Junior Raymar Hampshire leads the Tigers' rushing attack with 368 yards and six touchdowns (including one receiving), and he is averaging a robust 7.4 yards per carry. Through the air, junior quarterback Ryan Holmes has six touchdowns, 509 yards and no interceptions. His chief targets have been senior Skip Ivery with 13 catches for 224 yards and three touchdowns and sophomore Jered Glover with nine receptions for 143 yards and three touchdowns (including one on a school-record 96-yard kickoff return). The Tigers, who have led the NCAC in total defense 10 of the last 11 years, have been dominant again. The unit is holding opponents to 271 yards and 14 points per game. Safety Yusef Abdul-Zahir leads the way with 27 total tackles, including 15 against Urbana. Linebacker Gary George has 23 tackles, including 2.5 for loss, and two interceptions, including one against Thomas More he returned 30 yards for a score.
Denison is off to an 0-3 start, with season-opening losses against Waynesburg (70-14), Case Western Reserve (51-20) and Ohio Wesleyan (17-10). The Big Red finished 2-8 a year ago, 2-5 in the NCAC.
Denison averages nearly 300 yards per game in total offense, but has managed just 14.7 points per game. Individually, Phil Bouwhis leads the rushing attack with an average of 108 yards per game, Larry Capetto has thrown for 305 yards and two touchdowns and Josh Jirgens, who owns several school records for receiving, tops the team with 15 receptions. Defensively, Tim Koprowski leads with 26 tackles.
All season long, WULM also hosts Tiger Talk on Thursdays from 8-9 p.m. The show includes interviews and analysis with Wittenberg Head Coach Joe Fincham and his players and assistant coaches.
Skip Ivery
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Holmes leads the NCAC and ranks among the best in the nation in passing efficiency with a spectacular rating of 178.4. After finishing 7-of-11 for 166 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions against Thomas More, Holmes is now completing more than 60 percent of his passes, and he has more than 500 yards passing for the season. And he has no interceptions yet this season, although he has absorbed nine sacks the last two games.
Jered Glover
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After the Saints opened the scoring, Jered Glover turned things around with a school-record 96-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. Just before the end of the first quarter, the Tigers struck again as tailback Raymar Hampshire scored on a one-yard touchdown plunge and caught a short pass for the two-point conversion.
Hampshire added two more scores, on a five-yard run and a 54-yard swing pass, linebacker Gary George picked off a pass and went 30 yards to paydirt, wide receiver Skip Ivery hauled in a 35-yard touchdown pass, Glover caught a 36-yard screen pass for a touchdown and freshman Jason Hartzler scored for the first time in his career from the 29 yards out. The two teams each posted 22 first downs and the net yardage was 424 for the Saints and 440 for Wittenberg. The difference was turnovers and the timing of them - Wittenberg collected five interceptions, returning one for a touchdown and making two in the end zone, while the Tigers' two fumbles were not converted into points. Individually, Wittenberg got 111 yards on 17 carries from Hampshire, Ivery totaled 64 yards on four receptions and Glover finished 154 all-purpose yards (22 rushing, 36 receiving and 96 kickoff returns). Holmes had 166 yards and three touchdowns on seven completions.
Defensively, freshman safety Mitch Fonseca had 13 tackles and an interception, linebackers Peter Franz and George totaled eight tackles each and sophomore Brandon Slade finished with two interceptions.
Dustin Goldsbury
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The rout was on early as tailback Daniel Grove capped a seven-play, 76-yard drive with a 39-yard scoring run on fourth-and-one with 11:52 remaining in the first quarter, and then he added touchdown runs of 14 yards and five yards. Grove finished the game with 14 carries for 173 yards and three touchdowns. In addition, Raymar Hampshire finished with 72 yards and two touchdowns on six carries and Jason Stephan contributed four rushes for 54 yards and one score.
Rounding out the scoring for the Tigers, who held a 425-12 advantage in total yards in the first half and 564-116 in the game overall, were Jered Glover, who caught a 44-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Greg Cornett in the first quarter, and wide receiver Tim Horn, who was on the receiving end of an eight-yard scoring hook-up with quarterback Kurt Forrest. Cornett finished with a 14-of-18 passing day for 187 yards and the Tigers posted 231 yards passing as a team.
Defensively, the Tigers were led by linebacker Dustin Goldsbury, who had 10 tackles, including 2.5 for a loss of four yards. Linebacker Anthoni Fazio added six tackles.
Joe Fincham
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