The Valparaiso University roster has redshirt freshman Evan Satoski listed at 6 feet, 2 inches and 255 pounds.

The 2019 Andrean graduate said that’s probably incorrect.

“It’s more around 265 now,” he said.

Satoski has added 30 pounds since high school, part of his transition to nose guard, where he started in VU’s 17-6 loss to visiting Drake at Brown Field on Saturday.

Satoski’s weight gain was intentional and started with higher quantities of the correct food options.

“A lot of protein shakes,” he said. “A lot of chicken and meat. And a lot of working out every day.”

Satoski added the necessary muscle to compete with 300-pound offensive linemen at the college level. But coach Landon Fox said Satoski’s progress in the weight room was not typical of an underclassman.

“From day one he was working with our strength coach, but a lot of the time it’s hard for incoming freshmen to keep up,” Fox said. “But our strength coach said he was keeping up with the upperclassmen.”

Satoski has seven tackles and two pass breakups through two games, leading the VU defensive line.

“He’s very consistent and very dependable,” Fox said. “You tell him to be in a spot, and he’ll be there. And he’s just a redshirt freshman, which is exciting because we’re going to have him for a number of years.”

With Satoski in the middle, VU held Drake to just 211 total yards. But Drake scored on each of its red zone possessions, while VU managed just two field goals on its four trips into the red zone. Fox pointed to that as the primary reason for the loss.

“When we get in the red zone, we need to score touchdowns, and defensively we need to force field goals,” Fox said. “We didn’t do that on either end. It was really the difference in the game. We didn’t execute well enough down there.”

Junior wide receiver Ollie Reese led the offense with 86 yards on eight receptions. He said VU’s inability to find the end zone was the result of mistakes.

“It was all self-inflicted,” Reese said. “We were messing up our formations and certain plays and concepts. We have to do better. We’ve been practicing for a long time, so there are no excuses for messing up like that, especially in the red zone.”

VU played much of the game without junior running back Robert Washington, who rushed for 199 yards in the season opener against Butler but was hobbled by a leg injury he suffered in the first quarter Saturday. Washington returned in the second half but was held to 21 yards on seven carries.

“Any time you lose a player of that caliber, you have to adjust a little bit,” Fox said. “But at the same time, it’s still about execution. He’s only one person, and we play with 11. When he went down, it’s a ‘next man up’ mentality. It was a 10-6 game in the third quarter.”

Into the record books: Outside hitter Rachel Bontrager, a Valparaiso High School graduate, continues to cement her name in Western Michigan history.

During a match Friday against Ohio, Bontrager recorded her 1,000th career dig, becoming the first WMU player with 1,000 digs and 1,500 kills.

Dave Melton is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.