The Graceland University football team opened the 2005 season with a 24-20 victory over the Crimson Tide of Southern Nazarene University in the NAIA’s opening celebration, the 11th Annual Wheat Bowl.

The two teams traveled to Great Bend, Kan., for the neutral site meeting that had the #23 Yellowjackets squaring off against a Crimson Tide team that received some votes on the 2005 NAIA preseason poll.

The Yellowjacket offense continued with its high powered attack from 2004 as they struck first with a touchdown linking quarterback Clayton Braddock and Robert Summers on a five-yard pass play. Danny Laguna came in to kick the extra point and the Jackets had a seven-point lead; a lead they would never lose in the season-opening victory.

Laguna kicked a 21-yard field goal at the 1:38 minute mark of the first quarter to increase the Graceland lead to 10-0. The Crimson Tide shut down the Jackets scoring in the second quarter but the Graceland defense stepped up and held the Tide to a total of five first-half points and the Yellowjackets hit the locker room with a 10-5 halftime lead.

The second half proved to be a high scoring affair as the two teams combined for a total of 29 points. Graceland again struck first as linebacker Robert Pentek pounced on a fumble and scored his first touchdown of the 2005 campaign. Laguna once again kicked the extra point and the Yellowjackets increased their lead to 17-5.

SNU scored a quick three less than two minutes later on a 35 yard field goal, but the Jackets answered with a huge 70-yard pass play from Braddock to Anthony Ferguson that resulted in a touchdown and the biggest lead of the game for Graceland as they ended the third quarter ahead 24-8.

Southern Nazarene scored twice in the fourth including a touchdown at the final buzzer to make the score a close 24-20 but Head Coach Cris Welch felt good with his team’s performance as they gained their first of many wins in 2005.

Junior quarterback Clayton Braddock was named the offensive player of the game as he went 17-34 with two touchdown passes and 201 total yards passing. Frosh defensive back James Thomas was named the defensive player of the game for his five-tackle effort, one forced fumble and one pass break-up.

The Jackets will travel to Kansas City, Mo., on Saturday, September 3 where they will open their conference schedule against Avila University at 6 p.m.

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Ellinwood, Kan. – One school almost joined the national playoff picture a season ago. Another is on the cusp of becoming a familiar ranked commodity.

With high aspirations for the 2005 football campaign, these two small-college hopefuls – Graceland University of Lamoni, Iowa, and Southern Nazarene University of Bethany, Okla. – will be able to measure their potentials very early when they collide here in the inaugural game of the Wheat Bowl Football Classic’s “second decade.”

Kick-off for Wheat Bowl XI, to be contested at the Ellinwood Sports Complex on Saturday, August 27, is set for 7:00 p.m. The regional headliner remains the only pre-season football bowl game endorsed by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.

Graceland will enter Wheat Bowl participation as the first team to be selected from the state of Iowa. The Yellowjackets head into the new season following a highly encouraging 2004 campaign that produced an 8-2 record, secured a No. 19 ranking in the NAIA’s final national poll, and earned a tie for the runner-up spot in the prestigious Heart of America Conference.

Southern Nazarene becomes the fourth NAIA school to have been selected to play in the Wheat Bowl at least twice. The Crimson Storm dropped a 21-14 decision to MidAmerica Nazarene University in Wheat Bowl IX in 2003. SNU comes off a 6-4 2004 season and a third-place finish at 4-2 in its first year of competition in the rugged Central States Football League.

On paper, Wheat Bowl XI figures to present a classic match-up featuring the high-octane offense of Graceland against the formidable defense of Southern Nazarene. The Yellowjackets averaged 33 points a game a season ago, while the Crimson Storm limited opponents to 16.5.

“This year’s Wheat Bowl football game brings together two outstanding universities with very promising football programs,” said Toby Johnson, chairman of the Wheat Bowl Selection Committee, in announcing the participants for Wheat Bowl XI. “Both teams are predicted to among some of the NAIA’s very best during the upcoming season. This should provide for another exciting Wheat Bowl match-up.”

Graceland alumnus Cris Welch is beginning his third season at his alma mater, having quickly resurrected the Yellowjacket gridiron fortunes. A former Division I recruiter for Boston College, he has added more game-time players to the Graceland roster in hopes of winning a HAAC championship and pursuing an NAIA national title. Coincidentally, Welch is a native of Yukon, Okla., located only six miles west of Bethany, where the Southern Nazarene campus is located. After graduating from Yukon High School in 1987, he started every single game of his collegiate career as a center for Graceland, and served as a Yellowjackets’ team captain his junior and senior seasons.

Paul McGrady, who has been a staple in the Southern Nazarene athletic department for nearly two decades, begins his fifth season as the Crimson Storm head coach. He initiated the SNU football program in 1999, leading the school to winning records in each of the first four campaigns. During a four-game winning streak early in the 2004 campaign, Southern Nazarene reached as high as the No. 15 spot in the NAIA national rankings. Late in the season, the Crimson Storm limited perennial NAIA national power Northwestern Oklahoma State to just 10 points in a 10-3 loss.