Football
Football: #10 Wabash Blanks Big Red
Jon Berg and the Big Red couldn't outrun the Wabash defense on Saturday.
Date: November 3, 2007
Location: CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind.
Matt Hudson threw for 303 yards and four touchdown passes as the 10th ranked Wabash College Little Giants parlayed a 21-0 first quarter lead into a 42-0 victory over the Denison Big Red in Crawfordsville, Ind. on Saturday afternoon.
Wabash scored on their opening three drives of the contest which all ended in touchdown passes by Hudson to take a commanding lead that would prove insurmountable versus a stout Wabash defense.
Hudson connected on scoring strikes of 13, 6 and 49-yards in the first quarter and would add a second 6-yard TD pass to Mike Russell with just over one minute left in the first half to give Wabash a 28-0 lead at the break.
The Denison rushing attack, which entered the week ranked second in the NCAC in yards per game (202.2) just could never get going on Saturday. Give All-American and 2006 NCAC Defensive Player of the Year Adrian Pyneberg a lot of the credit for that. Pyneberg finished the day with 12 tackles, two sacks and 3.5 tackles for a loss. Denison finished with 41 net rushing yards as quarterback Mike Barnes (Mayfield Heights, Ohio/Mayfield) was sacked six times. Jon Berg (Washington, Pa./Trinity) led the way with 18 carries for 65 yards while Dan Crawford (Upper Arlington, Ohio/Upper Arlington) added 25 yards off nine carries.
Barnes was 12-for-29 in the passing game for 102 yards and one interception. Peter Jarowey (Newton, Mass./Newton South) and Brandon Taylor (East Grand Rapids, Mich./East Grand Rapids) both had three receptions apiece for a combined 52 yards. Defensively, Drew Homyk (Chicago, Ill./St. Ignatius Prep) posted 10 tackles.
For Wabash, Hudson turned in a sparking performance going 21-of-25 for 303 yards and four touchdowns while throwing one interception in the second quarter that was picked off by Denison freshman Nick Weiss (Cincinnati, Ohio/Anderson).
Hudson hooked up with Russell 11 times for 131 yards while Bart Banach and Ray Green also hauled in receiving touchdowns from the Little Giant quarterback.
The victory improves Wabash's record to 9-0 and gives them the outright, 2007 North Coast Athletic Conference championship. They will travel to DePauw next Saturday for the 114th Monon Bell game. The loss drops Denison's record to 3-6 overall and 2-4 in NCAC play. They will close out the 2007 season next Saturday (Nov. 10) when they host Earlham College. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m.