| With an NCAC title already in hand, the Tigers played what appeared to be little more than a tune-up against Earlham last Saturday. It turned into a record-breaking day for the Tigers, who claimed a 38-3 victory over the host Quakers. Wittenberg won its record 29th straight NCAC game, dating back to Nov. 4, 1997, and also earned its fifth straight conference title and fourth consecutive outright crown, both NCAC records.
Senior wide receiverMichael Aljancic (Louisville, Ohio/Louisville) caught eight passes for 63 yards to push his season totals to a school-record 54 |
| receptions and 713 yards, fourth-most in Wittenberg history. Those numbers pushed his career totals to a school-record 147 receptions for 2,172 yards, second-most in Wittenberg history.
Junior tailback Daniel Grove (Uhrichsville, Ohio/Claymont), who has emerged as a tremendous offensive weapon for the Tigers. Grove carved up the Earlham defense for 204 yards on just 23 carries, good for an 8.7 yards per carry average. He added three touchdowns - a 30-yard run in the first quarter, a three-yard burst early in the fourth quarter and a game-breaking 59-yard jaunt with 8:20 left in the game. Grove finished the season with 1,260 yards rushing, the eighth-best total in school history. In addition, Grove scored 21 touchdowns on the season, just one score short of Casey Donaldson's record-setting TD total of a year ago. For his career, Grove has 1,942 rushing yards. Wittenberg had 354 yards rushing and 198 yards passing behind another efficient performance by junior quarterback Greg Cornett (Franklin, Ohio/Franklin), who extended his run of quarters without an interception to 19. He finished the game 19-of-27 passing for 174 yards and one touchdown. For the season, Cornett had 140 completions, just one short of the Wittenberg record set by Tim Green in 1987, and 1,872 passing yards, good for second-best in Tiger history behind Charlie Green's 1963 total of 2,181. Defensively, Wittenberg was tremendous again, holding its fourth 2001 opponent to a single-digit scoring total. Senior linebacker Nic Black (Piqua, Ohio/Piqua)topped the team with seven tackles and senior defensive tackle Juan Howard (Wooster, Ohio/Wooster) chipped in with 6.5, including two for loss. Senior defensive end Tim Daoust (Toledo, Ohio/Central Catholic) had a half sack in the game to up his season total to eight and his career total to 27.5, tied for second-most in Wittenberg history. |