St. Louis, Mo., November 10, 2007 – Washington University’s football team closed out the regular season with a 30-20 victory at Greenville College on Saturday afternoon at Francis Field in Greenville, Ill. The Bears pushed its overall record to 7-3, snapping a string of five-straight seasons with a 6-4 mark.
A low-scoring first half featured two touchdowns, one by each team, as the score was knotted 7-7 at halftime. After a scoreless first quarter, senior running back Gabe Murphy scampered 36 yards on the second play of the second quarter to make it 7-0. Greenville answered back with a 14-yard touchdown run by Daniel Cunningham with 9:48 remaining before half to knot the score at 7-7.
Washington U., which totaled 313 yards of total offense in the win, added a touchdown and a field goal in the third quarter to push the lead to 17-7. Senior Matt Koenigsknect hauled in a 29-yard touchdown pass from junior Buck Smith, and then senior Michael Elliott added a 22-yard field goal.
Koenigsknect caught a 66-yard touchdown pass, and then junior Tommy Bawden intercepted Greenville quarterback Dominic Kegel on the goal line and returned it 100 yards for the touchdown to push the lead to 30-7. The 100-yard interception return for a touchdown by Bawden tied a school record set by Bill Gerstung in 1948 against Grinnell College.
 Greenville (5-5), which had its four-game winning streak snapped, added two touchdowns late in the fourth quarter. The Panthers totaled 471 yards of offense in the loss, including 363 by Kegel.
Koenigsknect had his second-consecutive 100-yard receiving game, hauling in four catches for 101 yards and two touchdowns. Smith was efficient in his 10th start of the season throwing for 226 yards and two touchdowns. He completed his first season as the starting quarterback for the Bears with 1,891 yards passing and 13 touchdowns.
Elliott (13 tackles) and senior Tyler McSparin (seven tackles) led the defensive unit in their final game with the Red and Green. Elliott finished his four-year career with 191 tackles, while McSparin notched 183 in his four years on the Danforth Campus.
The win for head coach Larry Kindbom improved his career record to 149-99-1 (.600) in 25 seasons as a collegiate head coach. Kindbom will get an opportunity for career win number 150 against Greenville in the Bears’ 2008 season opener on Sept. 6, 2008 in Greenville, Ill. |
