Tyler Gerwig

The College of Wooster scored 26 unanswered points on host Allegheny College during the second and third quarters, and in the fourth, sealed the outcome with an 18-play, 96-yard touchdown drive that put the Fighting Scots ahead 33-16, which held up as the final score, in a North Coast Athletic Conference match-up Saturday afternoon in Meadville, Pa.

Wooster (3-2, 3-1 NCAC), under first-year head coach Frank Colaprete, has already exceeded its win total from all of last season (2-8).

The Scots got off to a slow start, as upstart Allegheny (0-6, 0-5 NCAC) scored the first 10 points via a 29-yard field goal on the game's first possession and a touchdown early in the second quarter.

On the ensuing series, Wooster got on the board. The Scots had a touchdown taken away via a penalty, but Tyler Gerwig came through with a 42-yard field goal to close the 10-play, 50-yard possession and make it 10-3. That marked the longest field goal by a Wooster kicker since Sept. 28, 2002, when Richie McNally booted one the same length in a 27-22 victory against Case Western Reserve University.

Next, the Scots' defense pinned the Gators deep in their own territory, keyed by a 12-yard sack credited to both Todd Ulmer and Ian Crawford, and on fourth down from the one-yard line, a mishandled punt snap resulted in a safety.

Wooster followed by taking advantage of the short field, covering 49 yards in six plays, with Chase Ullman rushing for a one-yard touchdown, as the Scots took the lead at 12-10. The score was keyed by quarterback Richard Barnes's 29-yard run to the one-yard line.

It remained 12-10 through halftime, then Wooster took the opening possession of the third quarter and drove 68 yards in 13 plays, capped by a Barnes two-yard touchdown rush, as the Scots extended their lead to nine (19-10).

Wooster won the field-position battle during the next few drives and eventually turned a short Allegheny punt into a three-play, 30-yard touchdown series. Barnes scored on the ground from 15 yards out for a 26-10 margin late in the third.

Early in the fourth, the Scots nearly tacked on more points, but a field goal attempt went wide, and instead, the Gators' offense got moving for the first time since the first quarter as they went 73 yards, assisted by Wooster's 20 penalty yards, for a touchdown. The Scots' defense did come through, stopping Allegheny's two-point conversion attempt so that it was a two-possession game (26-16) still with 8:26 left.

The ensuing kickoff pinned Wooster back at its own four-yard line, but the Scots methodically marched the length of the field. They converted two fourth downs on the clinching drive, 4th-and-3 from the Gators' 27 and 4th-and-1 from the 14, and shortly after the latter, Barnes crossed the end zone for the third time, this one a 12-yard run.

Wooster outgained Allegheny by 160 yards (447-287), with 274 of the visitors' yards coming on the ground, and also totaled 28 first downs to 20 for the Gators.

Barnes accounted for 150 of those rushing yards, a career high coming on 20 attempts, and his three rushing touchdowns also were a first for the four-year starter at quarterback. He added another 173 yards on 19-of-33 passing during a turnover-free performance. The top target in the passing game was Keir Pace, who had nine catches for 53 stripes.

Allegheny signal caller Jon Nigro was 19-of-30 through the air for 203 yards, with 68 of those yards going to Andrew Niklaus on six receptions.

The Scots' defense sacked Nigro six times, 2.0 apiece by Crawford and Stephen McKinney, and they had two takeaways, one a Brandon James interception.

Next Saturday, Wooster will be at nationally-ranked Wittenberg University (4-1, 4-0 NCAC).