SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — Trailing visiting Alma College 21-14 late in the second quarter, the Wittenberg Tigers needed a big play on defense. A hallmark of the great Wittenberg teams of the past, the Tiger defense of 2006 had yet to assert itself, but there was no better time than the present for senior safety Adam Hewitt (Piqua, Ohio/Sidney Lehman) to make his presence felt.
Hewitt, a converted tailback who missed all of the 2005 season with an injury, actually made a series of game-changing plays for the Tigers on this day. But none was bigger than his big hit on Alma quarterback Josh Brehm. Hewitt scooped up the ensuing fumble and raced 23 yards to paydirt to tie the game with 2:08 left before halftime. Combined with another fumble recovery inside the Tigers' 10-yard-line on Alma's next drive, Hewitt provided the necessary spark as Wittenberg raced past the Scots for a 42-24 victory.
The win was Wittenberg's first of the 2006 season and it couldn't have come at a better time. The Tigers, now 1-2, travel to unbeaten Wooster on Sept. 30 for a game that could go a long way toward determining the 2006 North Coast Athletic Conference championship. And now, a relatively young Wittenberg team has some momentum going into one of their biggest games of the year. Alma dropped to 1-2 on the year.
The Tiger defense still gave up a lot of yards to Alma - 508 to be exact. But Wittenberg did something from the point of Hewitt's fumble recoveries until the end of the game that the Tigers had been unable to do through the first two-plus games of the 2006 season - stop, or at least significantly disrupt, a quality offense. Wittenberg's rapidly improving offense cashed in, rolling up 476 yards of total offense and doubling their season-to-date point total.
Alma opened the scoring with a two-yard run by Brehm to cap a nine-play, 85-yard drive with 3:20 left in the first quarter. Wittenberg responded less than three minutes later as sophomore wide receiver Patrick Williams (Plainfield, Ind./Plainfield) caught the first touchdown pass of his career, a pretty 35-yard hook-up with freshman quarterback Aaron Huffman (Newark, Ohio/Newark). The two teams traded short touchdown drives to open the second quarter as well, starting with an eight-yard run by Alma's Kyle Ryan and a five-yard burst by senior tailbackTristan Murray (New Carlisle, Ohio/Tecumseh) that followed a 69-yard kickoff return by Hewitt.
After Joe Cline and Brehm hooked up to put Alma ahead by a touchdown again, the Tigers were forced to punt. But Hewitt's two big plays, the latter coming after senior safety Will Block (Troy, Ohio/Troy) ripped the ball loose from an Alma ballcarrier, sent the two teams into the locker room tied at 21.
After Alma opened the second half scoring with a 37-yard field goal, it was all Wittenberg, thanks largely to the big play. First came a 50-yard touchdown reception by freshman tight end Matt Guida (LaGrange, Ky./Oldham County) on the first catch of his collegiate career. Huffman rolled out to the left and then threw back to the left, where Guida outjumped an Alma defender and then broke away from the tackle to rumble more than 30 yards to the end zone.
Wittenberg sewed things up in the fourth quarter with an 83-yard touchdown run by Murray, the second-longest of his career. Murray moved into eighth on the Wittenberg career rushing list and third on the Wittenberg career scoring list on the play. Williams capped things with a six-yard touchdown reception with 5:16 to play.
Just as big as Murray's 191 rushing yards and 229 yards of total offense was the overall performance of the defense. Senior linebacker Tyler Harmon (Indianapolis, Ind./Perry Meridian) led all players with a career-high 15 tackles, while Hewitt added 12. Senior linebacker Joe Swanson (Germantown, Ohio/Valley View)chipped in with 11 tackles, including nine assists.
Brehm wound up with 340 passing yards and another 34 rushing, but the Tigers kept the Scots out of the end zone over the final 32 minutes of the game. Huffman was an efficient 9-of-19 for 182 yards and he added 59 yards on six carries, including a 47-yard run that set up Wittenberg's final touchdown.