NEW CONCORD, Ohio – The No. 3 nationally ranked Mount Union football team earned its second shutout in three weeks as the Purple Raiders won 59-0 over Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) foe Muskingum in their first road game of the season. Both teams entered the game undefeated.
Purple Raider senior quarterback
Braxton Plunk (Plant City, Fla./Plant City) had a near perfect game throwing 23-of-24 for 305 yards and two touchdowns, while adding a rushing score. Senior wide receiver
Wayne Ruby (Pembroke Pines, Fla./Charles W. Flanagan) went off with eight catches for 176 yards and two receiving touchdowns – including a 76-yarder in the final seconds of the first half. Senior running back
DeAndre Parker (Crystal River, Fla./Crystal River) scored three touchdowns (tying a career-high) off nine carries. The trio's production all came in one half of work.
Ruby, who now has 3,146 career receiving yards, has now scored in every game three weeks into the season for the second time of his career (he scored in all four games in the COVID-shortened 2020 season). Ruby's 76-yarder marked a career-long. Parker has scored three rushing touchdowns twice already this season for the first time of his career.
For the game, Mount Union (3-0, 2-0 OAC) outgained Muskingum (2-1, 1-1 OAC) 552-57 in total yards, including 172 to minus 19 in rushing.
Junior linebacker
Mason McMillen (Wadsworth, Ohio/Wadsworth) led the Raider defense with five tackles, including two tackles for a loss, a sack, and a fumble recovery. Senior
Kaleb Detellem (Batavia, Ohio/Batavia) had a game- and career-high 1.5 sacks, while first-year
Elijah Franklin (Jacksonville, Fla./Episcopal of Jacksonville) earned his first career sack.
Plunk showed off nifty running skills making the safety miss at the goal line on a 14-yard touchdown scamper (career long for a rushing TD) on 4
th-and-2 on Mount's first drive of the game. The Purple Raiders led 7-0 at the end of one quarter.
Mount poured it on in the second quarter with 38 points. Plunk connected with Ruby for a 21-touchdown pass as Ruby broke a tackle inside the 10. Parker followed with three consecutive touchdowns (1 yard, 3 yards, and 4 yards). Senior kicker
Thomas Piccirillo (Findlay, Ohio/Van Buren) made a career-long 30-yard field goal.
The Raiders scored two more times in the second half with a 14-yard run by sophomore
Noah Beaudrie (Monroe, Mich./Erie-Mason) and a 1-yard run by senior
KJ Redmon (Fairborn, Ohio/Fairborn).
The Raiders are back in action Saturday, Oct. 1 at Ohio Northern with a 1:30 p.m. kickoff.
