CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind. — The Wittenberg Tigers hit the road for the fourth time in the first six weeks of the 2007 season, but unlike the previous three out-of-state jaunts the defending North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) champions have returned with a loss after absorbing a 24-17 defeat at Wabash.
The loss is crippling to the Tigers and their hopes of reaching the NCAA Division III Tournament for the second straight year. Wittenberg dropped to 4-2 overall and 2-1 in the NCAC, while Wabash, the preseason conference favorite and co-champion with the Tigers a year ago, improved to 6-0 overall and 4-0 in the NCAC. The 14th-ranked Little Giants are one-half of a game ahead of Oberlin, which makes the long road trip to Indiana next week, with three NCAC games remaining.
The two teams played to a statistical standoff, but the Little Giants came up with big plays at the critical moments, starting with a pair of defensive stands on Wittenberg's first two drives. The Tigers had the ball for more than 11 minutes in the first quarter, but they had just a 3-0 lead after moving inside the 10-yard-line twice but going 1-for-2 on field goal attempts by senior kicker Mark Porter (Loveland, Ohio/Loveland).
That's when Wabash got its offense untracked, opening the second quarter with a 54-yard touchdown pass and following that with two more scoring drives for 17 straight points. Wittenberg finally answered on its final first-half drive on a 23-yard scoring pass from sophomore quarterback Aaron Huffman (Newark, Ohio/Newark) to sophomore tight end Mat Guida (LaGrange, Ky./Oldham County)to make it 17-10 at halftime.
After a scoreless third quarter, things heated up in the final stanza, starting with a Wabash touchdown on fourth-and-goal from the one-yard line. The Tigers responded with a four-yard touchdown pass from Huffman to junior wide receiverPatrick Williams (Plainfield, Ind./Plainfield), setting the stage for a topsy-turvy final two minutes. After Wabash fumbled the ball in Wittenberg territory, Huffman and Williams hooked up again to get the Tigers in scoring range, but a fourth-down pass fell incomplete at the five-yard-line in the waning seconds to dash any hopes of a comeback.
Williams had his best day as a collegian, finishing with 12 receptions, which tied a 43-year-old school record held by one-time NFL tight end Ron Duncan. He was on the receiving end of 149 of Huffman's 245 yards in the game. It was the third time in the last four games that Huffman topped 200 passing yards.
The Tigers were forced to take to the air because Wabash's stellar defense limited Wittenberg to 83 yards on 32 carries. Huffman was Wittenberg's leading rusher with 33 yards on eight carries. Wabash's number were similar as the Little Giants picked up 84 hard-earned yards on 35 carries, but the passing attack generated 314 yards, including 293 on 23-of-34 passing by sophomore quarterback Matt Hudson. The passing yardage was easily a season-high allowed by the Tiger defense.
Defensively, the leaders were the usual suspects in freshman linebacker Brad McKinley (Hilliard, Ohio/Davidson) with 13 tackles and a forced fumble and senior linebacker Joe Swanson (Germantown, Ohio/Valleyview) with 12 tackles and an interception. However, a telling statistic was just one sack in the game, although the Tigers did come up with two interceptions and two passes broken up.
The formula for the rest of the season is simple - the Tigers must win the rest of their games and hope for a lot of help from unexpected NCAC sources. Wittenberg hopes to get back on the winning track on Oct. 20 against Ohio Wesleyan, the Tigers' 2007 homecoming opponent.