#4 Mount Union at Wilmington
Saturday, October 9 at 3 p.m. 
Williams Stadium - Wilmington, Ohio

Video: 
http://oac.boxcast.com

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

Mount Union Game Notes
Wilmington Preview

The Matchup: No. 4 ranked Mount Union travels to Wilmington for an Ohio Athletic Conference matchup Saturday, Oct. 9 at 3 p.m. at Williams Stadium.
  
Mount Union (4-0, 3-0 OAC) got its first shutout of the season with a 55-0 home win against Otterbein last week. The Purple Raiders ran out to a 42-0 halftime lead and never looked back.

Braxton Plunk (Plant City, Fla.) threw a season-high five touchdown passes as he had 313 passing yards. Three of his touchdowns went to wide receiver Jaden Manley (Columbus / Bishop Harley). DeAndre Parker (Crystal River, Fla.) had his second straight 100-plus yard rushing performance with 113 yards rushing on 14 carries. 

Mount Union out-gained Otterbein, 630-210 and the defense got eight tackles from Mason McMillen (Wadsworth) and Malik Britt (Bossier City, La. / Airline) had an interception.

Wilmington had a bye last week and did not play. The Quakers started their season with a 41-34 home overtime loss to Southern Virginia. Wilmington could not play its second game against Heidelberg due to CoVID protocols then lost their next two OAC games to Ohio Northern (62-27) and at Muskingum (62-14).

The Heidelberg-Wilmington game is officially a no-contest and will not be made up but for conference standing and seeding purposes it is considered a loss for Wilmington and a win for Heidelberg

The Series: This is the 23rd meeting all-time between Mount Union and Wilmington with the Raiders holding a 22-0 advantage in the series. The series started with a 43-0 Mount victory on Nov. 9, 1968, in Wilmington and the return game on Nov. 8, 1969, was a 70-0 Raider win in Alliance. After that the teams did not play until Wilmington became a member of the OAC in 2000.

The teams last played in 2019 and Mount Union scored a 63-6 win in Wilmington.

Up Next: Mount Union returns home to host Capital in an OAC game next Saturday, Oct. 16 at 1:30 p.m. at Mount Union Stadium. It will be the annual M Club Hall of Fame game and the classes of 2020 and 2021 will be recognized at halftime.

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.

Scouting the Quakers: Wilmington is fourth in the OAC in total offense averaging 394.3 yards per game and 10th in total defense allowing 543.0 yards per game.

On offense, quarterback Derek Larimer is fourth in the conference in passing yards per game averaging 258.3 yards a game. He has completed 58.3-percent of his passes (67-of-115) for 775 yards with five touchdowns and three interceptions. 

He has spread the ball around as five different players have at least seven catches and four of them have caught touchdown passes. Gavin Foushee and Itika Wynn Jr. both have a team-best 163 yards receiving while Dallas Rawlings has a team-high two TD receptions.

Running back Ben Hobbs is 10th in the OAC in rushing as he has 24 carries for 145 yards (48.3 yards per game average) with two touchdowns.

On defense linebacker Jarod Lee and defensive back Tre'Quez Parks each have 19 tackles to lead the Quakers. Lineman Brandon Lemley has 1.5 sacks while defensive back Elijah Carson has a pair of interceptions.

Great Eight: Mount Union quarterback Braxton Plunk (Plant City, Fla.) threw for 313 yards last week with a season-best five TD passes. He has thrown for over 300 yards in each of his eight career starts dating back to last season. His 342 passing yards per game is fifth best in NCAA Division III and the Raiders are No. 5 in total offense nationally.

Going Long: One of Plunk's TD passes last week was a 70-yard bomb to Wayne Ruby (Miami, Fla. / Flanagan) which marked the longest pass play of the season for Mount Union. It also matched Ruby's career long reception as he caught a 70-yard pass for a score from Plunk against Muskingum in 2019.

Keep Out: Mount Union's defense posted its first shut out of the season last week with the 55-0 win over Otterbein. The Raiders are No. 3 in the country in scoring defense allowing an average of 7.0 points per game through four games. Mount Union is also fourth nationally in red zone defense as opponents are just 2-for-5 in scoring from inside the Raiders' 20-yard line.

Sack Attack: Mount Union has 10 quarterback sacks through four games spread among six different players. Senior lineman Matt Lilja (Ashtabula / Edgewood) has a team-best 2.5 sacks, fellow senior Nick Brown (Defiance / Ayersville) has 2.0 sacks and freshman Rossy Moore (Lima / Lima Central Catholic) has sacks in each of the last two games for 2.0 sacks.

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: Only three games on the conference slate as aside from this game, John Carroll plays at Capital and Heidelberg travels to Marietta.