Sam Kuhn
Senior Sportswriter
Following two tough losses to national contenders Depauw and Wabash and a bye week, the football team bounced back in a big conference tilt this past weekend, beating Oberlin 38-28. With the win, the Scots moved to 4-2 (3-2 NCAC) and equalled their win total from last season, with four games left to play this year. Once the Scots found their groove in the second quarter, there was no looking back from there.
After a fumble on the first drive, Wooster began putting offensive drives together, but it wasn’t until the second quarter that they found the endzone, a score that would unleash the scoring flood for the rest of the day. Quarterback Gary Muntean ’18 had two touchdowns in the second quarter, the first a 22-yard pass to Russell Boston ’19 and the second a one-yard run. The two offensive touchdowns sandwiched a 43-yard interception return for a touchdown by Cam Pollard ’21.
Muntean gave credit to the pick-6 providing a spark.
“I think the pick-6 got us going,” he said. “It gave us new life and you could see that in the rest of the game. Anytime special teams, offense and defense start clicking together, we’re a hard team to beat.”
After an Oberlin touchdown to end the second quarter, the Scots came back out of the half firing offensively, and after another Muntean touchdown run, an Oberlin fumble recovered by Patrick Johnson ’18 set kicker Trevor Bowden ’18 up for a 25-yard field goal. The following drive, Muntean hit Jason Cerniglia ’20 on a four-yard touchdown to put the Scots up 38-14, a lead the defense held for the fourth quarter.
Defensively, the Scots were led by Johnson, who had 11 total tackles and landed himself a spot on the D3football.com Team-of-the-Week. He now leads the team with 43 tackles, has forced two fumbles, and has two interceptions and a fumble recovery on the season. Pollard and Beau Greenwood ’21 both had interceptions on the day, and the two had eight and five tackles, respectively. D’Andre Brown ’20 also chipped into the defensive effort, notching six tackles on the day.
Muntean said that the offense’s success “started with our focus on third and fourth down[s]. With that being said, when we convert those situations, it helps us get into a groove. After that, we started clicking.” Muntean continued his stellar year and led the offense with 363 passing yards and two touchdowns in the air, as well as 76 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns. Antonio Bailey ’19 led the team in rushing, contributing 103 yards on the ground. Muntean’s air attack saw seven receivers get in on the action, and Nick Strausbaugh ’20 led the Scots with seven catches for 125 yards. Cerniglia and Boston both hauled in touchdowns on the day, and finished with 75 and 57 yards, respectively. Cyrus Boardman ’19 caught three passes for 37 yards.
Looking to this weekend, Muntean noted that “this week we don’t have to do anything special, just play Wooster football and we’ll be fine. We have to play four quarters of football.”
The Scots travel to Hiram College 2-4 (1-4 NCAC) for a 1:00 p.m. kickoff in a game that has the potential to keep the Scots in the top four of the NCAC standings.