Marcus Bowers

Wooster Oct. 23 Weekly Release | Wooster Football Media Guide | NCAC Oct. 23 Weekly Release

The College of Wooster (5-2, 4-2 North Coast Athletic Conference) remains on the road for this week's 1 p.m. game at Kenyon College (0-7, 0-6 NCAC).

Wooster is coming off of a dominating 58-25 win at Hiram College last Saturday, a game in which seven school records were set or matched. A win by Wooster would give the Scots an undefeated month for the first time since November 2013, when the Scots won all three of their contests in the month as part of a four-game winning streak to end the season.

Kenyon, still in search of its first win on the season, fell 44-35 at Allegheny College last weekend. The Gators outscored the Lords 18-7 in the fourth quarter, and that proved to be the difference.
   
On the Air: Kenyon will carry this week's contest online at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/kenyon. WKVX 960 AM will carry this week's contest live and online at http://wqkt.com.

All-Time Series: Wooster leads the all-time series that dates back to 1890 51-23-3. The Scots have also won each of the last four meetings and are 17-7-1 in games played at Gambier, Ohio for which the site of the game is known. The home and away designation is unknown for 18 games in series history.

Last Meeting: The big play sparked Wooster in a 41-16 win over Kenyon at John P. Papp Stadium on Oct. 29, 2016. Nick Cummings returned a punt 89 yards for a touchdown, marking the first punt return touchdown by a Scot since Taylor Trout had a 55-yarder in the 2009 Allegheny contest. On the first offensive play following the punt return, Antonio Bailey (Duluth, Ga./Meadowcreek) took the handoff and went 80 yards right up the middle of the Kenyon defense for a touchdown, and that marked the longest run by a Scot since Dustin Sheppard's 81-yard burst in the 2006 Kenyon contest. Defensively, Wooster contained Brian Hunca, who was one of four receivers in Div. III with 1,000 yards passing entering the contest, to 77 yards on 14 receptions, including two for 14 yards in the second half.

Offense Notes: Senior Gary Muntean, (Poland, Ohio/Struthers) who earned his third career NCAC Offensive Player of the Week honor on Monday, continued to tear apart Wooster's records last week. In the second quarter, Muntean broke W Association Hall of Famer Rich Judd's single-season touchdown record on a 13-yard pass to junior Connor Allan (East Aurora, N.Y./East Aurora). In fact, by game's end, Muntean reached 24 touchdown passes on the season, and logged his second career five-touchdown game, with the latter stat matching the single-game program record. Of note, Muntean joined Judd as the lone players in program history with multiple five-touchdown games in program history. In the third quarter, Allan was the recipient of the completion that went for the yardage needed to move Muntean past former great Richard Barnes for the most career passing yards in program history, and at game's end, Muntean was at 7,338 yards. Entering the week, Muntean's three passing touchdowns behind Judd's 59 for the career mark in program history. Sophomore Nick Strausbaugh (Fredericksburg, Ohio/Waynedale) saw his 100-yard receiving streak snapped at five games, but he still went for 65 yards on three receptions, two of which resulted in touchdowns. Strausbaugh was in on the passing game as well on a trick play, and he delivered a 55-yard strike to sophomore Jason Cerniglia (Level Green, Pa./Serra District Catholic). In the fourth quarter, senior Jack Marousek (North Royalton, Ohio/North Royalton) tossed a 4-yard touchdown to freshman Keetrone Singleton (Horn Lake, Miss./Horn Lake) to give the Scots seven for the game, one better than the six Wooster had as a team in the 1997 Oberlin College contest. Also during last week's win, Wooster broke the single-season team passing touchdown record as the Scots now have 26 on the year, three better than the 1997 and 1999 teams.

Defense Notes: Wooster entered play at Hiram on Saturday with five sacks on the year, and the Scots more than doubled that total by game's end with six, four of which came in the second half. Individually, sophomore Robert Alvarez (Fort Washington, Md./Riverdale Baptist School) broke Wooster's single-game program record with 4.5 sacks, a record previously held by Henry Adams (1989 vs. Grove City College) and Andy Mizak (2004 vs. Oberlin) at 4.0. Alvarez led the way in the tackle column as well with a career-best 11 stops, and he recovered a fourth-quarter fumble that set up Wooster's single-game team record seventh passing touchdown. For his outstanding play, Alvarez was tabbed as the NCAC's Defensive Player of the Week. Senior Patrick Johnson  (Homewood, Ill./Homewood-Flossmoor) recorded his co-conference-leading third interception of the season in the win, and Wooster now has nine on the year, two behind conference-leading Wittenberg University. Johnson continues to lead Wooster with 49 tackles, three ahead of sophomore Christian Santos (Yeadon, Pa./Penn Wood Senior), while Alvarez surged to the top of the team leaderboard and is now tied for fourth in the NCAC with 8.5 tackles for loss.

Special Teams Notes: Freshman Cam Pollard (Cleveland, Ohio/John Hay) took back to opening kickoff in the Hiram contest for a 97-yard touchdown, and that marked the longest kick return in program history, besting the 93-yard runback Bryan Albani had in the 2009 Case Western Reserve University contest. Wooster's last kick return for a touchdown before Pollard's was an 87-yarder by Derrick Florence II in the 2015 Kenyon contest. Junior Marcus Bowers (Roseville, Mich./Fraser) had a big special teams play as well in Saturday's win over Hiram. While not counting statistically since it came on a two-point conversion, Bowers picked off a throw by the Terriers' Randy Tucker in the second quarter.