FINAL BOX SCORE
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Western Illinois was held in check offensively all night by the Missouri Tigers, and the home team rolled to a 69-0 victory Saturday (Sept. 17) at Faurot Field. The loss drops the Leathernecks to 1-2 overall.
"We did not perform the way we wanted to perform tonight," said head coach Mark Hendrickson. "Missouri is a very good football team and they played very well. We have performed well in these environments in the past and this is not what we anticipated. We open conference play next Saturday (at Northern Iowa) and we need to recover quickly to get ready for that game."
Missouri (2-1) struck first early in the first. Facing 4th-and-3 on the Western 37, Missouri gambled and it paid off. James Franklin scrambled and found a wide-open Wes Kemp in the left corner of the endzone for a touchdown.
The Tigers second TD scoring drive was all on the ground, covering 83 yards in eight plays. Henry Josey's 6-yard run put Mizzou ahead 14-0 with 6:51 left in the quarter. Just over four minutes later Josey scored from 21 yards out to extend the Tigers' lead.
In the second quarter Franklin drove the Tigers into Leatherneck territory, and capped a 69-yard drive with a 30-yard touchdown pass to T.J. Moe making it 28-0. Later in the quarter Kieron James nearly had an interception but L'Damian Washington wrestled the ball away. Three plays later Franklin hit Kemp again for an 8-yard score. The Tigers struck again before half when Josey broke through the middle for a 68-yard touchdown, his third of the half.
Western was out-gained 476-50 in total yards during the first half as the Tigers scored on six of their nine drives of the half. Josey accounted for 263 of those total yards, gaining that on 14 carries.
Missouri needed three plays to cover 74 yards to start the second half, capped by Jared Culver's 8-yard TD run. Grant Ressel's 28-yard field goal made it 52-0 at the 8:02 mark of the third.
The Tigers took advantage of Josh Hudson's first interception of the season to drive into the redzone. However, the Leatherneck defense held when Dwight Harris recovered an errant pitch. That marked the first time this year Western stopped an opponent inside the redzone.
The Tigers added two field goals, a 54-yard TD pass and 44-yard punt return to close out the scoring. It marks the second-worst loss in program history, and worst in the Division I era (72-0 at Lombard in 1917).
Western managed one first down and 44 total yards while the Tigers gained 744 yards on the night. Bryce Flowers led the rushing attack with 28 yards on 14 carries. Hudson went 4-of-15 for 20 yards and an interception. Myles Daughtry caught two of the passes.
Freshman Michael Shroble set a single-game record with 13 punts, averaging 35.4 yards per kick. Making his first start as a Leatherneck, Maurice Hood paced the defense with 11 tackles.
Franklin finished 18-of-25 passing for 246 yards and three touchdowns. Missouri gained 428 yards on the ground, paced by Josey's 263.
The Leathernecks open Missouri Valley Conference play next Saturday (Sept. 24) at Northern Iowa. Kickoff at the UNI-Dome is scheduled for 4 p.m.
GAME NOTES: Enock Presendieu and Caulton Ray sat out the game serving a one-game suspension for a violation of team rules. Both will return for the Northern Iowa game. Junior defensive back Maurice Hood, who joined the team right before the season-opener, made his first start... The fumble by quarterback James Franklin, forced by Dwight Harris and recovered by Kevin Palermo, was the first by the defense this season... The previous punting record was 12 by Peter Muller at Akron in 1971. The freshman record was held by Chris Fuchs at Illinois in 2007 with 11 punts... The announced crowd of 63,420 marks the fifth-biggest crowd Western had played in front of. That moved ahead of the 53,000-plus the last time Western played at Missouri.
