that included a 37-17 victory over 15th-ranked Florida in the Outback Bowl and after the Hawkeyes went 11-2 in 2002. That book was a best-seller, so the publishers came to me again in 2005, a season that finished with a breathtaking 30-25 victory over No. 11 Louisiana State in the Capital One Bowl on New Year's Day, 2005. Because buyers had cleaned out the the shelves in the bookstores, the publishers wanted to know if I'd do an updated version of the book. I agreed, The revised, soft-cover edition [pictured at the left] was published in 2005. Warren Holloway, who teamed with quarterback Drew Tate on a miraculous 56-yard touchdown pass to win the Capital One Bowl, was featured on the cover. That book, too, turned into a best-seller, So I had reason to feel very good about my years as a published author. It's not every day that a the original version is a best-seller, and so is the updated version. Then, imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail from a senior editor at the publishing company last fall, wanting wanted to know if I was interested in doing a second updated version of the book. It came at a time when things weren't going well for the Hawkeyes in the 2012 season. They lost their last six games and finished with a 4-8 record. Frankly, the thought of doing a revised edition of the book during a 4-8 season seemed to be a stretch. "Maybe producing a revised edition in a year or two would be a better idea," I told the publishers. "We'd like to do it now," I was told. "Let me think about it," I said. After a few days of thought, I accepted the idea. I talked myself into the idea that this was the supreme compliment--being asked to do a second book update during a 4-8 season showed strong confidence by the publishers in me and in the Hawkeyes' football program. So I got back into the business of interviewing players and coaches again, going to postgame press conferences, weekly press conferences and a scrimmage in West Des Moines. After a press conference in Iowa City, I did a one-on-one interview with coach Kirk Ferentz, and mentioned to him that I was in the process of doing a revised edition of my two best-selling books. I congratulated him on the excellent things he had done for Iowa's football program--all of which contributed to the success of my books. "I think Coach Fry had more to do with it," he told me, bringing up the name of Hayden Fry, his one-time boss at Iowa and a man who brought Iowa's football program back from the dead in the 20th century. That's modest Kirk Ferentz for you. Even though the 2012 season wasn't something Hawkeye coaches, players and fans will recall with any special feeling, Ferentz has a 14-year record of 100-74 at Iowa that includes two 11-victory seasons [2002 smd 2009], two 10-victory seasons [2003 and 2004], plus he's been the Big Ten coach of year in 2002, 2004 and 2009, and national coach of the year in 2002. Indeed, Ferentz has done some wonderful things at Iowa City, and I fully expect his success to continue. I've concluded my writing for the second update of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines, and the senior editor has furnished me with an early look at the book. Not only are the Kirk Ferentz years included in the updated version, but so is the stuff I previously wrote about Howard Jones, Dr. Eddie Anderson, Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick and the 1939 Hawkeye Ironmen, Ronald Reagan, Ozzie Simmons, Ossie Solem, Randy Duncan, Alex Karras and lots of other legends from Iowa's rich football history. I expect the book to be in stores soon. I hope you like it.