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The Wittenberg Tigers head into Game 4 of the 2004 season with a bit of momentum. After a disappointing open to the season and a loss at No. 4 ranked Capital on Sept. 4, Wittenberg rallied from a 10-point deficit to defeat Thomas More on Sept. 18 and then cruised through a 48-27 victory over winless Huntingdon on Sept. 25.
Now the Tigers hit the road for the first time since the opening week, this time heading to Granville, Ohio, for a game against Denison University. It will be the North Coast Athletic Conference opener for both teams, and both outfits bring 2-1 overall records into this weekend's action.
The team's primary offensive weapons include junior tailbacks Will Block and Tristan Murray, sophomore fullback Tyler Harmon and record-breaking junior wide receiver Jered Glover, who is already fifth on the career receiving list at Wittenberg with 110 catches. Murray busted out for 198 yards of total offense against Thomas More, including a key 63-yard touchdown catch that started the comeback, and Glover did the same against Huntingdon with six receptions for 119 yards and three touchdowns, including a game-changing 65-yard scoring play in the third quarter.
Defensively, the Tigers, who have led the NCAC in total defense 10 of the last 12 years, have started slowly despite the presence of nine returning starters. The Tigers are allowing an uncharacteristic 35.7 points per game while shuffling a lot of players in and out of the games, in part due to injuries and in part due to inconsistency. The team's leading tackler is sophomore safety Mitch Fonseca, who has nine solos and nine assists on the season, including a team-best eight total stops in the win over Huntingdon. Junior safety Adam Hewitt has played well in his first two collegiate starts on defense (he started three games his first two years at tailback), recording 16 tackles, including 12 solos, and making two interceptions against Huntingdon.
This year could be different, and it will likely be a potent offense that gets the majority of the credit. Since opening the season with a disappointing 64-0 loss at Presidents Athletic Conference powerhouse Waynesburg, the Big Red have shown vast improvement the last two games in defeating Case Western, 36-21, and Gettysburg, 35-23.
The Big Red's offense is spearheaded by an emerging big-play trio of their own. Tailback Phil Bouwhuis, fresh off a big season in 2003, has 244 yards and three touchdowns already this year, quarterback Larry Cappetto has thrown for 481 yards and five scores and receiver Zack Brent, the NCAC Player of the Week on Sept. 26, has hauled in 14 passes for 134 yards and three TDs.
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Could the Wittenberg Tigers develop into the kind of team fans are used to seeing? Considering the team's overall youth, the potential is certainly there, but development will have to come quickly.
Take the defense, for instance. The top nine tacklers on the team are underclassmen, and seven of them are either freshmen or sophomores. The starting defensive lineup in Week 3 of the 2004 season features just two seniors, and of the 24 players in the defensive two-deep, just five are seniors. Three starters - depending on the health of cornerback Alan Tracewell, who missed the Huntingdon game due to illness - are freshman, including two of the three linebackers (Wade Laughrey and Matt Ruggles).
Offensively, the unit is a little less green, but not much. The starting lineup includes three seniors, six juniors and three sophomores. The two-deep offers just one additional senior and several freshman and sophomores who are getting their fair share of playing time.
This year's broadcasts can be heard locally on WUSO 89.1-FM, the university's student-operated station. It can also be heard around the world on the Internet thanks to Wittenberg's partnership with Stretch Internet. Wittenberg fans do not have to pay to listen to broadcasts, and anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can log in and listen.
Feedback during and after games is encouraged using a new e-mail address: wittradio@yahoo.com. Whenever possible, e-mails will be read on the air during games by the announcers, and questions will be answered at that time.
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Jered Glover
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Jered Glover may be less than 30 games into his collegiate career, but he is already working his way up the career receiving charts at Wittenberg. The team's leading receiver each of the last two years with 53 and 44 catches respectively, Glover has added 14 catches for 224 yards and three touchdowns in 2004. That brings his career totals to 110 catches, 1,584 yards and 16 touchdowns, good for fifth, sixth and fifth respectively on the all-time lists. He is on pace to shatter all three records, possibly reaching the top spot in each category before the end of the 2004 season.
