Game Seven Football Game Notes (PDF)
The "Old Red Lantern" is up for grabs and key North Coast Athletic Conference standings positioning is on the line this Saturday, as The College of Wooster football team (4-2, 3-2 NCAC) travels to Denison University (4-2, 4-1 NCAC) for a 3 p.m. game. Wooster won an absolute thriller 44-41 at Wabash College last Saturday, while Denison dismantled Kenyon College 45-7.
On The Air: Denison will carry a livestream of this week's contest at https://www.northcoastnetwork.com/denison/. WQKT Sports Country Radio will have the call on WKVX 960 AM and online at https://wqkt.com/.
All-Time Series: Denison leads the all-time series 41-40-7 and the Big Red are 13-11-1 since the "Old Red Lantern" started being presented to the winning team. Wooster logged a 10-game winning streak in the series from 1995-2010, but prior to that, Denison went 10-0-1 from 1984-94. Denison has a seven-game lead (18-11-1) in the series since the NCAC was formed, and the Big Red have won six straight. Notable, Wooster's first three varsity intercollegiate games came against Denison, and the Scots shut out the Big Red in all three contests by scores of 48-0 (1889), 50-0 (1889), and 58-0 (1890).
"Old Red Lantern" History: The "Old Red Lantern" trophy started being awarded to the winner of the game in 1989 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first meeting between Wooster and Denison. The two teams originally traveled to the games by rail, so the lantern was chosen to represent the series' pastime.
Last Time Out Versus Denison: Then-senior Nick Strausbaugh hauled in a four-yard touchdown on a slant route, which gave Wooster the lead with 13:10 remaining, but Denison answered right back and went on to top the Scots 38-21 on Black & Gold Weekend on October 19, 2019, with the largest home crowd since at least 2004 looking on. Denison came into the game tops in NCAA Div. III with 11 fumble recoveries, yet it was Wooster doing the recovering in the second quarter. Harrison Hartong had a punt go through his hands, and then-first-year Justin Jones recovered the pigskin at Denison's 3-yard line. Next, then-junior Kobe Matesic punched the ball out of the arms of Drew Dawkins just past midfield, and then-senior Christian Santos beat out a host of teammates for the recovery.
Offense Notes: Senior Mateo Renteria (Houston, Texas/Cypress Creek) passed for a career-high 408 yards during last Saturday's win. Renteria's yardage haul is the sixth-most in program history and it marked the first 400woo
-yard game since alumnus Gary Muntean threw for 435 yards against DePauw University in 2016. Renteria now has 45 passing touchdowns, a total fifth in program history. Renteria needs 154 passing yards to become the first quarterback in program history to have three different 2,000-yard seasons. Senior Cole Hissong (Shreve, Ohio/Triway) is now 16th in program history with 1,126 receiving yards, and he's second among tight ends, trailing alumnus Jacob Lewis (1,468). Wooster's 11th in Div. III with 326.7 passing yards per game.
Defense Notes: Senior Beau Greenwood (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mount Lebanon) is the second Scot to lead the team in tackles in a game this year, as senior Angelo Petracci (Youngstown, Ohio/Canfield) held the title for the first five games. Greenwood's 18 tackles are the most since Wooster alumnus Mitchell Czerniak's 18 against Wittenberg University in 2014. Petracci leads the NCAC with 63 tackles and he is the only player league-wide averaging over 10 tackles per game. Junior Dorion Talley's (Chagrin Falls, Ohio/Kenston) six pass breakups are tied for third in the NCAC.
Special Teams Notes: Sophomore Carter Warstler (New Albany, Ohio/Columbus Academy) logged a school-record 98-yard kickoff return during Saturday's win at Wabash. Warstler's run back was one yard longer than alumnus Cam Pollard, who opened the 2017 Hiram College game with a school-record 97-yard kickoff return. Warstler's return is tied for the fourth-longest in NCAA Div. III this fall. Warstler is the first Scot since at least 1970 - the first year kickoff and punt return touchdowns are broken out on stat sheets in College archives - to have a kickoff and punt return touchdown in the same season. Warstler's punt return touchdown came at Oberlin College from 75 yards out. Wooster last had a kickoff and punt return touchdown in the same year in 2009, but those were by different individuals. Junior Matt Pardi (Arlington, Va./Washington-Liberty) averaged 55.5 yards per punt last Saturday, with that breaking a 24-year-old program record for highest single-game punting average (minimum three punts). W Association Hall of Famer Matt Mahaffey held the old mark with 52.0 yards over three punts against Denison in 1997. Wooster has the fifth-highest net punting average in Div. III at 39.8 yards. Junior Lake Barrett (Columbia, S.C./Hammond School) was named to the Fred Mitchell Award Watch List on Friday for the month of September. The Fred Mitchell Award recognizes the top non-Football Bowl Subdivision placekicker.
This and That: Wooster's 44 points scored at Wabash marked the most points allowed by the Little Giants in a game at Little Giant Stadium since the second round of the 2008 NCAA Div. III Championships. It also marked the most points scored by an opponent at Little Giant Stadium in a regular season game since 2001.