Wittenberg Jumps On Earlham Early, Cruises To Big Victory

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - The Wittenberg Tigers made short work of the Earlham Quakers' on Parents Weekend at Edwards-Maurer Field. Wittenberg scored 20 points in the first quarter and 23 more in the second 15 minutes, leading to a comfortable 56-14 victory.

The win improved Wittenberg to 4-1 overall and 2-0 in the North Coast Athletic Conference heading into next weekend's game at winless Hiram College. Earlham, which defeated Hiram 40-0 a week ago but was without quarterback Justin Rummell, the NCAC's leader in passing yardage, for the game at Wittenberg, dropped to 2-4 overall and 1-2 in the conference.

The Tigers spread things around in this one as 11 different players recorded at least one rushing attempt, four different players took snaps at quarterback and nine different players caught passes. That doesn't even take into account the dozens of Tiger players who came in and out of the game throughout the second half in what was Wittenberg's first truly lopsided victory of 2004. Junior tailback Tristan Murray led the Tigers on the ground with 82 yards on 12 carries, junior wide receiver Jered Glover topped the team with eight receptions for 121 yards and senior quarterback Ryan Holmes was solid with 230 yards on 15-of-20 passing.

The Tigers scored the first 23 points of the game on two Glover touchdowns, a TD jaunt by Murray and a 25-yard Mark Porter field goal. After Earlham got on the board on a 12-yard pass play from James Jewell to Dereck Parkevich, Wittenberg scored three more touchdowns as junior wide receiver Braden Freeman hauled in two TD passes and senior defensive end Chris Vennefron hit paydirt for the first time in his career on a 27-yard fumble recovery and return for a touchdown.

In the second half, Porter added field goals of 24 and 27 yards and freshman fullback Andy Vanover added a five-yard touchdown on a swing pass from sophomore quarterback Chris Clark. Earlham rounded things out with a 14-yard touchdown pass from Jewell to Joe White with 10:33 to go in the game.

For the game, Wittenberg pretty much doubled up on Earlham in most statistical categories. The Tigers picked up 27 first downs to 13 for Earlham, the rushing yardage was 277-83, the passing yardage was 273-142 and the time of possession was 35:15 to 24:45, all in favor of Wittenberg. Individually, Earlham finished with 139 yards on 14-of-26 passing by Jewell, White led the receivers with four catches for 85 yards and Maurice Hibbler was the leading ground-gainer with 36 yards on six rushes.

Glover moved into fourth place on the Wittenberg career receiving list with his eight catches, which gave him 123 for his career. He now has five touchdowns this season. For Holmes, the four touchdown passes tied a career high set three weeks ago in a 35-31 win over Thomas More. Clark was also very good directing the Tiger offense, finishing 4-of-5 for 43 yards and one touchdown in one quarter of action.

Defensively, 26 different players recorded statistics, and none of them managed more than five total tackles. Leading the way were junior defensive end Dave Fleck with five tackles, including 1.5 for a loss of four yards, and sophomore linebacker Joe Swanson with five tackles. Vennefron was credited with four assisted tackles, including one for a three-yard loss, and the fumble recovery.