By Pete Scantlebury, NAIA Manager of Athletics Communications

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Benedictine (Kan.) head coach Larry Wilcox doesn’t mince words when he discusses the challenge his Ravens team will face against Morningside (Iowa) on Saturday.

“… Morningside, in my 46 years of college coaching, probably has the most – the term I use has been efficient offense,” Wilcox said on Thursday.

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Benedictine and Morningside will meet at 6 p.m. ET Saturday in Daytona Stadium for the 2018 NAIA Football National Championship. The seventh-seeded Ravens enter as one of the most balanced teams in the nation, led by a strong run game, an efficiently prolific quarterback in Shaefer Schuetz and an opportunistic defense.

The top-ranked Mustangs, however, are a different animal. And the veteran Wilcox, making his first national championship game appearance, knows this.

“Their quarterback, having thrown for over 5,000 yards, them leading the nation in scoring and offense, as well as total defense,” Wilcox rattled off at the team’s press conference on Thursday at Daytona International Speedway. “Those are some pretty formidable statistics. Although they’re not the most important things, they do demonstrate a team’s strength, obviously.

“So our defense is going to have to play extremely well against a very high-powered offensive team.”

Make no mistake: While the conversation about the upcoming iteration of the NAIA National Championship tends to drift to the dominance of Morningside (undefeated with nearly a 40-points per game margin of victory), Benedictine enters as a talented, impressive team that is equally capable of winning the title.

And they’re not intimidated. Neither by Morningside nor by the stage itself.

“No, not at all,” linebacker Tyler Shephard said. “Like Coach Wilcox mentioned, they’re a great team, they have a really good offense, a really explosive offense. They’re gonna get yards. We’re just not really worried about what they’re gonna do. We’re gonna continue to do what we’ve been doing all year. We’re gonna hustle to the ball, make plays, tackle, tackle well and just do what we’ve been doing all year.

“It’s gotten us this far.”

Blue-collar. Junkyard Dogs. These are the terms Wilcox uses to describe his defense, led by Shephard. But another advantage that Benedictine possesses is a balanced, efficient offense, led by Shuetz. Benedictine leads the nation in third-down conversions, just edging out No. 2 Morningside.

Flipping the adage on its head, on Saturday, a good offense might be the best defense. If the Ravens’ offense can keep the Mustangs’ offense off the field – well, it’s hard to score when you don’t have the ball.

It’s that offensively balance that’s lead the Ravens this far. On Saturday, it just may lead them to that last step – the first national championship in Benedictine football history.

“I don’ know that we have a lot of stars,” Wilcox said. “But we have a lot of excellent players that play well together. I think that’s a more important mixture.”