The College of Wooster will attempt to stay in first-place in the North Coast Athletic Conference this Saturday, Oct. 24, when Wabash College (5-1, 3-1 NCAC), ranked No. 18 by D3football.com and No. 21 by the American Football Coaches Association, visits John P. Papp Stadium. The two were the favorites in the NCAC preseason coaches' poll back in early August, with Wabash first and Wooster a close second, but the Little Giants are coming off a loss to Wittenberg University, which ended their 20-game winning streak in conference games. Now, the Fighting Scots are hoping to remain one of the NCAC's two unbeaten teams, along with Wittenberg, while Wabash is likely in a must-win mode as it attempts to stay in contention for a fifth consecutive league championship. Opening kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. EDT.
On the Air: Wooster's football games can be heard live each week in the Wooster area on WKVX 960 AM or anywhere in the world by following links on the radio station's Web site at http://wkvx.com/.
Also, the audio and video from local cable provider Clear Picture, Inc., will be broadcast live over the Web at no charge to the viewer at http://www.teamline.cc/teampage?teamcode=1100, thanks to an agreement with Clear Picture and a donation from the "W" Association, the school's alumni organization which supports athletics.
All-Time Series: While the series has been competitive for the most part, Wooster has only won twice in 13 meetings with Wabash. Since the Little Giants became a full-fledged member of the NCAC in 2000, they hold a 7-2 advantage, with the Scots' victories coming back-to-back in 2003 at Wooster (23-7) and in 2004 at Wabash (33-30).
Last Game: Wooster quarterback Austin Holter (Johnstown, Ohio / Johnstown-Monroe) rushed for a career-high 152 yards, highlighted by a 27-yard touchdown with 2:18 remaining that lifted the Scots to a 24-20 comeback victory at Washington University in St. Louis.
With another 272 passing yards, Holter combined for 424 yards of total offense – a career best and the third-most in school history – and 84 of them came during the decisive drive. Trailing by three with 6:13 left on the clock, Wooster put the ball in its senior signal caller's hands, and Holter proceeded to complete 5-of-6 passes for 38 yards and rush it the other five plays for 46, capped by the game-winner on a busted play.
After allowing a touchdown on the game's opening drive, the Scots scored 17 unanswered points. First, Russ Palm (Williamstown, W. Va. / Williamstown) booted through a 22-yard field goal to close their initial possession after marching 60 yards over 12 plays.
Following a defensive stop inside its own five, Wooster mounted its longest drive of the year, going 96 yards in 16 plays with the last of those being a 10-yard touchdown pass from Holter to Mike Francescangeli (Brunswick, Ohio / Brunswick) on a crossing route on 2nd-and-goal.
Late in the half, Holter went to the air six times in a seven-play, 75-yard touchdown drive. The last two passes both went to Mike Redick (Wooster, Ohio / Northwestern), with the first 15 yards and the second being a 30-yard score for a 17-7 cushion at the 1:30 mark.
Wash. U. would answer with a touchdown, thanks in part to a kickoff return to midfield, just five plays later and then regained the lead (20-17) during the third quarter.
Holter outgained the Bears by himself, with the Scots holding a 496-296 advantage in total offense. While the game may be remembered for his performance on the ground, Holter also broke a school record with a 26-of-34 performance through the air. That .765 completion percentage marked the best for a single-game with a minimum of 25 attempts.
Other noteworthy performances came from freshman Jordan McIntyre (Steubenville, Ohio / Steubenville) and senior Matt DeGrand (Stow, Ohio / St. Vincent-St. Mary). With his 10 receptions for 109 yards, McIntyre became the first Wooster player in nine seasons to have a 10-catch game, the last being wide receiver Chris Cabot on Sept. 9, 2000. DeGrand paced the defense again with 19 tackles, the most by a Scot since Tim Cline's 22-tackle effort Sept. 29, 2001.
NCAC Player of the Week, D3football.com Team of the Week: For his efforts last week (see above), Wooster's Austin Holter (Johnstown, Ohio / Johnstown-Monroe) was selected as the North Coast Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Week and took the quarterback spot on the D3football.com Team of the Week.
Team Award Winners: The coaching staff named Jordan McIntyre (Steubenville, Ohio / Steubenville) its Offensive Player of the Week and Matt DeGrand (Stow, Ohio / St. Vincent-St. Mary) collected the defensive award for their efforts (see above). The Special Teams Player of the Week went to Russ Palm (Williamstown, W. Va. / Williamstown), who went 3-for-3 on extra points, made the only field goal he attempted (22 yards), and stepped in as the kickoff specialist for the first time this season. Additional recognition went to Austin Holter (Johnstown, Ohio / Johnstown-Monroe), who earned the Gamebreaker for his game-winning 27-yard touchdown on a busted play, senior left guard Storm Tropea (Hollywood, Fla. / Hollywood Hills), who won the Mule as the team's top offensive lineman, and sophomore Taylor Trout (Nashport, Ohio / Tri-Valley), who was the special teams' "Be the Difference" winner after averaging 10.0 yards on punt returns.
Holter's Records Watch: Austin Holter (Johnstown, Ohio / Johnstown-Monroe) is quite simply putting together one of the best seasons by a quarterback in Wooster history. Holter is well ahead of pace to reset his own mark for total offense, currently with 1,891 yards, just 821 short of his 2008 number (2,712). Additionally, he already has 130 completions, 1,368 passing yards, and 14 passing touchdowns, which leaves him only 46 completions and 668 yards shy of a couple of John Ramsier school records established in 1992 as well as seven touchdown passes shy of Rich Judd's 1997 mark in that category.
In the career portion of the Scots' record book, Holter needs 884 yards of total offense to catch Judd (7,331) and 413 rushing yards to become the first quarterback to hit the 2,000 milestone.