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Sometimes games come down to kicking, punting and field position. Wittenberg has the best punter in the conference, at least based on statistics, at the moment in senior Jacob Thomas. He is averaging a robust 40.0, which is just 1.1 yards per punt short of the school record for average in a season. Ironically, the record for punting average in a season is held by Denison's punting/kicking coach Gary Sitler, who had 50 punts cover 2,056 yards in 1976.
Denison, on the other hand, is averaging just 21.1 yards per punt, last in the NCAC.
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Tristan Murray
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It took a while for Wittenberg to get things going, but they eventually prevailed in a nonconference match-up with Huntingdon College, 48-27.
The Tigers relied on an emerging big-play trio to get things going in this one. Junior wide receiver Jered Glover exploded for three touchdowns in the second half, including a dazzling 65-yard TD reception with 10:47 remaining in the third quarter that broke the game open. He scored two more touchdowns in the next 12 minutes of the game, almost single-handedly turning a 20-14 Wittenberg advantage into a commanding 41-14 lead with 12:59 left in the fourth quarter. Glover finished the game with 119 yards receiving on six receptions and a total of 193 all-purpose yards, which included a pair of kickoff returns for 71 total yards. Senior quarterback Ryan Holmes was on the starting end of the first two Glover touchdown receptions, and he finished his day before the fourth quarter started with efficient stats of 10-of-13 passing for 176 yards and two touchdowns, in addition to his second rushing touchdown of the season.
The third member of that big-play troika is junior tailback Tristan Murray, who did the majority of the dirty work on the ground. Toting the ball 24 times in the game, Murray accumulated 127 hard-earned yards and scored the game's first touchdown. As a team, Wittenberg ground out 187 yards rushing on 48 attempts for a 3.9 yards per carry average. Rounding things out, junior tight end Nate Cherry hauled in a three-yard touchdown strike from sophomore quarterback Chris Clark in the fourth quarter, a play set up by a 74-yard catch-and-run by junior tailback Will Block on a swing pass.
Defensively, junior safety Adam Hewitt picked off two passes in the first quarter that led directly to the first 10 points of the game. Sophomore safety Mitch Fonseca finished with eight tackles to lead the team, and junior cornerback Lavon Wilborn and freshman linebacker Matt Ruggles each had seven stops in their first collegiate starts.
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Wittenberg holds a commanding 44-23-2 advantage in the all-time series between the Tigers and Big Red. Wittenberg has played Denison 69 times overall, the second-most games against one opponent in the program's history. Only Ohio Wesleyan, which has faced Wittenberg 79 times, has played the Tigers more often.
The series between Denison and Wittenberg has been even more lopsided since the Tigers joined the NCAC in 1989. Since the Big Red defeated the Tigers that year by a 21-14 score, Wittenberg has reeled off 14 straight wins, including six shutouts. Denison hasn't scored more than 14 points in a game against Wittenberg since 1990, a 24-21 Tiger victory. Conversely, Wittenberg has scored at least 24 points in every game since 1989, and the Tigers have hung 50 or more points on the Big Red six times during that span.
Last year, Wittenberg posted a 60-7 victory over the Big Red at Edwards-Maurer Field in Springfield. The Tigers scored in almost every imaginable way, including four touchdown runs, four touchdown passes, an interception return, a field goal and a safety. Wittenberg recorded 28 first downs to Denison's 11, ran up 240 yards rushing to -16 for the Big Red and totaled 445 yards to Denison's 157.
Raymar Hampshire led the rushing attack with 72 yards on 11 carries, while Skip Ivery added 61 yards on three carries, Tyler Harmon finished with 53 yards on seven carries and Joe Brumfield tallied 13 carries and 41 yards. George Andress finished 10-of-13 for 104 yards and two touchdowns, Ryan Holmes had 74 yards and one TD on five completions and Kurt Forrest added 27 yards on 3-of-5 passing. Jered Glover led the receivers with 37 yards on five catches and Ivery had 45 yards on three receptions.
Denison is led by Nick Fletcher, who has an 11-32 overall record in four-plus years at the helm of the Big Red. Before arriving at Denison, Fletcher directed the Eureka College football program for five years, compiling a 27-22 overall record while earning Illini-Badger Conference Coach of the Year two times. Fletcher's coaching career also includes a two-year stint with Siena College, and 10 years with Carmel (N.Y.) High School. He is a 1976 graduate of Johns Hopkins University, where he was a four-year letterwinner and honorable mention All-American.