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 The nation’s leading rusher will go up against the nation’s No. 1 defense against the run when Morningside hosts Missouri Valley College on Saturday in the opening round of the 2009 NAIA Football Championship Series.
Morningside’s Jake Peterson has run for a school-record 1,468 yards this season and is the NAIA national leader with an average of 146.8 yards per game. Missouri Valley, meanwhile, boasts a defense that has allowed an average of only 45.0 yards rushing per game to lead the nation. The Vikings’ opponents are averaging only 1.7 yards per rushing attempt.
Morningside, ranked seventh in the nation in the final NAIA regular season poll, has a 9-1 record and finished second in the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) standings.
Missouri Valley is ranked 11th in the nation in the final NAIA regular season poll and is a member of the Heart of America Athletic Conference (HAAC). The Wildcats have an 8-2 record and finished third in the HAAC standings with an 8-2 league mark.
Morningside is in the NAIA Championship Series for the sixth year in a row and has advanced to at least the quarterfinals each of the past four seasons.
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 Morningside College offensive coordinator Josh Gehring has been named the American Football Coaches Association’s (AFCA) 2009 NAIA Assistant Coach of the Year.
Gehring, in his third year at Morningside, is the architect of a Morningside offense that currently ranks third nationally with an average of 49.6 points per game. The Mustangs rank sixth nationally with an average of 496.2 yards total offense and seventh with an average of 233.5 yards rushing per game. The Mustangs have rushed for a school-record 2,335 yards this season. The Mustangs led the nation in team scoring offense with an average of 48.0 points per game in 2008.
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 Six Morningside College football players have been named to the All-Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) First-Team as selected by the league’s head football coaches.
Beau Kildow, Tyler Lloyd, and Jake Peterson were named to the All-GPAC First-Team Offense, while Mike Buckley, Ben Haugen, and Brett Nickolite were named to the All-GPAC First-Team Defense.
The Mustangs also had eight players named to the All-GPAC second-team and three others named to the All-GPAC honorable mention list.
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Advance tickets for this Saturday’s game between Morningside College and Missouri Valley College in the first round of the 2009 NAIA Football Championship Series will go on sale Wednesday in the Hindman-Hobbs Center, 3501 Peters Avenue.
Tickets may be purchased on Wednesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on Friday from 9 a.m. to noon.
Ticket prices are $10 for adults and $5 for students in grades K-12 and college students with an id.
Saturday’s game is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Elwood Olsen Stadium. Gates will open at noon.
All fans must purchase tickets. Regular season passes and student ids will not grant admission to games in the 2009 NAIA Football Championship Series.
 Beau Kildow, a 5-10, 170 lb. senior wide receiver from Omaha, Neb., is one of 16 college football players named to the 2009 National Football Foundation (NFF) National Scholar-Athlete class announced by the NFF and College Hall of Fame.
The 16 players are the finalists for the 20th anniversary William V. Campbell Trophy, endowed by HealthSouth. They were selected from a nationwide pool of 154 semifinalists among all NCAA divisions and the NAIA.
The Campbell Trophy, formerly known as the Draddy Trophy, recognizes an individual as the absolute best scholar-athlete in the nation. The award was renamed this fall in honor of Bill Campbell, the chairman of Intuit, and former player and head coach at Columbia University.
Each finalist will receive an $18,000 post-graduate scholarship. The recipient of the Campbell Trophy will receive a 25 lb. bronze trophy and a $25,000 post-graduate scholarship. The 16 National Scholar-Athlete Award recipients will be honored at the 2009 NFF Annual Awards Dinner on Dec. 8 at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, where the winner of the 2009 Campbell Trophy will be announced.
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 Morningside College is ranked seventh nationally in the final regular season NAIA football poll released on Nov. 15.
The Mustangs, who were ranked fourth in the previous week’s poll, finished the regular season with a 9-1 record after they lost 49-21 against No. 1-ranked University of Sioux Falls on Saturday at Elwood Olsen Stadium.
Morningside and Sioux Falls are two of four teams from the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) ranked in the final NAIA Top 25. Hastings College is ranked 13th and Northwestern College is ranked 25th.
Click here for the complete NAIA Top 25.
 Tim Richard, a 6-2, 220 lb. senior quarterback from Underwood, Iowa, has been named the Hauff Mid-America Sports/Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) Offensive Player of the Week for his performance in the Mustangs’ 78-14 victory against Doane College last Saturday.
Richard had one of the greatest passing displays in Morningside history by completing 21 of 22 pass attempts for 339 yards and a career-high six touchdowns to finish one TD shy of a school record. Richard completed his first 15 pass attempts of the game and finished with a completion percentage of 95.5 percent to shatter his own Morningside single-game record. Richard set the Mustangs’ previous single-game completion percentage record earlier this season when he completed 16 of 19 attempts for 84.2 percent in a 56-21 victory against Dakota Wesleyan University in the season’s opener.
