Junior Defensive Back Taj McClellan Flexing With His Teammates After Picking off a Pass SXU Athletics
The Cougars have had a pretty rocky start to their season as they fell into a 0-2 hole. They found themselves going up against the NCAA Division III, No. 22 ranked University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. This was a meeting that the Cougars would rather forget about, getting completely humiliated, beaten down, and made out to look like fools.
The Warhawks shut out the Cougars, beating them with a final score of 37-0. You read that score correctly, the Warhawks took an early 7-0 lead in the game and never looked back. Saint Xavier (SXU) failed to score any touchdowns and field goals in this game leaving their score to stay at zero.
SXU vs. No. 22 University of Wisconsin-Whitewater: 37-0 (L)
With senior quarterback Dominic D’Ambrosio unavailable to play, we saw redshirt freshman quarterback Barah Abad run the offense for a bit.
Abad showcased solid play as he completed seven out of his 13 attempted passes, throwing for 37 yards. But, Abad eventually threw a pick towards the end of the first quarter which gave the Warhawks the ball back.
Senior wide receiver Marquel Porter played a whole bunch of positions in this game and one of them was quarterback. Porter completed two out of his nine attempted passes, throwing for only three yards. He also joined the interception party as he eventually threw a pick early in the fourth quarter.
Porter only made one catch which was for 19 yards, and playing a bit of the running back position, he rushed for 54 yards on 10 carries.
The receivers had a poor showing as nobody was able to haul in more than two receptions, only bringing in a total of 40 receiving yards. Porter of course had the most receiving yards from his only catch while the second leader, redshirt junior wide receiver Mario Price made two catches for 16 yards.
Senior running back Tyreese Lee and junior running back Jacob Fisher both rushed for nine yards while Lee did it on four carries, and Fisher did it on three carries.
Redshirt junior wide receiver Joey Thompson rushed for 10 yards on four carries, he also made two catches for only two receiving yards.
The defense seemed to be the only group that came to play as senior linebacker Terry Elias Jr. made a team-high 12 tackles with seven of them being solo tackles. Elias Jr. also had 2.0 tackles for loss for nine yards, and a sack for six yards.
Senior linebacker Chris Swayne was nearly behind Elias Jr. as he came away with nine total tackles with six of them being solo.
Redshirt freshman defensive back Tai Sesta was in complete domination mode, getting eight tackles in this game with all eight tackles being solo.
Senior defensive lineman Justin Yeazell played well as he finished the game with six tackles and a quarterback hurry.
Redshirt sophomore defensive back Cam Manney finished the game with eight tackles made and three of them were solo tackles.
SXU vs. Madonna University (Mich.): 21-7 (W)
Victory at last, the Cougars finally claim their first win of the season after defeating Madonna University at home. This game was needed for the guys to boost their confidence back up again and learn how to get back into their winning ways.
This game was pretty bizarre as all 21 of SXU’s points were scored in the second quarter and both teams went scoreless in the fourth quarter.
Things went off on a great start as redshirt freshman quarterback Mathew Opat made his first collegiate start and showed a lot of potential. Opat threw for 147 yards on 18/30 passing. Even though this game saw Opat throw a pick, he did score one touchdown bombing a 40 yard pass to Porter to get on the scoreboard first for a 7-0 lead.
Lee had a very dominant game as he rushed for two touchdowns, and rushed for a total of 93 yards on 19 carries. Lee also had one catch for seven yards.
Thompson rushed for 36 yards on seven carries and also made two catches for two yards.
The receivers had a much better game as they were able to gain a total of 147 receiving yards. With redshirt freshman wide receiver Kameron Hopkins grabbing five receptions for 28 yards.
Redshirt sophomore wide receiver Charles Campbell finished the game with three catches for 39 yards. Porter brought in one catch for 40 yards which was the touchdown pass he caught to put his team up 7-0 in the second quarter.
The real MVPs of this game was the defense as they were the sole reason why SXU was able to claim this win.
Junior defensive back Taj McClellan was playing out of his mind this past weekend as he tied the single-game program record for interceptions. McClellan brought in three whole interceptions in this game alone, including a pick early in the fourth quarter that basically sealed the deal.
McClellan tied the record with former SXU player Tom Bijak who recorded three interceptions in a regular season game back in 2002. He also finished the game with five solo tackles and two pass breakups.
For the rest of the defense, Swayne recorded 11 tackles, Sesta got two tackles and picked off a pass, Manney made three tackles, and redshirt sophomore defensive lineman David Burton recorded seven tackles.
The Cougars look to earn their first win on the road as they’ll take on Lawrence Tech (Mich.) next Saturday Sep. 27 at 12:00 pm.