2010 University of Mount Union Football
#2 Mount Union Purple Raiders (6-0, 5-0 OAC) vs
Capital Crusaders (3-3, 3-2 OAC)
Saturday, Oct. 23, 2010 - 1:30 pm - Mount Union Stadium
(Alliance, Ohio)
RADIO:
WDPN 1310 AM (Alliance): LISTEN LIVE
WRMU 91.1 FM (Alliance): LISTEN LIVE
TV:
(Tape Delay): Joe Tait (play-by-play) and Harry Paidas (color)
WIVM Ch. 52 (Sat. Oct. 23 at 8 pm; Sun. Oct. 24
at 1 pm)
SportsTime Ohio (Sat. Oct. 23 at 7 pm; Sun. Oct. 24 at 3 pm; Mon.
Oct. 25 at 12 pm)
LIVE
STATS: Click Here
Complete Mount Union Game Notes in PDF Format: CLICK HERE
Capital: Roster | Schedule |
Statistics | Media Guide
NOTE: No coaches teleconference this week ... If you wish to
set-up an interview with Coach Kehres contact Lenny Reich at
330-823-6093 or Coach Stanford contact Chris
Woodley at 614-236-6174.
THE GAME
No. 2 ranked Mount Union hosts Ohio Athletic Conference rival
Capital for homecoming Saturday at 1:30 pm at Mount Union
Stadium.
The Purple Raiders posted their 49th consecutive regular season
with a 45-7 victory over Heidelberg last week. Mount Union
sophomore running back Jeremy Murray
(Martins Ferry/Martins Ferry) rushed for a career-best 224 yards on
30 carries and had a pair of touchdowns in a 24-point second
quarter that staked the Raiders out to a 31-0 halftime lead.
Sophomore quarterback Neal Seaman
(Louisville/Louisville) threw for two scores and ran in another as
the Mount Union offense had a season-best 556 yards. The Mount
Union defense kept the OAC's second-ranked offense off the
scoreboard until the fourth quarter as sophomore Nick
Driskill (Wabash, Ind./Southwood) had a pair of interceptions,
one he returned for a TD just before halftime.
Capital rallied with a pair of touchdowns in the fourth quarter
to score a 23-13 victory over its cross-town rival Otterbein.
Quarterback Kory Hartinger threw two TD's to Ryan Gunnarson while
fellow receiver Kevin Wehby had six catches for 93 yards and ran in
a score. The Crusader defense held Otterbein to 218 total yards
with seven sacks, two interceptions and a forced fumble.
MOUNT UNION FOOTBALL ON THE RADIO, TV AND
ONLINE
All Mount Union football games will be broadcast on the radio on
WDPN 1310 AM and WRMU 91.1 FM and simulcast online along with a
LIVE STATS game tracker at http://athletics.mountunion.edu.
Ric Brienza and Mark Grossman broadcast the games on the radio
on WDPN 1310 AM in Alliance. You can listen to Mount Union's
student radio feed on WRMU 91.1 FM on any phone by calling (330)
445-7900. This game along with the final regular season home game
will be shown on television via tape delay on SportsTime Ohio and
WIVM TV52 (Stark County). Image Video produces the broadcasts with
Joe Tait, who enters his 39th and final season as the radio voice
of the Cleveland Cavaliers, does the play-by-play and Harry Paidas
handles the color commentary.
THE SERIES
This is the 45th meeting between the teams with Mount Union
holding a 32-12 lead in a series that dates back to a 17-0 Purple
Raider win in 1958. Mount Union has won 23 straight meetings with
Capital's last win coming in its OAC Championship season of 1987,
26-25 in Columbus.
THE COACHES
Larry Kehres (Mount Union '71) is 295-22-3 (.926) in his 25th
season as head coach as one of the most successful coaches in
college football history. His teams have won 20 OAC Championships,
including the last 18 in a row, along with 10 of the last 17 NCAA
Division III National Championships. This year he is president of
the American Football Coaches Association.
Henry Stanford (Ohio State '98) is 3-3 (.500) in his first
season as head coach at Capital. He spent the past two seasons as
an assistant coach with the Crusaders and in 2009 was offensive
coordinator and OAC Assistant Coach of the Year. He also had
assistant coaching stints at Elmhurst (Ill.), Tiffin, Otterbein,
Kenyon and Ohio State.
UP NEXT ...
Mount Union is back on the road next Saturday traveling to
Central Ohio to take on Otterbein. Kickoff is at 1:30 pm from
Memorial Stadium in Westerville.
SCOUTING THE CRUSADERS
Henry Stanford is the third head coach in the last four years at
Capital, but the Crusaders style of play has not changed much -- a
balanced offensive attack with an aggressive defense.
Fifth-year senior quarterback Marty Assmann was injured early in
the season and has since been moved to wide receiver, so the
Crusaders have handed the reigns of the offense over to junior
signal caller Kory Hartinger. Hartinger has thrown for 1300 yards
and nine scores through the air and has a team-best four rushing
TD's. Senior All-OAC running back Dominic D'Andrea (371 yds, 3 TD)
and junior Garrett Bennington (375 yds, 1 TD) pace the ground
attack, while senior wide receiver Ryan Gunnarson (112.5 rec
yds/game) is second in the OAC with seven TD catches.
