All things considered, Saturday, Oct. 3 wasn’t the worst day to be a Buccaneers football fan. It was a stunning, sunny autumn day at Strong Stadium when Beloit took on the University of Chicago Maroons in a conference matchup that was expected to be particularly difficult for the Bucs. While the home team still came away with a stinging loss, it was a fairly respectable game for Beloit.
Chicago won the coin toss and deferred to start the game on defense, putting the Buccaneers’ starting offense on the field for the opening drive of the game. That drive led to the first of what would be five third-down conversions from first year quarterback Noah Carrasco’30 throughout the first half of the game. The first quarter displayed some of the best football Beloit has played in years as they maintained control of the game for ten of the first fifteen minutes. While the second drive was successful in moving the good guys 53 yards down the field, they just couldn’t capitalize on the last 20 yards for a scoring play. When the Bucs did find themselves on defense, Chicago’s first possession was shut down quickly thanks to tackles by Michael Snow’27 and Zeke Hennessy’30, two of Beloit’s biggest contributors that afternoon. Snow led Beloit’s defense in individual tackles, with five attributed primarily to him.
The second quarter began still tied up at zeroes with another eight-minute possession for the Buccaneers. During that time, Beloit managed to wear away at the Maroons’ defense slowly but surely, with running backs Arturo Aguilera’30 and Deandre Fields’30 putting in work on the rush. The defense remained poised for most of Chicago’s two drives in the quarter. Unfortunately, a costly defensive pass interference penalty at Chicago’s 19 yard line gave the Maroons 15 yards in a crucial moment. This was definitely one of the most painful defensive errors in the whole game. With seven seconds left in the half, Beloit narrowly avoided a Chicago touchdown, but the offense did capitalize on a short field goal attempt to put the game’s first points on the board.
Despite the lackluster ending, the first half was so successful overall that many fans fell into a tantalizing line of thinking: “There’s a shot we could actually win this one!” Unfortunately, as much as they’ve improved, the team isn’t quite at that level yet. Chicago’s offensive prowess started to get the better of the Bucs in the second half as the run game that has earned the Maroons so much attention around the Midwest Conference began to rear its head. Chicago’s offense opened the second half with a drive for 24 yards, limited mostly by Jimmy Guillaume’28’s defensive coverage. On the Maroons’ second drive, however, the Bucs particularly struggled to limit the rush, leading to the only touchdown of the game for Chicago with 3:51 left in the quarter. Accordingly, Chicago came out of the end of the game with 238 rushing yards out of their 267 total yards gained. Still, it’s impressive that the Bucs defense held them to only one touchdown the entire afternoon.
Neither team managed to produce a scoring drive during a back-and-forth fourth quarter. At that point, it slowly became clear that Beloit probably wasn’t going to land any points on the board that day as they took a couple tough breaks in the form of a fumbled catch and some close, yet incomplete, passes. The faithful defense still refused to give up, as Guillaume, Hennessy, and Nate Caplan’27 brought in more tackles on Chicago’s most powerful running backs. The Maroons ultimately ran out the clock after the two minute warning, leaving the score at a hard-fought 10-0.
Ultimately, that scoreboard doesn’t quite accurately represent what the Bucs were able to accomplish against Chicago. Beloit is the first team this season to hold the Maroons to under 30 points in a game through their first four games. This is also a considerable improvement over last season’s contest between Beloit and Chicago, a 0-40 loss also on home turf. The Buccaneers’ Class of 2030 shows a lot of promise for future development this year, particularly as quarterback Carrasco hopes to improve from game to game and become more comfortable with his decision-making on the field. This group of fresh Bucs are clearly making waves in the team’s offense and defense, so continued offensive overhaul can only help the entire squad grow.
The Bucs football rebuild still has a long way to go, but this game certainly marked a step in the right direction. Beloit actually managed to get under the skin of Maroons players and fans alike by simply refusing to lay down and die. “Don’t Give Up the Ship” has been the motto of Beloit football in recent years, meaning that the Buccaneers should never surrender in their pursuit of improvement. That ship may have gone down on Oct. 3, but it went down in heroic fashion; it’s fair to say the Bucs really didn’t give up on their ship this time.
Beloit football will hope to gain some offensive momentum next Saturday, Oct. 10 in Appleton, Wisconsin, when they challenge the Lawrence University Vikings.
Featured image: Kayla Wolf
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