#4 Mount Union at Heidelberg
Saturday, October 23 at 1:30 p.m. 
Hornemann Stadium - Tiffin, Ohio

Video: 
http://oac.boxcast.com

Radio: 
WRMU 91.1 FM (Ben Johnson-Bowers, Riley Sullivan and Jacob Buttar)
WDPN 1310 AM (Ryan Keller)

Mount Union Game Notes
Heidelberg Game Notes

The Matchup: No. 4 ranked Mount Union takes on Heidelberg in an Ohio Athletic Conference matchup Saturday, Oct. 23 at 1:30 p.m. at Hoernemann Stadium in Tiffin.
  
The Purple Raiders (6-0, 5-0 OAC) out-gained Capital, 660-29, and kept the Comets from getting a first down for the game. Linebacker Mason McMillen (Wadsworth) led the dominating defensive effort with seven tackles and a sack.  

Mount Union quarterback Braxton Plunk (Plant City, Fla.) completed 25-of-33 passes for 269 yards and four touchdowns. His top target was Wayne Ruby (Miami, Fla. / Flanagan), who caught 11 receptions for 109 yards and a score.

Running backs Josh Petruccelli (Perry) and DeAndre Parker (Crystal River, Fla.) each ran for a score and caught a touchdown pass. Petruccelli rushed for a game-high 100 yards.

Heidelberg (4-1, 4-1 OAC) earned its 500th win in program history and retained the Rhine River Cup with a dominant 52-19 home win over rival Otterbein last week. 

Montavious Yearby had three touchdowns and the 'Berg defense had three interceptions. Yearby finished with 125 yards and two touchdowns on the ground, two receptions for 89 yards and a score in the air, and one kickoff return for 43 yards.  

Defensively, Griffin Pendry had a game-high 10 tackles while Zach Blackiston added 2.5 tackles for loss, including 1.5 sacks. 

The Series: This is the 65th meeting between the teams with Mount Union holding a 51-13 lead in a series that goes back to a 34-10 Raider win in 1910. Mount Union has won the last 32 meetings with Heidelberg's last win coming in 1988, 24-14 in Tiffin. The team's met in the OAC title game to cap the 2021 spring season and Mount Union won 64-14 as Braxton Plunk threw five touchdowns on 431 yards passing and ran for a score.

Up Next: Mount Union returns home for a two-game homestand against Ohio Northern, Oct. 30 at 2 p.m. and Nov. 6 versus Muskingum at 1:30 p.m. 

Three is a Charm: Mount Union has three team captains this season in senior linebacker Kordell Ford (Massillon / Massillon Washington), senior wide receiver Derrick Harvey, Jr. (Akron/ Buchtel) and junior quarterback Braxton Plunk (Plant City, Fla.).

On the Air: 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. You can also hear the WRMU 91.1 FM feed on any phone by calling 605-781-3283.

This week's game will be broadcast live online at oac.boxcast.com and on Smart TV apps Amazon Fire, Apple and Roku. 

Around the OAC: Two other OAC games kickoff at 1:30 p.m. this week as John Carroll travels to Marietta and Capital is at Ohio Northern. Muskingum heads to Otterbein for a 2 p.m. start while the day finishes with Wilmington heading up I-71 to play at Baldwin Wallace at 3 p.m.

Scouting the Student Princes: Heidelberg has a high scoring, high-powered offense to go along with an agressive defense that brings pressure up front ... sound familiar.

Heidelberg is third in the OAC in total offense averaging 430.4 yards per game and fifth in total defense allowing 336.0 yards per game.

On offense, sophomore quarterback Drew Sims is third in the OAC in passing yards per game (278.6) and passing touchdowns (17). He has completed 55-percent of his passes and his top target is senior Dimitri Penick, who is fifth in the conference in yards per game (74.4) as he has 23 catches for 372 yards and four touchdowns. Fellow seniors Maceo Matthews and Brandon Reed have five and four receiving TD's respectively.

Junior Montavious Yearby is the OAC's fourth leading rusher averaging 105.3 yards per game as he has 51 rushes for 316 yards and three touchdowns. Senior Jace Grossman has a team-high four rushing TD's.

The defense is a unit that has 42 tackles for loss and 12 quarterback sacks. 

The pressure comes from two-time all-region senior and Massillon Perry grad Zachary Blackiston. He is third in the OAC with 11.5 tackles for loss.  Junior defensive back Griffin Pendry leads the team in tackles with 38 while sophomore Easton St. Clair tops the OAC in interceptions with three.

High Octane:  Mount Union and Heidelberg are the first and second in the OAC in scoring averaging 48.0 and 40.4 points per game respectively.

Connections: Calling the shots for Heidelberg's offense is former Mount Union All-American offensive lineman Jason Lewis. Lewis is in 12th year at Heidelberg and fourth as offensive coordinator. A 2007 Mount Union graduate, he was part of two national championship teams for the Raiders and a teammate of both Mount Union head coach Geoff Dartt and defensive coordinator Daryl Ely.

Zero Hour: Mount Union held Capital without a first down in last week's 63-0 win. It was the first time a Purple Raider team had held an opponent without a first down and first time it has happened in NCAA Division III since 1985 when Case Western Reserve did not get a first down in a game against Wooster.

Money Down: Mount Union is second in the nation in 3rd down defense as the Raiders have only allowed its first six opponents to convert 18.5 percent of its third downs. Last week, Capital went 0-for-12 on third down.