The Wittenberg football team is off to a rough start to the 2005 season, but all is not lost despite three straight nonconference defeats. After a bye week, the Tigers head into North Coast Athletic Conference action with a fresh start, starting with an Oct. 1 home game against Denison.
Wittenberg lost to Capital in the season opener on Sept. 3, 54-0, and then hit the road for losses at Dayton, 41-23, on Sept. 10 and at Alma, 38-27, on Sept. 17. It is unquestionably one of the most challenging nonconference schedules in the entire nation in NCAA Division III, and despite the results, there have been some positive things to emerge.
The positives start on offense, and most of them revolve around the performance of senior tailback Tristan Murray (New Carlisle, Ohio/Tecumseh). Murray, the 2004 NCAC Newcomer of the Year, has been nothing short of outstanding so far in 2005 despite being the focus of each opposing team's defensive gameplan. After compiling more than 100 yards of total offense against Capital in the opener, he exploded for 239 yards rushing against Dayton and then added more than 200 yards from scrimmage against Alma.
Murray has scored two touchdowns in each of the last two games, including three scores of more than 50 yards. The highlight was a 96-yard burst on the first play from scrimmage against Dayton, the second-longest run in school history.
With senior quarterback Ryan Holmes (Oxford, Ohio/Talawanda) out since the second quarter of the opener due to injury, the Tigers have had to make significant adjustments. Against Alma, junior quarterback Geron Stokes (Urbana, Ohio/Urbana) made his first appearance in the Red & White a memorable one, throwing for 207 yards in a little more than two quarters and nearly helping the Tigers pull off the comeback victory.
Defensively, the Tigers have been paced by the outstanding play of junior safetyMitch Fonseca (Miami, Fla./Christopher Columbus), who has led the team in tackles in each of the first three games and ranks second in the NCAC with 39 stops on the season. He also ranks among the national leaders with 13 tackles per game.
Also of note has been the performance of senior punter Jacob Thomas (New Albany, Ohio/New Albany), who set a school record with a 43.2 yards per punt average in 2004. Thomas has picked up right where he left off a year ago, leading the nation by a wide margin with a 45.2 average so far in 2005. That average was aided by a school record-tying 77-yard bomb in the second quarter against Alma.