William Penn looks to stay unbeaten on Saturday when the fifth ranked Statesmen play host to ninth ranked St. Francis of Indiana. Penn is 7-0 but three of their final four opponents are nationally ranked.
Penn coach Todd Hafner says they have done a good job in the first part of the season preparing for these types of games and they are the types of games they want to play.
The William Penn defense is giving up less than nine point per game and opponents are only converting 33 percent of their third down opportunities. Hafner says their success on third down begins on first down as long yardage situations are hard to covert.
They take on a St. Francis team that beat nationally top ranked St. Xavier two weeks ago and nearly beat the new number one team Marian of Indiana this past weekend. “They’re a phenomenal team, they have a great history of winning a lot games, of winning playoff games. This is a big challenge for our football team,” Hafner says.
Hafner says it is a chance to get a big victory against a tradition-rich program. He says they like to think they have played in some big games, but a lot of players on their team have played in playoff games. Hafner hopes playing in front of the home crowd will be a boost too.