By Ryan Briggs
Grove City SID
While a significant portion of the Great Lakes region had a bye week in Week 2, a number of the area's squads hooked up in some memorable contests Saturday.
More than a few memories were made in Washington, Pa., on Saturday night, the site of this past weekend's Game of the Week. Host Washington and Jefferson gave new head coach Mike Sirianni his first victory with a thrilling 28-23, come-from-behind win against Allegheny at Cameron Stadium. It avenged a 28-25 loss to Allegheny in Week 2 of 2002.
Junior strong safety Frank Pilato, who posted a game-high 18 tackles, intercepted Allegheny's Bubba Smith in the end zone on the final play of the game to secure the victory.
"There was no way I was going to let it go over me," Pilato told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "I just prayed I got it because I didn't want to let anyone down."
The Presidents fell behind 13-0 in the second quarter and later trailed 20-14 seven minutes into the second half. But sophomore end Aaron Krepps helped bail out Washington and Jefferson.
Krepps' 26-yard touchdown reception from sophomore quarterback Chris Edwards helped give Washington and Jefferson a 14-13 advantage at the 12:19 mark of the third quarter.
After Allegheny (0-2) reclaimed a 20-14 lead on Jamie Sye's 2-yard touchdown run, Krepps returned the subsequent kickoff 97 yards for a score, giving the lead back to the Presidents. Krepps finished with 202 all-purpose yards.
Washington and Jefferson boosted the lead to 28-20 on a 9-yard touchdown run by junior running back Matt Bettinazzi with 9:29 remaining.
Allegheny kicker Aaron Polack slashed the lead to 28-23 with a 37-yard field goal five minutes later.
Smith, a three-year starter for Allegheny, threw for 282 yards and two touchdowns on 32-for-46 accuracy. Eleven of those completions went to senior Jon Turner.
Allegheny, which out-gained the Presidents 425-266, lost at Baldwin-Wallace in the Gators' season opener Sept. 6. Saturday night's game was Washington and Jefferson's opener.
"It took us a half to get up to game speed," Sirianni told the Post-Gazette. "[Our] not playing last week gave [Allegheny] the advantage in the first half. They're a good football team that had a week up on us. Fortunately, we got over the jitters."
The Lords taketh away
Kenyon forced five Bethany turnovers and overcame a 17-6 deficit to knock off the Bison 27-17 on Saturday afternoon, giving Lords head coach Ted Stanley his first win.
The Lords scored 21 points in an eight-minute span over the third and fourth quarters to improve to 1-1. Kenyon won only one game each of the last two seasons and is taking a leave of absence from the North Coast Athletic Conference schedule this season. They play only a partial season schedule will not count in the conference standings.
Picking up win No. 2 this week will not be easy as Kenyon visits Kalamazoo, which is fresh off a 28-21 home upset of No. 16 Wabash Saturday.
Bethany, meanwhile, fell to 0-2 for the first time since 1998. The Bison are averaging 413 yards of offense but have been doomed by 12 turnovers in two games.
Dwight White right (and left) against Wabash
Kalamazoo running back Dwight White became the school's all-time leading rusher with his 103-yard, three-touchdown outing as the Hornets upset No. 16 Wabash 28-21.
White now has 2,060 yards for his career, which puts him past Dennis Kane, who rushed for 2,053 yards from 1971-74. White's 3-yard touchdown run with 2:32 left gave Kalamazoo the lead for good.
Hornet quarterback Bryan Gnyp went 23-for-32 for 248 yards, including a pair of two-point conversion passes to James Woodfork.
Meanwhile, the Kalamazoo defense forced five Wabash turnovers and held the Little Giants to just 27 rushing yards.
Oh, Brad!
Remember the long-running sitcom Married ... With Children and how main character Al Bundy always bragged about scoring four touchdowns in one game? Well, Carnegie Mellon fullback Brad Stanley didn't need a full game -- just 16 minutes -- to score his four touchdowns in the Tartans' 35-21 win over Grove City on Saturday.