The middle linebacker position in Capital's 4-3 defense has
always been a key position and this year is no different as All-OAC
senior Sam Jacobs is second in the OAC in tackles. Senior All-OAC
defensive back Ronnie Smith is second on the team in tackles and
leads a secondary that has 11 interceptions. Sophomore defensive
end Dominic Pezzutti has 6.0 tackles for loss along with junior
tackle Dan Frankart anchor a defensive line that had seven sacks
against Otterbein last week.
THE RAIDERS IN 2010
Mount Union returns nine starters and 31 letterwinners in
2010.
BY THE NUMBERS
145-5
Mount Union's win-loss record since 2000
55, 54
The Raiders hold the NCAA's two longest consecutive college
football win streaks -- 55 from 2000-2003 and 54 from 1996-99
49
game regular season win streak for Mount Union dating back to a
21-14 loss to Ohio Northern in Alliance on Oct. 22, 2005.
43
game home winning streak for Mount Union dating back to a 21-14
loss to Ohio Northern in Alliance on Oct. 22, 2005.
98
consecutive regular season road victories for Mount Union dating
back to a 21-18 loss at Baldwin-Wallace on Sept. 28, 1991.
102-0
Since 1996, the Raiders record when winning the turnover
battle.
147-1
The Raiders record since 1990 when winning the turnover battle.
That lone loss was a 20-17 loss to Wisconsin-LaCrosse in a 1995
national semifinal game in Alliance. In that game, the Raiders
had a +1 turnover margin.
BACK IN THE NICK OF TIME
Sophomore defensive back Nick Driskill (Wabash, Ind./Southwood)
missed the Marietta game with an injury, but returned to the lineup
in a big way against Heidelberg has he had two interceptions and
returned one for a touchdown. It was the 10th interception of the
season for the Mount Union defense and first brought back for a
score since Drew McClain ran one back 32 yards against Albright
(Pa.) in last year's NCAA Playoffs.
MURRAY MOVING
Sophomore running back Jeremy Murray (Martins Ferry/Martins
Ferry) had his first 200-plus yard rushing game of his career with
224 on 30 carries against Heidelberg. After 170 at Marietta, that
gives him 394 for his last two games which was the highest two-game
regular season total since Sept. 27 and Oct. 4, 2008 when Nate Kmic
had 399 yards (181 vs. Muskingum and 218 vs. Baldwin-Wallace) over
two games.
WIDE RECEIVERS ASSEMBLE
For a second week in a row, sophomore wide receiver Jasper
(nicknamed Junior) Collins (Geneva, N.Y./Geneva) filled in for
All-American wide receiver Cecil
Shorts III (Cleveland/Collinwood) and for a second-straight
week he went over 100 yards as he had a game-high seven catches for
117 yards against Heidelberg. He had a 47-yard catch against
Heidelberg which was the longest reception of the season for a
Purple Raider.
Another receiver who stepped up was junior Ben Shenk (East
Petersburg, Pa./Lancaster Catholic) who had career touchdown
catches No. 1 and No. 2 against Heidelberg has he had a career-high
five catches for 84 yards.
DID YOU KNOW?
Larry Kehres is in his 25th season as head coach but 36th season
working at Mount Union as he spent 10 seasons (1975-84) as an
assistant coach to Ken Wable then in 1985 worked only as director
of athletics before becoming head football coach and director of
athletics in 1986. You might not know, he was also the first
swimming coach at Mount Union.
Capital has had three head coaches since 2007 - Jim Collins
(2007), Jim Bickel (2008-09) and Henry Stanford (2010), while Mount
Union has had only three head coaches over the past 54 seasons as
since 1956 it has been Duke Barrett (1956-61), Ken Wable (1962-85)
and Larry Kehres (1986-present).
Hall of Fame broadcaster Joe Tait missed last week's game as he
was hospitalized in Houston with pneumonia while traveling with the
Cleveland Cavaliers. Tait is in his 39th and final season as the
radio voice of the Cavs and has been doing Mount Union football on
TV since 1986. Joe returned home Saturday and is hoping to make a
return to the press box soon. Mount Union alum Jeff Shreve '87
filled in last week and Lenny Reich will fill in this week if Joe
can't go.
PURPLE RAIDERS IN THE PROs
Former Mount Union wide receiver Pierre Garcon is in his third
season with the NFL's Indianapolis Colts and had four catches for a
game-high 103 yards and a touchdown as the Colts beat the
Washington Redskins, 27-24. He had a breakout season in 2009 as he
started 16 games including Super Bowl XLIV where he caught one of
his six touchdowns on the season. Against the NY Jets in the AFC
Championship game, he had 11 catches for 151 yards and his
post-game celebration that included waiving a Haiti flag
(birthplace of his parents) made national news headlines as he was
bringing awareness to the nation that was ravaged by an earthquake
just days before the game. This past offseason he returned to Mount
Union and completed his bachelor's degree in communications. He had
3,363 yards and 47 touchdowns receiving in three seasons at Mount
Union. He played his freshman season at Norwich (Vt.) and in 2008
the Colts drafted him in the sixth round (208 overall).
Former Purple Raider Nick Sirianni '03 is in his second season
as an assistant coach (offensive quality control) with the 3-2
Kansas City Chiefs.
Mount Union alum Dom Capers '72 is the defense coordinator for a
Green Bay Packers unit that is ranked No. 15 in the NFL.
Former Mount Union quarterback Kurt Rocco has signed a contract
to play for the Cleveland Gladiators of the Arena Football
League.
