Sunday, October 21, 2007
The Purple Raiders shut down the Yellow Jackets.
By ERIC HAMILTON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
ALLIANCE — For the second straight season, the Baldwin-Wallace College football team held Mount Union to its lowest offensive point total of the year so far.
Too bad for the Yellow Jackets the effort still resulted in a 35-0 thumping on Saturday at Mount Union Stadium.
While the Mount Union offense didn’t eclipse its average of 60 points per game, the defense passed its stiffest test of the 2007 season and posted its fourth shutout of the season — matching its total from 2006.
“Stifling,” replied Baldwin-Wallace coach John Snell, when asked to assess the Mount Union. “They are good up front and have great people in the secondary.
“They just don’t give you any room to breathe. We’ve come down here two years in a row and not scored a single point; that makes me sick.”
Mount’s defense has been solid all season, but often gets overshadowed by a Purple Raiders offense that came in averaging 60 points per game.
But the unit is racking up impressive numbers of its own, as B-W found out first-hand.
The unit has now gone 14 straight quarters without allowing a score and has not given up a touchdown in 20 consecutive quarters. Even more impressive, the defense has given up 24 total points, while scoring 24 points of its own.
The Purple Raiders’ defense has been at its best against B-W in the recent past, holding the Yellow Jackets to just 10 points in the last five meetings, including three shutouts.
“It was another stellar effort by our defense,” Mount Union coach Larry Kehres said. “We gave up a few plays, but I like the way we responded by getting a stop and blocking a field goal.
“We played good today, but great on defense. Our passing game was difficult because of the wind, but we had some success and Nate [Kmic] had a good game running the ball.
“Our games against B-W are usually very defensive. You’d have to go back to the mid-1990s to find a lot of offense. I think the good defense they have played against us has challenged us to match that intensity. Today, we did that.”
B-W showed it could move the ball at times, but struggled once it got into Mount Union territory.
The Yellow Jackets were 0-for-4 in the red zone with a blocked field goal, a missed field goal and a fumble. B-W converted just 2-of-15 third down conversions.
Mount Union (7-0, 6-0 Ohio Athletic Conference) took an early 7-0 lead with a 3-yard TD run by Justin Wray on the game’s opening possession.
After recovering a B-W fumble at the Mount Union 21, the Purple Raiders marched 79 yards in 13 plays. Pierre Garcon capped the drive with a 15-yard TD run to put his team up 14-0.
Mount Union added another score to make it 21-0 with 5:18 left in the second quarter.
On B-W’s next offensive possession, Mount’s defense scored its fourth touchdown of the season, this coming via a 50-yard interception return by James Herbert. It was his second score of the season, the other coming on a blocked punt return.
“I just showed blitz, then dropped back and followed the receiver,” said Herbert, of the play that gave Mount Union a 28-0 advantage. “Then I looked up and the ball was right there.”
Mount Union will put its NCAA all-divisions record 64-game road winning streak on the line next week against rival Capital. The Crusaders were ranked No. 6 in the country, before being upset by Otterbein on Saturday.