Shelley Grostefon
Senior Sports Writer
While The College of Wooster’s football team’s first home game was initially delayed by classic Ohio weather, the team waited out the rain with successful results. The Scots’ first home game in the 2016 season ended with an exciting victory over longtime rival Allegheny College, 49-40.
The team was coming off of a difficult loss from the previous weekend at Washington & Jefferson College, 58-20. However, the team didn’t let this tough loss keep them from playing a strong home game.
In the first quarter, Gary Muntean ’18 completed four passes to contribute to the first Wooster touchdown. This trend continued throughout the game and he ended up passing for 419 yards, a program record. He also had 29 completions.
Defensively, Wooster shined with Marcus Bowers ’19 and KC Okoronkwo ’20, who completed twenty tackles combined. Wooster also had four sacks, 2.5 of which came from Aaron Roberson ’18.
Roberson applauded the offense for their role in upholding the defense at the first part of the game. “Our offense came out and played so well and they really held up our defense in moments where we struggled.”
According to head coach Frank Colaprete, the win was due to the team’s tenacious and hardworking nature. “We simply believed and just kept playing. We didn’t let anything affect us, like the weather or the delays,” he explained.
Tyson Vogel ’17 felt the same way, confident in his team’s abilities. “I thought that our team handled adversity well. We stuck together and never stopped fighting the entire game,” said Vogel.
Roberson credits younger members of the team with contributing to the win, but maintained that the win was beneficial to the team as a whole. “We depended a lot on some young guys to step up in place of some injured upperclassmen and they really grew up from the first to second half […] It was a tougher game than many of us expected but it definitely taught us a lot of lessons,” said Roberson.
Looking ahead, Colaprete knows the team will have to work on both larger concepts and specific skills. “As a team we will need to limit some of our mental mistakes. Offensively we must do a better job gaining yards on first down run plays. Defensively and with special teams we will need to do a better job tackling,” said Colaprete.
Vogel is looking ahead to the next challenge. “We know that DePauw is a very tough opponent with a lot of starters returning from last year. It will be a tough task this Saturday, but with a good week of practice and a large home crowd for Black and Gold Weekend we’re confident that we’ll give ourselves a good chance to win,” said Vogel.
The team will play their next game at home versus DePauw University at 2 p.m. in their second NCAC game at John P. Papp Stadium. This game is part of Black and Gold Weekend at the College. Colaprete’s goal is to play “a good game that fans will enjoy […] We look forward to improving this week and playing a great game.”