He threw touchdown passes of 24, 25, and 17 yards to Chad Buchholz, 17 yards to Beau Kildow, 14 yards to Bradley Norwood, and 10 yards to Jake Peterson in the win against Doane.
Richard is the NAIA national leader with a passing efficiency rating of 222.8. He has passed for 1,962 yards and 25 touchdowns and is on pace to break the Mustangs’ single-season completion percentage record of 67.6 percent set by Ian Gilworth last season. Richard has completed 115 of 159 attempts for 72.3 percent and has thrown only four interceptions.
Morningside will take an 8-0 record and a No. 4 national ranking into a 1 p.m. game against city rival Briar Cliff University this Saturday at Memorial Field.
 Morningside’s Jake Peterson, a 5-11, 200 lb. junior running back from Armstrong, Iowa, has been named the NAIA National Offensive Player of the Week and the Hauff Mid-America Sports/Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) Offensive Player of the Week for his performance in last Saturday’s 62-7 Homecoming victory against Dana College.
Peterson, who received the GPAC Offensive Player of the Week honor for the second time this season, rushed for a school-record 284 yards and four touchdowns in 22 carries against Dana to break his previous Morningside single-game record of 225 yards rushing he set earlier this season in the Mustangs’ 20-7 win against Northwestern College on Sept. 12. Peterson averaged 12.9 yards per carry in the contest to break the previous Morningside single-game record of 10.6 yards per carry by Nick Reigle against Doane College in 2005.
He broke loose for a 68-yard touchdown run on Morningside’s second offensive play of the game against Dana and had touchdown runs of 35, 10, and one yards later in the contest.
Peterson is the NAIA national rushing leader with an average of 195.2 yards per game. He also leads the nation in scoring with an average of 15.0 points per game and ranks third in all-purpose yards with an average of 212.0 yards per game. He has rushed for 781 yards and 10 touchdowns through the Mustangs’ first four games.
Morningside will take a 4-0 record into a game against Hastings College this Saturday in Hastings, Neb.
 Morningside is picked second in the GPAC Football Coaches’ Pre-Season Poll released at the conclusion of Tuesday’s GPAC Football Media Day.
The Mustangs are coming off a banner 2008 season where they finished 10-2 for their second highest victory total in school history and reached the quarterfinals of the NAIA Championship Series. Morningside was ranked fifth in the final 2008 NAIA national poll.
Morningside has a 48-12 record for a .800 winning percentage since the start of the 2004 season. The Mustangs have advanced to at least the quarterfinal round of the NAIA Playoffs each of the past four seasons.
2009 GPAC Football Coaches Pre-Season Poll
Morningside is ranked sixth nationally in the pre-season football rankings featured in the “2009 College Fanz NAIA Preview Magazine.”
The Mustangs are coming off a banner 2008 season where they finished 10-2 and reached the quarterfinals of the NAIA Championship Series. The 10 wins were the second highest victory total in Morningside history. Morningside led the NAIA in team scoring offense with an average of 48.0 points per game and ranked seventh nationally in team scoring defense at 15.4 ppg.
Morningside will open the 2009 season with a 1 p.m. road game against Dakota Wesleyan University on Saturday, Sept. 5, in Mitchell, S.D. The Tigers are ranked 23rd by “2009 College Fanz NAIA Preview Magazine.”
1.Sioux Falls (S.D.), 14-0; 2.Caroll (Mont.), 13-1; 3.Lindenwood (Mo.), 11-2; 4.St. Francis (Ind.), 12-1; 5.Cumberlands (Ky.), 10-2; 6.Morningside (Iowa), 10-2; 7.Langston (Okla.), 10-3; 8.Shorter (Ga.), 9-3; 9.Baker (Kan.), 8-4; 10.MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.), 10-1; 11.Union (Ky.), 9-3; 12.Dickinson State (N.D.), 7-4; 13.Lambuth (Tenn.), 8-4; 14.Virginia-Wise, 8-3; 15.St. Ambrose (Iowa), 8-4; 16.Friends (Kan.), 10-1; 17.St. Xavier (Ill.), 7-4; 18.Missouri Valley, 7-3; 19.Montana State-Northern, 7-3; 20.Minot State (N.D.), 6-4; 21.St. Francis (Ill.), 7-4; 22.Ottawa (Kan.), 8-2; 23.Dakota Wesleyan (S.D.), 7-3; 24.Jamestown (N.D.), 7-3; 25.McKendree (Ill.), 6-4.
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