Lindenwood will go for its eighth win in a row, and second GLVC championship in the last three years, Saturday afternoon at Missouri S&T. (Photo: Cedric Williams)

Lindenwood Football – Gameday Info
Game No. 10 – Lindenwood (7-2, 5-0) at Missouri S&T (5-4, 3-2)
Date/Time – Saturday, November 6 – 1 pm
Location – Allgood-Bailey Stadium – Rolla, MO
Broadcast – GLVC Sports Network
Live Stats – Sidearm Stats

by Cedric Williams
Senior Editor

It could be a championship day Saturday afternoon in Rolla for the Lindenwood University football team. The Lions have won seven games in a row, five of them in conference, and have a chance to win its second Great Lakes Valley Conference championship in the last three years, if they can defeat host Missouri S&T.

Lindenwood has been in the GLVC for three seasons and has not lost a league game yet. The only title the Lions haven’t won since joining the league in 2019, was the 2020 season (played this past spring), which Lindenwood sat out because of the covid pandemic.

The University of Indianapolis won that championship, but Lindenwood, which was ranked No. 5 in the NCAA Division II Super Region Three poll, No. 25 nationally in the D2Football.com rankings, and is listed among those receiving votes in the AFCA national coaches poll that was released on Wednesday, can re-claim its GLVC crown with a victory on Saturday.

Missouri S&T, which has won three games in a row, is coming off its biggest win of the season, when it rallied from three touchdowns down to defeat Indianapolis 31-28 last week.

The Miners are now 5-4 on the year and still have an outside chance at tying Lindenwood for the league championship, if they can win both their remaining games and Lindenwood lost both its final matchups. That would be quite a task, but S&T believes its up for it, and any chance it would have at pulling it off would begin with an upset win over the Lions.

Players to Watch: Lindenwood has a number of star-caliber players on both offense and defense. The Lions have a great one-two punch at running back in freshman Robert Giaimo and senior Nash Sutherlin. And they have number of dynamic pass-catchers in wide receivers Payton Rose, Glen Gibbons, and Alex Faddoul, and senior tight end Clint Sigg.

The defense has also developed into one of the best groups in the GLVC, led by senior linebacker Drew Seers, and play-making safeties Grady Daniels and Kai Ross.

But the big story for the Lions is how healthy are they at quarterback. They already lost Player of the Year candidate Cade Brister for the rest of the season to a broken leg. And now, freshman backup Cole Dugger, who’s played well in his two starts, went down midway through the third quarter of last week’s 53-10 win over William Jewell and didn’t return.

Faddoul, who was an all-state quarterback in high school, played the final quarter and a half in Dugger’s place. But no one outside of the Lindenwood locker room is sure who will start at QB when the Lions come out of the locker room on Saturday.

Dugger is listed as the starter on the depth chart released by the team this week. But that’s not always an accurate indicator, as Brister was still listed as the starter the week after he broke his leg, and no one knew he wasn’t going to play until he came of out the locker room on gameday in a cast and riding a scooter.

It’ll be intrigue indeed on the Lindenwood sideline on Saturday.

For S&T, the star this season has been senior wideout Breon Michel, who leads the GLVC in receiving and is ranked fifth in the nation with 985 yards on 54 receptions, with 14 total touchdowns. Thirteen of those scores have been receptions, including the game-winner last week — a 40-yard bomb with two minutes to play to beat UIndy.

Defensively, the Miners are led by junior linebacker Ben Straatmann, the GLVC leader in quarterback sacks (9.5) and total tackles for loss (15.5), and senior cornerback Cameron Clemons, who leads the league with 17 total pass breakups, including two interceptions.

Up Next: Lindenwood will close out its regular season with its Senior Day game, next Saturday, November 13, at Hunter Stadium against McKendree. S&T will close out its season next Saturday, with a road game at Southwest Baptist.

Probable Starters
Lindenwood Offense                         Lindenwood Defense
QB – 2 Cole Dugger – So.                  DE – 41 Alex Bolden – Sr.
RB – 20 Robert Giaimo – Fr.             DT – 99 Tayvian Weary – Jr.
WR – 10 Alex Faddoul – Sr.               DT – 45 David Knox – Sr.
WR – 17 Payton Rose – Jr.                DE – 92 Arsante Conners – Sr.
WR – 19 Glen Gibbons – Sr.              LB – 9 C.J. McClure – Sr.
LT – 77 Blake Rogenhofer – Jr.         LB – 5 Drew Seers – Sr.
LG – 78 Gareth Warren – Fr.             LB – 1 Tre Hendon – Sr.
C – 51 Connor Mazzotta – Jr.            CB – 15 Keith Beverly – Sr.
RG – 52 Asa Baker – So.                   FS – 21 Kai Ross – So.
RT – 74 Ethan Johnson – Fr.            SS – 14 Grady Daniels – Sr.
TE – 16 Clint Sigg – Sr.                     CB – 6 Jordan Perry – Sr.
PK – 98 Logan Siebert – Fr.               P – 91 Jared Stangler – Sr.

Missouri S&T Offense                       Missouri S&T Defense
QB – 12 Luke Hertzler – Sr.              DE – 51 Jack Roush – Jr.
RB – 22 Aaron Moya – Sr.                 NT – 96 Henry Preckel – Sr.
WR – 2 Josh Brown – Sr.                  DE – 90 Jake Versemann – So.
WR – 11 Breon Michel – Sr.              LB – 45 Ben Straatmann – Jr.
WR – 13 Tate Nickleberry – Sr.          LB – 21 Dontay White – Sr.
LT – 74 Jorge Escalante – Sr.            LB – 35 Jack Hayes – Sr.
LG – 61 Kyle Ulrich – Sr.                  LB – 16 Skylar Sappington – Sr.
C – 57 Nino Schmitt– Sr.                  CB – 22 Cam Orr – Jr.
RG – 73 Josh Thornton – Sr.            FS – 14 Justin Onwugbufor – Sr.
RT – 75 Jake Seidel – Fr.                  SS – 9 Stefan Camplin – Sr.
TE – 49 Trevor Anthony – Jr.            CB – 3 Cameron Clemons – Sr.
PK – 94 Zach Glaess – Sr.                 P – 86 Parker Boyce – So.