October 3rd, 2019 7:00am
We roll into week five of the season with Tiffin and Hillsdale at the top of the conference standings and plenty to look forward to with a full slate of games this week…
Saint Anselm at Tiffin, 1 p.m.
The Dragons established themselves as the front-runner in the league as they rallied in the fourth quarter to take down Ohio Dominican 41-31 last Saturday. Tiffin’s offense was the story of the game, rolling up 591 yards just one week after ODU held Findlay to 10 points. After settling for two short field goals in the first half, the Dragons were able to find the end zone four times in the second half – three from long distance – to pull out the win.
Nick Watson looks like the best quarterback in the league, throwing for better than 300 yards per game with nine TDs against just one pick. He’s also rushed for four scores. JaQuan Hardy is averaging 7.7 yards per carry and leads the league in rushing, and Stanley Jackson is nearly lapping the G-MAC field in receiving with 606 yards.
Charlie Cleveland was a force defensively in the win over ODU, registering two sacks and three tackles for loss. The Dragons defense leads the league in scoring (21.3) and yards (329.8) and they’ve picked off a league-high nine passes. Carrington Contee has three picks to lead the conference.
The Dragons have a softer part of their schedule in the month of October, but will close with Hillsdale and Findlay. They should enter November with a 7-1 record and be regionally ranked for a second straight year.
Saint Anselm is winless on the season and has allowed at least 38 points in each game. Hawks quarterbacks have also thrown 11 picks on the year. Tiffin should have little trouble in this one.
Concord at Hillsdale, 1 p.m.
The Chargers had little trouble in dispatching of Walsh 30-0 last week, outgaining the Cavaliers 356-93. The defense was lights out, forcing Walsh to punt 10 times, and the longest Cavaliers drive spanned just 28 yards.
Junior Alex Anschultz leads the league with nine pass break ups, tallying three last week. Zach Herzog has made 44 tackles on the season to also lead the defense, which has now yielded just 14 points over the past two games after surrendering 77 in the first two. The Chargers now rank second in the league in scoring defense at 22.8 points per game.
The offense has shown signs of improvement behind its top two playmakers, David Graham and Konnor Maloney. Graham is averaging 6.4 yards per carry and Maloney has 356 yards receiving in the last three weeks. But the Chargers still need to get more from quarterback Luke Keller, who is completing 43.3 percent of his passes this season.
The Mountain Lions are seeking their first win of the season, though they’ve hung close with Glenville State (27-20) and West Virginia State (33-27) the last two weeks. Concord is averaging just 2.6 yards per carry as a team and 16.8 points per game, and defensively is surrendering 36 points per contest.
Ohio Dominican at Alderson Broaddus, 1 p.m.
For the second straight year, ODU dropped a tight decision on the road to Tiffin, and once again sees its conference title and playoff hopes jeopardized with the setback. Limited to a nine game schedule after Malone dropped its program, the best the Panthers can do is finish 7-2 and look for some help around the region.
An encouraging note is how the Panther offense sprang to life in the second half against the Dragons, tallying 24 points after intermission. ODU was held to a short field goal at the start of the fourth quarter, though, when a touchdown could have given the Panthers an eight point cushion, and a turnover in the final two minutes when trailing by three ended the chances of a comeback.
After being resilient on defense against Findlay, the Panthers didn’t find too many answers for Nick Watson and Co. last Saturday, and will need to rebound against an AB team that is surprisingly struggling on both sides of the ball right now.
AB has been outscored 214-79, an average margin of nearly five touchdowns per game. The Battlers are surrendering a staggering 7.8 yards per play and 550 yards of offense per contest. They had no answers in allowing 75 points to Findlay last Saturday, the second time in three weeks an opponent has hung 70 on them.
The offense is averaging 338 yards per game and will need to get going early against ODU. Last year, the Battlers put together a great first half against the Panthers and led 27-24 at intermission, but was shutout in the second half of an eventual 66-27 ODU victory.
Walsh at Lake Erie, 3 p.m.
If you missed the news earlier this week, these two teams have created a rivalry game, called the “Pride and Passion Game”, and will play for a traveling trophy each year. This will be the seventh all-time meeting between the programs, dating back to their GLIAC days, with Lake Erie winning the first four contests and Walsh capturing the last two.
Lake Erie won for the first time in 17 games with a 49-42 victory over Kentucky Wesleyan last week. Tied at 42, Lake Erie drove 93 yards in the final three minutes of the game to score the game-winning touchdown. The Storm benefited from three short-field touchdowns, scoring on drives of 28, 34 and 10 yards, and also returned a blocked kick for a touchdown in earning the win. LEC put up those 49 points on just 327 yards of total offense.
Justin Growel led the defensive effort with a whopping 5.0 tackles for loss as the Lake Erie defense recorded five sacks and broke up 11 passes while also totaling 13 tackles for loss.
The Cavaliers simply could not get any offense going in their setback to Hillsdale and have now scored just 15 points in four games this season. They’re averaging just 137 yards of offense per contest and haven’t been able to create any opportunities for Koby Adu-Poku.
Walsh’s defense hung in well against Hillsdale, allowing just one scoring drive of longer than 49 yards. They recorded four sacks and held David Graham to 3.5 yards per carry, but were on the field for almost 38 minutes and 81 plays.
Kentucky Wesleyan at Findlay, 7 p.m.
The Panthers came oh-so-close to picking up their first win of the year. They racked up 30 first downs and the offense was on the field for a staggering 96 plays at Lake Erie. They even scored twice on safeties.
Even though it wasn’t enough, KWC had to be encouraged by the play of Wiley Cain, who threw for 337 yards and three touchdowns against a Lake Erie defense that had been fairly stout this season. The defense allowed just 327 yards, and the Panthers committed just two penalties. But a couple of short punts and a fumble on a free kick after one of the safeties proved too much to overcome.
They’ll have a serious test awaiting them in Findlay. The Oilers pretty much had their way in a 75-28 win over AB, with three different players – none of them named Brian Benson – rushing for over 100 yards in the beatdown. The Oilers are now rushing for over 250 yards per game, and though the 28 points allowed are a season-high, AB’s final two TDs came in the fourth quarter when the game had long since been decided.
Findlay’s defense, in fact, limited AB to just 3.4 yards per play. Despite running 82 offensive plays, Alderson Broaddus finished with just 279 yards of total offense. Findlay’s offense, meanwhile, averaged better than nine yards per play.