Round Up: Tigers Beat Denison For the Sixteenth Consecutive Year

The Wittenberg football team hasn’t suffered through a worse three-game start to a season in 50 years, but the Tigers made a solid turnaround at the right time on Saturday, defeating visiting Denison, 31-6, in the North Coast Athletic Conference opener for both teams.

October 4, 2005

The Wittenberg football team hasn't suffered through a worse three-game start to a season in 50 years, but the Tigers made a solid turnaround at the right time on Saturday, defeating visiting Denison, 31-6, in the North Coast Athletic Conference opener for both teams. It was the 16th straight year that Wittenberg beat Denison.

The Tigers, who are now 1-3 overall, but more importantly 1-0 in the NCAC, continue to get tremendous production from senior tailback Tristan Murray (New Carlisle, Ohio/Tecumseh), who surpassed the 100-yard mark for the third time in four games. At 136.0 rushing yards per game, he leads the NCAC and ranks among the national leaders. Murray also scored three times against the Big Red.

The breakout performance of the day was turned in by senior wide receiver Jered Glover (Middletown, Ohio/Middletown), who caught five passes for 53 yards after coming into the game with just nine receptions for 50 yards. The team leader in receptions each of the last three years, Glover now tops the squad again in 2005 and he reached a career milestone as well. With his fifth catch on Saturday, Glover tied the school record of 147 career receptions set four years ago by Michael Aljancic.

To top it off, Glover's 70-yard punt return, the third return touchdown of his illustrious collegiate career, provided the biggest score of the game against Denison. He took it to the house with his team clinging to a 17-6 third-quarter lead.

Junior quarterback Geron Stokes (Urbana, Ohio/Urbana) made his first start under center against Denison, and he was solid, completing 12-of-18 passes for 135 yards. He is the third different quarterback to start a game for the injury-riddled Tigers.

Defensively, the stars have been a punter, a defensive end and a safety. The punter, senior Jacob Thomas (New Albany, Ohio/New Albany), leads the conference and the nation in average by a wide margin, and earlier this season he tied a school record with a 77-yard boot. The defensive end is senior Chris Vennefron (Hamilton, Ohio/Somerville Edgewood), who is blossoming as a leader on a unit that has struggled to this point in the season. Vennefron had three tackles for loss and five total stops in the win over Denison.

Finally, junior safety Mitch Fonseca (Miami, Fla./Christopher Columbus) has been the team's leading tackler in three of the first four games, including a whopping 18 in the season opener against Capital. Fonseca ranks among the NCAC and NCAA Division III leaders in tackles and solo tackles.