SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -The preparations and distractions are easier to manage when its your fourth straight trip to the NAIA championship. Sioux Falls coach Kalen DeBoer says that doesn’t make the winning any easier for the defending champions.
The top-ranked Cougars (14-0), national champions two of the past three years and currently on a 28-game winning streak, will face Lindenwood (13-0) on Saturday in Rome, Ga.
“There is quite a bit of pressure, especially playing a team that’s never been there before,” said DeBoer. “Everyone expects you to kind of walk away with it, and that’s not going to be the case.”
Lindenwood, the No. 3 team in the final rankings, topped No. 2 Carroll College in the semifinals on a touchdown with 55 seconds to play.
“This is a chance for us to try to join the elite teams in the country,” said Lindenwood coach Patrick Ross, who is 57-15 in six years at the college in St. Charles, Mo.
ed in the championship game the past five years. “So it’s great to at least be in the same conversations as those schools. But we certainly have a lot more to prove.”
Both teams average more than 50 points a game and are the NAIA’s top two leaders in scoring offense. Defensively, Sioux Falls has the NAIA’s stingiest defense, too, allowing only 9.7 points per game.
“They only give up 8 points a game or something ridiculous like that, so hopefully we can get over that mark,” Ross said. “On paper, we’re pretty big underdogs, which is good. We haven’t been an underdog in a long time.”
Lindenwood quarterback Philip Staback has thrown 34 touchdowns and averages 249 yards passing per game. Sioux Falls quarterback Lorenzo Brown has rushed for 16 touchdowns, thrown for 40 TDs and averages 216 yards passing per game.
“It will come down to the defense that can really make the plays for you and get the stops,” said DeBoer, who is 66-3 in five years at Sioux Falls. “The pressure is really on both sides of the ball because you’re expecting the other team to score.”
DeBoer was a wide receiver on the 1996 Sioux Falls team that won the school’s first national championship. Later, with DeBoer as an assistant coach or head coach, there were titles in 2006 and 2008 and runner-up finishes in 2001 and 2007.
year transition that will make it ineligible for NAIA postseason play beginning in 2011.
In the semifinals last year, Lindenwood lost 38-37 to Carroll College on a failed 2-point conversion try with 38 seconds to play. Ross said his team can’t be satisfied just with getting past Carroll this year.
“If we have a letdown now we’ll probably get beat by 40 points, so we can’t afford to or we’ll get embarrassed,” he said. “We told our guys, `You can’t be happy to be there. You have to go in there and execute and do the best you can to compete with this football team.”’
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On the Net:
NAIA: http://naia.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/naia-m-footbl-body.html
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