| Making their third trip to Mount Union Stadium in the last four NCAA Division III playoffs, the Tigers were overmatched in the trenches and on the scoreboard by the defending national champion Purple Raiders in a 49-21 decision. Wittenberg's season comes to a close with an 11-2 overall record.
The first drive of the game set the stage as Mount Union drove 68 yards on nine plays to score. The Purple Raiders led 14-0 early in the second quarter when Wittenberg made its biggest play of the game. Junior tailback Daniel Grove (Uhrichsville, Ohio/Claymont) put together an electrifying 64-yard TD run, set up by a devastating block by freshman fullback Raymar Hampshire (Lima, Ohio/Elida). That only set the stage for more Mount Union fireworks, unfortunately for the Wittenberg faithful that had made the trip to Alliance. The Purple Raiders scored two more times before the intermission to make it 28-7. The second half was more of the same, as the Tigers and Grove made some headway against the best defense in NCAA Division III but came away with just 14 more points, both on short touchdown passes from junior quarterbackGreg Cornett (Franklin, Ohio/Franklin) to junior wide receiver Adrian Crane (Indianapolis, Ind./Ben Davis). Mount Union countered three more long scoring runs to put the game away. |
The mammoth Mount Union offensive line and All-American tailback Chuck Moore stole the show, battering a solid Wittenberg defense and pounding right at the strength of it, a senior-dominated defensive line. Moore finished with a Mount Union-record 346 yards rushing and four touchdowns. As a team, Mount Union rushed for a whopping 449 yards on 55 carries, good for an average of 8.2 yards per carry. Moore averaged 10.8 yards per carry by himself.
Overall, Mount Union rolled up 583 yards of total offense, easily the highest total against Wittenberg all season. The 49 points the Purple Raiders scored were 23 more than Alma hung on the Tigers in a Week 3 defeat.
While the defensive numbers were grim, Wittenberg's offense gamely fought back. Grove finished with his third straight 100-yard playoff game, this time rambling for 160 yards on 18 carries. Cornett finished 16-of-30 for 160 yards and two touchdowns. The Tiger receiving corps of Aljancic, sophomore Skip Ivery (Columbus, Ohio/Groveport-Madison) and Crane all performed admirably as well. Aljancic made eight catches for 98 yards, including an acrobatic 37-yard reception that set up Wittenberg's final TD. Ivery had three catches for 30 yards, two of which went for first downs, and Crane had three catches for 20 yards, including the aforementioned scores.
Defensively, Wittenberg was paced by senior safety John Hauser (Columbus, Ohio/Bishop Hartley), who had a game-high 13 total tackles. Senior safety Andy Waddle (Springfield, Ohio/Greenon) chipped in with 8.5 total tackles and an interception.