Grove
Black
| Coaches hope their teams peak at the right time of the year. The Tigers are certainly doing that after dispatching previously unbeaten Ohio Wesleyan on Saturday. The 2001 regular season home finale was Wittenberg's 27th consecutive win in NCAC action and moved the Tigers one step closer to an unprecedented fourth consecutive outright conference crown.
Junior tailback Daniel Grove (Uhrichsville, Ohio/Claymont), who ran for a career-high 259 yards on 31 carries in the game, scored three touchdowns to run his season total to a North Coast Athletic Conference-best 14. For his dominating performance, Grove was named NCAC Co-Offensive Player of the Week. |
| Junior wide receiver Adrian Crane (Indianapolis, Ind./Ben Davis), who led both teams with 105 yards receiving on four acrobatic receptions, caught a touchdown pass, and freshman fullback Raymar Hampshire (Lima, Ohio/Elida) ran for another. Sophomore kicker Conrad Hindert (Terrace Park, Ohio/Mariemont)added a pair of second-quarter field goals that were sandwiched around a career-high 72-yard touchdown run by Grove.
Defensively, senior linebacker Nic Black (Piqua, Ohio/Piqua) led the charge with seven total tackles, while junior linebacker Andy Pope (Hamilton, Ohio/Lakota East) was everywhere with 6.5 tackles and 1.5 sacks for a loss of 19 yards. The win was especially sweet for the Tigers' 13 seniors, who now have a chance to finish their careers with a 39-1 four-year record. That would tie them with last year's seniors as the winningest senior class in school history. The Tigers can clinch at least a share of a fifth consecutive NCAC championship with a win this weekend at Hiram. An unprecedented fifth straight perfect NCAC campaign and outright conference crown will be earned with victories the last two weeks against Hiram and Earlham. |