ALMA, Mich. — It is said that the third time is the charm, and for the Wittenberg Tigers that is what a third trip to Alma College became on Saturday. The Tigers wrapped up the nonconference portion of the 2007 season with a 30-15 victory on the Scots' home field, avenging two previous losses at Bahlke Field over the last seven years.
Wittenberg improved to 2-1 on the young season, while Alma dropped to 0-3 after losing its home opener. The Tigers open the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) schedule with a home game next week against Wooster.
In some ways, a young Wittenberg team came of age at the end of the second long road trip to Michigan in as many weeks. Wittenberg's offense piled up season-highs of 23 first downs, 506 total yards and 30 points, sparked by the stellar play of senior fullback Andy Vanover (Tipp City, Ohio/Tippecanoe) and freshman tailback Corey Weber (Pataskala, Ohio/Watkins Memorial).
Vanover put together one of the best games of his collegiate career as he finished with 50 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries and 144 yards and a touchdown on seven receptions. Both yardage totals were career-highs for Vanover, and the two touchdowns were one short of the three he scored against Earlham a year ago.
Weber continued to emerge as a go-to back as he went for 106 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries, both career-highs. Senior tailback Derrick Braziel (Brook Park, Ohio/West Springfield (Va.)) added 38 yards on eight carries as the Tigers piled up 252 total rushing yards.
The offense was hardly one-dimensional, however, as sophomore quarterbackAaron Huffman (Newark, Ohio/Newark) threw for a career-best 290 yards while completing 18 of 29 passes in the game. He found junior wide receiver Patrick Williams (Plainfield, Ind./Plainfield) five times for 74 yards in the game.
Defensively, the Tigers limited the high-powered "Scot Gun" offense to just 141 yards passing and 265 total yards. For the third straight game, the Tigers' leading tacklers were freshman linebacker Brad McKinley (Hilliard, Ohio/Davidson) and senior linebacker Joe Swanson (Germantown, Ohio/Valleyview). Each of them contributed 10 tackles in the game. Swanson added a pair of key sacks.
The Tigers took a 16-0 lead into the locker room at halftime after a dominating first half, which included a 30-yard touchdown hook-up between Huffman and Vanover, a 22-yard scoring run by Weber and a 26-yard field goal from senior kicker Mark Porter (Loveland, Ohio/Loveland). The two teams traded scores to start the third quarter, with Wittenberg taking a 23-7 lead on a 12-yard run by Williams.
But after the second of Wittenberg's fumbles in the game, Alma drove 46 yards to pull within one score at the end of the third quarter. The Tiger defense stiffened, however, and Vanover put the game away with a one-yard plunge with 4:22 left on the clock.