Marietta College falls to Mount Union, 28-0
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MARIETTA -- Rossy Moore registered four sacks here Saturday afternoon for Mount Union as the Purple Raiders blanked host Marietta College, 28-0, at Don Drumm Stadium in the Ohio Athletic Conference opener for both teams.
The Pioneers of head coach Andy Waddle had just one first down and 11 yards on 21 plays at intermission. Although the defense, which received a game-high 12 total tackles from Harley Hopkins, kept Mount Union off the board in the second half, the offense never got fully going.
Mount Union quarterback Braxton Plunk went 20 of 30 for 286 yards and four touchdowns. His 9-yard TD toss to Chase Lawson on the opening drive put the visitors ahead for good at 7-0 after Deaglan Camron's extra point 5:04 into the affair. Lawson caught the ball just shy of the end zone and managed to cross the goal line for the score.
Although the Pioneers (1-1, 0-1) went three-and-out on their opening possession, Jaelon Quiero-Gordon stepped in front of a pass intended for Wayne Ruby and intercepted it. MC took over at the 30, but failed to get into the red zone. Facing a fourth-and-7 at the MU 27, the Pioneers thought they were going to get either a pass interference or a holding call, but the flag was waved off and they turned it over on downs.
On Mount Union's first play from scrimmage, Ruby got behind the defense and went 73 yards for a touchdown and a 14-0 cushion.
After another three-and-out, MC got the ball back thanks to a Brady McManaway fumble recovery. Despite having the ball at the Mount Union 46, the hosts were called for holding on first down and had to punt it away.
Both teams proceeded to trade punts before the Purple Raiders put together an 85-yard drive which consumed more than seven minutes of the clock. Ruby hauled in a 7-yard touchdown reception for a 21-0 advantage with 5:28 left in the half.
Nearing halftime, Marietta College's Chance Ryan had a sack to force a third-and-16 from the MC 25, but Plunk found Tre Radford on the next play for what proved to be the final six-pointer.
"Listen, that's a good football team and I want to give credit to those guys on being a good football team," coach Waddle said. "There were a lot of things that I think could've gone our way that maybe didn't. They pick up a flag that would advance it to the red zone on fourth down. You have a play in the end zone, you know, where it looks like he doesn't complete the catch and they said he made a football move.
"Those things happen. Not saying we would've won the game, but it just didn't feel like the breaks fell our way today. Sometimes that's because you play a good team and credit to Mount Union on being a good team. I thought our kids, offensively and defensively, played hard today. Just want to be a little more productive if we can be."
Marietta College (1-1, 0-1), which plays host at 1:30 p.m. next Saturday to Otterbein, opened the third quarter with a big play. Facing a third-and-7 at their own 24, quarterback Connor Vierstra found Dawson Snyder for a 40-yard diving catch. However, a bad snap on third down led to a punt.
Although MC's defense forced a three-and-out, Moore ended the Pioneers' next drive with a sack on third down.
O.C. Nurse picked off Plunk to give the hosts the ball at their own 37 midway through the third. A 45-yard Vierstra completion to Jay Melchiori got the Pioneers into the red zone and it was first-and-goal at the 8. However, two plays later Vierstra was picked off by John Roland in the end zone.
Chance Knight, who had two sacks in the loss, got one on the first play of the fourth quarter to force another MU punt.
Despite a 29-yard pass to John Sierputowski and a 41-yard aerial to Melchiori, which got the ball to the MU 4, the visitors were able to keep the shutout intact when Nathaniel Demuth's 24-yard field goal sailed wide right.
Vierstra, who was sacked six times, went 11 of 19 for 176 yards. Melchiori led the wideouts with five catches for 116 yards.
Mount Union, which held a 391 to 168 advantage in total yards, got 10 catches for 173 yards from Ruby. Deandre Parker led the ground attack with 76 stripes on a baker's dozen attempts.
"We moved it into the red zone and popped a couple big plays," added Waddle, who got nine total stops from Brady Panucci, of the second half. "Not that we ran the ball great, but we ran the ball a little better in the second half. We just couldn't come away with any points.
"It's frustrating when that happens, but our guys didn't back down. We played a good team and we played them tough and toe-to-toe. We'll have some things to learn on from this. We got eight more games left in the season and we'll be ready to fight in those games, too."
Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com