Wooster Wk. 2 Game Notes (PDF)
North Coast Athletic Conference action starts this week, as The College of Wooster football team (1-0, 0-0 NCAC) hosts Kenyon College (0-1, 0-0 NCAC). Kickoff at John P. Papp Stadium is set for 1 p.m. on Saturday, September 11. Wooster won its opener against Geneva College 42-35 on Saturday night, while Kenyon lost a 34-31 overtime thriller against Benedictine University in its lid-lifter.
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 4:30 p.m. on Saturday on Ch. 22 and 8 p.m. on Saturday 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 leads the all-time series with Kenyon 54-23-3, and the Scots are riding a seven-game series winning streak. Wooster and Kenyon first met in 1890, with the Scots winning that contest 30-0. Wooster's program started in 1889, so the first meeting with Kenyon was the fifth-ever game in program history. Wooster shut out six straight opponents at the onset of the program.
Last Time Out Versus Kenyon: Then-senior Nick Strausbaugh surpassed former great Brandon Good's career receiving yards record, and Wooster held Kenyon to 149 yards of offense during a 51-13 win at McBride Field on October 26, 2019. In the second quarter, Strausbaugh weaved and dodged his way through Kenyon's defense on a third-and-22 play, and he moved the chains with a 27-yard reception. That brought the three-year superstar's career yardage log to 2,837, one shy of Good's. Strausbaugh didn't stay behind Good much longer, as two plays later, then-sophomore Mateo Renteria (Houston, Texas/Cypress Creek) went right back to the communication studies alumnus, and Strausbaugh bullied his way through the Lords for 22 more yards. Defensively, Wooster came away with takeaways on two of Kenyon's first three offensive plays. First, then-junior Beau Greenwood (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mount Lebanon) stepped in front of a Thomas Merkle pass at Wooster's 20-yard line, and that marked the Scots' fourth interception on the opponent's opening drive in a five-game stretch. Next, Jack Provenza dropped a handoff exchange on a rainy day, and then-first-year Korey Simmons fell on the pigskin at the Lords' 28-yard line.
Offense Notes: Renteria's 3-yard touchdown pass to senior Cole Hissong (Shreve, Ohio/Triway) on the season's opening drive marked the first time Wooster scored a touchdown on its first offensive series of the season since 2015. First-year Bryant Douglas II (Youngstown, Ohio/Chaney) had a 42-yard touchdown reception in the second quarter, making him the first Scot to score a receiving touchdown in his Wooster debut since Strausbaugh did so against Bluffton University in 2017. Renteria's now tied for seventh all-time in program history with 34 touchdown passes, and he became the seventh Scot to surpass 5,000 career yards of total offense during Saturday night's win over Geneva. Douglas II and first-year right tackle Seth Robinson (Mesquite, Texas/Mesquite) earned starting assignments in their collegiate debuts.
Defense Notes: Sophomore Kobe Nadu's (Summerville, Ga./Darlington School) 46-yard "pick-six" fumble return for a touchdown marked the Scots' first fumble return touchdown on an opposition's rushing play since Robert Alvarez's 33-yard runback at Bluffton University in 2018. Sophomore Domenic DeMuth (Mayfield Village, Ohio/Mayfield) and senior Angelo Petracci (Youngstown, Ohio/Canfield) are the Scots' leading tacklers with 10 apiece.
Special Teams Notes: Wooster logged a special teams takeaway on Saturday evening when sophomore PT Fischer (King, N.C./South Stokes) forced a fumble on kickoff coverage. Sophomore Dawson Arnold (McKenzie, Tenn./Gleason) came up with the recovery. Sophomore Sebestyen Balassy (Medina, Ohio/St. Ignatius) averaged 59.9 yards per kickoff, and junior Lake Barrett (Columbia, S.C./Hammond School) was a perfect 6-for-6 on extra point tries.
This and That: Wooster is 6-1 in NCAC openers under head coach Frank Colaprete. In 2019, Wooster shut out Oberlin College 17-0 in its NCAC lid-lifter. That marked the program's first shutout in a NCAC opener since 2000. Wooster held Oberlin to 212 yards of offense in that 2019 meeting. Forty points seems to be the magic number under Colaprete, as the Scots are now 15-0 when scoring at least 40 points during his tenure as head coach. Wooster is tied for the NCAA Div. III lead with three fumble recoveries. The Scots were one of 12 teams to recover three fumbles in week one.