Wooster Wk. 1 Game Notes (PDF)
The College of Wooster football team (0-0, 0-0 North Coast Athletic Conference) opens its 2021 season on Saturday evening against Geneva College (0-0, 0-0 Presidents' Athletic Conference). Kickoff at John P. Papp Stadium is set for 6 p.m. This is Wooster's first counting contest since November 16, 2019, as the Fighting Scots only played two exhibition games during a modified spring season. Geneva played five games during the spring, and the Golden Tornadoes went 2-3.
On The Air: Livestreams of Wooster's home football games are produced by MCTV, the local cable company in Wooster. You can view the stream at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/wooster. MCTV customers living in Wayne and Stark Counties can catch the first replay at 11 p.m. on Saturday on Ch. 22 and 1 p.m. on Sunday on Ch. 621. WQKT Sports Country Radio will carry this week's contest on its AM station (WKVX 960) live and online at https://wqkt.com.
All-Time Series: Wooster and Geneva have never met on the gridiron. Wooster last played a member of the PAC in 2016, when the Scots traveled to Washington & Jefferson College for the season lid-lifter. The Presidents won that game 58-20.
Last Time Out: Then-junior Mateo Renteria (Houston, Texas/Cypress Creek) scored on a 2-yard quarterback keeper to give Wooster a 38-35 lead with 14:01 remaining before visiting Ohio Wesleyan University scored 17 unanswered points to take the Scots' spring exhibition finale 52-38 on April 2, 2021. Wooster found itself in a 35-24 hole after Ohio Wesleyan's T.J. Weems scored from a yard out with 5:03 remaining in the third. Renteria led the comeback, which started by firing a lengthy downfield pass to an uncovered Mitchell Heilman (Jeromesville, Ohio/Ashland), and the Scots' then-rookie wideout went for 54 stripes, taking the team to the Ohio Wesleyan 11-yard line. Two plays later, Renteria went to work with his 11-yard touchdown scamper, and then-first-year PT Fischer's (King, N.C./South Stokes) extra point pulled Wooster within 35-31 with 3:08 left in the third.
Offense Notes: Senior tight end Cole Hissong (Shreve, Ohio/Triway) was named a second-team D3football.com Preseason All-American on August 23. It marked the second straight year Wooster's sensational tight end earned preseason honors from the popular website. Hissong is one of four returning All-NCAC players on offense. The others are senior running back Troy Baughman (McKinney, Texas/Frisco Independence), senior center Eli Lohrey (Hamilton, Ohio/Edgewood) and Renteria. Both Hissong and Renteria were first-team All-NCAC honorees in 2019. Lohrey is one of two Scots back for a fifth year. Renteria enters the year sixth all-time in program history with 4,613 passing yards and eighth all-time with 31 passing touchdowns. He needs 105 yards of total offense to become the seventh player in program history with at least 5,000. Wooster has nine players back who were starters during the spring exhibition season.
Defense Notes: Senior linebacker Angelo Petracci (Youngstown, Ohio/Canfield) is Wooster's nominee for this year's Allstate American Football Coaches Association Good Works Team® and the National Football Foundation's William V. Campbell Trophy®. Senior defensive back Beau Greenwood (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mount Lebanon), Wooster's other fifth-year player, headlines the returnees as a two-time all-conference pick. Wooster also has nine players back on defense who were starters during the spring exhibition slate. Junior defensive back Langston Williams (New York, N.Y./Xavier) was Wooster's leading tackler this spring with 20. Sophomore defensive back Andrew Armile (Youngstown, Ohio/Cardinal Mooney) and 2021 graduate Eric Kraus were next with 13 apiece.
Special Teams Notes: Wooster was the only team in the NCAC that didn't have a punt blocked in 2019. Junior Matt Pardi (Arlington, Va./Washington-Liberty) is back to handle the primary punting duties. Pardi has the seventh-highest average per punt (36.9 yards) in program history. Junior Lake Barrett (Columbia, S.C./Hammond School) ended his rookie season with all-conference laurels. Barrett broke Wooster's single-season record with 11 made field goals. He went 11-for-14 on field goals and 26-for-27 on extra-point tries as a first-year. Junior Matt Ulishney (Greensburg, Pa./Serra District Catholic) emerged as a dangerous returner in 2019. He had a 90-yard kickoff return for a touchdown against Ohio Wesleyan, and nearly broke free for a second one later in the game before settling for a 59-yard run back.
This and That: Wooster head coach Frank Colaprete is in year nine as the Scots' head coach. He's tied with Wooster legend John Swigart for the fifth-longest coaching tenure in program history. This is the 124th season of Wooster football, with the program dating back to 1889. Wooster's looking for its fourth-straight 1-0 start to a season. Wooster last started 1-0 in at least four straight years when the Scots won their opener in five consecutive seasons (2002-06). The Scots have players from 22 different states and two from Canada this year.