The College of Wooster football team (1-2, 1-1 North Coast Athletic Conference) plays its first conference road game of the season at Denison University (2-0, 1-0 NCAC). Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m., and the winner of the game takes home the "Old Red Lantern" trophy.
Wooster is coming off of a 35-24 setback to DePauw University, while Denison cruised to a 54-7 win at Oberlin College on Saturday night.
On the Air: Wooster's football games are broadcast each week by commercial radio station WKVX 960 AM and are streamed live on wkvx.com.
The Denison Sports Network will also stream the game live through the Big Red's Stretch Internet Portal that is available at portal.stretchinternet.com/denison.
The Old Red Lantern: The winner of Saturday's rivalry game will be presented with a trophy - The Old Red Lantern. The tradition began in 1989, when the two schools were commemorating the 100th anniversary of their first meeting on the gridiron (Nov. 23, 1889). The lantern represents the light the teams used to travel by (rail) in their early meetings. The rivalry peaked during a 27-year stretch from 1945-71, as they played every season with Denison holding a slim 14-13 lead in those games. That era included legendary coaches Phil Shipe of Wooster (1949-64) and Keith Piper of Denison (1954-92), and they often made the other its opponent for Homecoming. Also of note, Denison and Wooster played the first-ever NCAC football game on Sept. 8, 1984.
All-Time Series: The Scots lead the all-time series 40-37-7, but the Big Red hold a 12-8-1 led since the "Old Red Lantern" trophy started being awarded to the winner. Wooster had a 10-game winning streak in the series from 1995-2010, but prior to that, Denison went 10-0-1 between 1984-94. Denison holds a slight 14-11-1 edge during the history of the NCAC. Notable, Wooster's first three varsity intercollegiate games in program history came against Denison, and the Scots shutout the Big Red in all three contests by scores of 48-0, 50-0, and 58-0.
Offense Notes: Junior quarterback Gary Muntean (Poland, Ohio/Struthers) upped his consecutive 300-yard passing streak to six games with a 435-yard afternoon against DePauw. Notable, the yardage is the second most in program history behind Muntean's 488 stripes he piled up at Hiram College on Nov. 5, 2015. This season, Muntean has completed 86-of-141 throws for 1165 yards and four touchdowns. The signal-caller enters the week fourth in Div. III in passing yards. Muntean has completed passes to 11 different receivers this year, and eight of them have gone for over 100 yards. Sophomore Connor Allan (East Aurora, N.Y./East Aurora) took over the team lead in receiving yards behind a 166-yard afternoon against the Tigers, one yard shy of a top-10 single-game mark in the program annals. Allan now has 226 yards receiving on 11 catches this year. Senior Nate Huwar (Cheswick, Pa./Fox Chapel Area) leads the team in receptions with 17 and ranks second with 151 yards.
Defense Notes: Sophomore Marcus Bowers (Roseville, Mich./Fraser) leads the team with 34 tackles through three games, and recorded double-digit stops in each of the last two games, including 15 against DePauw. Senior Christian Golden (Aurora, Ohio/Bedford) returned to action after missing the Allegheny College game and recorded 13 tackles from his cornerback position, including 12 solo stops. Wooster nearly made an impressive goal-line stand midway through the second quarter. After advancing to the Wooster 1-yardline, it took DePauw three plays to cross the goal line. First, sophomore Cornelius Gyamfi (Atlanta, Ga./Chamblee) and senior Riley Markko (South Salem, Ohio/Paint Valley) stuffed te Tigers' running back short of the goal line. Then, junior Aaron Roberson (Southfield, Mich./Detroit County Day) knifed into the backfield for a quarterback hurry on a pass attempt.
Special Teams Notes: Junior Trevor Bowden (Eatonton, Ga./Gatewood Schools) knocked in his 14th career field goal against DePauw, moving him into seventh on the program's all-time list. Sophomore Andru Brantley (South Euclid, Ohio/Lutheran East) leads the special teams units with four tackles, three of which were recorded as part of the kick-coverage unit. Nineteen different players have recorded a stop on special teams so far this year.
This and That: Wooster has as many rushing touchdowns (eight) through three games than it had all of last season ... In fact, Wooster's rushing touchdown distribution last year featured a 4-2-2 breakdown with Muntean leading the way with four ... This year, freshman Brandon Adams (Clarkston, Mich./St. Mary's Preparatory) leads the way with four, and Muntean and sophomore Antonio Bailey (Duluth, Ga./Meadowcreek) each have two ... On Saturday, Muntean became the eighth 3000-yard passer in program history.
