Girard Ogletree-Crawford

 The College of Wooster capped its challenging first half of the season, which featured four road games over the opening five weeks, with a 38-28 victory over Denison University in Granville, Ohio, Saturday, as the Fighting Scots won the battle for the "Old Red Lantern" trophy for a 10th-straight time, and more importantly, positioned themselves for a run at the North Coast Athletic Conference championship.

Wooster is now 3-2 overall and 2-1 in the NCAC with just three home conference games remaining on the schedule.

Saturday's final 10-point margin was not indicative of how decisive the Scots' triumph was, as they led 31-7 fairly deep into the fourth quarter before a combined four touchdowns over the final 6:01.

Girard Ogletree-Crawford set the tone for the day by returning the opening kickoff 92 yards for a touchdown. It marked the first score of the sophomore cornerback's career and was just one yard short of the school record for longest kickoff return set last season by Bryan Albani.

Denison (3-2, 1-1 NCAC) would answer on the ensuing possession, with running back Dan Crawford racking up all 57 yards of a 10-play drive, ending on a 1-yard rush, and it was 7-7 less than five minutes in.

Wooster's first series also resulted in points, as Robert Flagg's 58-yard run on the offense's initial play from scrimmage set up a 34-yard field goal off the leg of Russ Palm.

It remained 10-7 for quite awhile until another key special teams play by Ogletree-Crawford. This time, he blocked a punt to give the Scots the ball at the Denison 23, and three plays later, Richard Barnes found Cameron Daniels for a 16-yard touchdown pass to make it 17-7 with 1:23 before halftime.

To start the second half, Wooster's defense pinned the Big Red back, thanks in part to a penalty on the kickoff and a nine-yard sack by Dan Terhune. The Scots turned the good field position into another score, as they went 34 yards in only four plays, with Mike Redick making a 2-yard touchdown catch from Barnes for a 24-7 advantage.

On the ensuing series, Jeremy Petit came down with an interception, already the defense's 12th this year, and Wooster's offense responded with a 10-play, 72-yard touchdown drive to take complete control of the game. Five of the possession's 10 plays covered 10 or more yards, including a 13-yard scoring pass from Barnes to Daniels, which gave the Scots a 31-7 cushion at the 7:02 mark of the third quarter.

Denison would score a couple of quick touchdowns late in the game, sandwiched around a Wooster fumble, to pull within 31-21 with 3:20 left. But it was too little, too late, as Petit recovered an on-sides kick and two plays after that, Flagg broke free on a touchdown run from 33 yards out to erase any lingering hopes of a comeback.

Flagg notched his third-straight 100-yard rushing game, netting 140 yards on just 13 attempts for a 10.8 average, while Barnes' three touchdown passes were part of a 14-for-20, 176-yard effort. Redick was his favorite target as he had seven receptions for 49 yards.

For the Big Red, Crawford grinded out 104 yards on 19 rushes and Max Paulus completed 25-of-44 passes for 209 yards with two touchdowns, both to Braden Layer, who finished with seven catches and 64 yards.

Also of note for the Scots, Dana Obery had a standout day punting the ball with his four averaging 48.5 yards, highlighted by a 72-yard boot that was a single yard shy of the team's 18-year old record. Defensively, Terhune was credited with 2.5 sacks to raise his season total to 7.5 and Olgetree-Crawford added three pass breakups and 10 tackles to his big day.

Wooster is idle next week and then starts a stretch of four home games over the final five weeks of the regular season with a visit from non-league foe Washington University-St. Louis (2-2).