Stanley finished the day with 122 yards on 25 carries. His four touchdowns in the first 15:58 of the game allowed the opportunistic Tartans to take a 28-0 lead.
One week after forcing seven Bethany turnovers, CMU (2-0) coerced four Grove City turnovers. Despite falling behind 28-0, the Wolverines (1-1) closed to within 28-21 in the third quarter as quarterback Sam Mowrey threw for 249 yards, the seventh-highest single-game total in school history.
But CMU's Greg Botta intercepted a Mowrey pass and returned it into Grove City territory, setting up the Tartans' final touchdown drive.
After having its 27-year run of winning seasons end with a 5-5 record last year, Carnegie Mellon could be on its way to returning to the top of the University Athletic Association.
Another UAA squad off to a fast start is Case Western Reserve. The Spartans are 2-0 after dismantling Denison on Saturday, 51-20. Senior running back Brandon McDowell already has 385 yards rushing and nine total touchdowns.
Denison's defense has taken a beating in the early going this year, yielding 121 points in two games.
Playing Dumm is a good idea
Waynesburg junior quarterback Jeff Dumm owns a 203.9 passer rating after the first two weeks. Dumm is 36-for-47 (76.6%) for 485 yards and seven touchdowns as the Yellow Jackets have piled up 115 points in two games.
Saturday at Randolph-Macon, Dumm went 22-for-29 for 329 yards and three touchdowns as the Jackets improved to 2-0 with a 45-7 win. Now in his second year as the starter, Dumm is fourth in Waynesburg history with 3,262 career passing yards. Darren Elvey (1994-97) holds the record with 5,912 yards.
The Yellow Jackets visit Gettysburg this week, Waynesburg's third consecutive game on the road to open the season.
Hairston Era starts with loss
Interim head coach Stacey Hairston made his debut as Ohio Northern mentor Saturday night at Division I-AA non-scholarship Dayton. Unlike Washington and Jefferson's Mike Sirianni, Hairston did not have a successful debut as the Polar Bears fell 42-7.
Dayton, considered the top non-scholarship I-AA team, turned six ONU turnovers into 42 first-half points en route to the victory.
Game of the Week
No. 3 Baldwin-Wallace at No. 1 Mount Union, Alliance, Ohio, 1:30 p.m.: Yes, it is only the first of nine Ohio Athletic Conference games for each team. But such a minimalist attitude is simply wrong in talking about this matchup.
Mount Union and B-W are the consensus projected 1-2 finishers in the OAC this year. The winner will have a leg up in the OAC title race. The team that loses, however, will find itself behind the proverbial 8-ball in terms of winning the league and earning the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA playoffs.
The Purple Raiders have won 43 consecutive games overall, 77 in a row in the OAC and 85 in the regular season. The last team to defeat Mount Union in the regular season? Baldwin-Wallace -- a 23-10 victor in Alliance nine years ago.
Baldwin-Wallace leads the all-time series 21-19-1 but the Purple Raiders have won the last eight from their archrival, including a 28-21 win in Berea, Ohio, in 2002. That night, Mount Union quarterback Zac Bruney threw for 175 yards on 11-for-15 passing. Bruney and junior Jesse Burghardt will likely share quarterbacking duties while Baldwin-Wallace will feature highly decorated senior Dan Larlham.
Larlham only threw 16 passes in the Yellow Jackets' 45-26 win over Allegheny two weeks ago, gaining 125 yards on nine completions.
Each team has had two weeks to prepare after season-opening wins at home Sept. 6. Mount Union downed UW-Whitewater 40-17 while Baldwin-Wallace clipped Allegheny.
This weekend signifies the start of conference play in the OAC. In other OAC action, Captial visits Ohio Northern, Otterbein treks to Marietta, Muskingum is at Heidelberg and No. 20 John Carroll is at Wilmington.
North Coast Athletic Conference foes Wabash and Earlham will play a non-conference game as will NCAC teams Denison and Ohio Wesleyan.
