BEREA, Ohio – The No. 3 Mount Union football team won, 52-14, at Baldwin Wallace in an Ohio Athletics Conference (OAC) showdown Saturday afternoon.
The Purple Raiders (3-0, 2-0 OAC) scored a touchdown on its first five drives of the game and had a 42-14 lead at halftime. Baldwin Wallace (3-1, 2-1 OAC) came in today's game off to its best start in 12 years.
Mount Union outgained Baldwin Wallace 549 to 285 in total offense, including 247 to 86 on the ground. The Raiders averaged 7.5 per rush.
Mount Union junior quarterback
Noah Beaudrie (Monroe, MI/Erie-Mason) tied a career-high 282 passing yards, going 14 of 24 with two touchdowns, to go along with a game- and career-high 95 yards on the ground and a rushing score.
Junior
Jerry Cooper Jr. (Fort Myers, FL/South Fort Myers) had a career day with seven catches for 112 yards and a touchdown – all career-highs. Cooper led all receivers in receptions and yards. Junior
Nick Turner (Strongsville, OH/Strongsville) had two receptions for a career-high 93 yards, including an 83-yard highlight-reel catch. Senior
Tyrell Sanders (Indianapolis, IN/Pike) added a touchdown grab.
On the ground, senior
Tyler Echeverry (Naples, FL/Barron Collier) scored the first score of the game with his conference-leading sixth touchdown of the season, while freshman
Shaun Thomas (Lima, OH/Lima Central Catholic) scored his second touchdown of the season.
Senior
Rossy Moore (Lima, OH/Lima Central Catholic) and junior
Kaleb Brown (La Plata, MD/La Plata) both had a 1.5 sacks. In total, Moore had a game-high 10 tackles and a team-high 2.5 tackles for loss. Moore is now tied with Matt Campbell (1999-02) for fifth all-time in career sacks with 26.0 and is now seventh all-time in tackles for loss with 48.5.
Following Echeverry's touchdown run, Beaudrie connected with Turner for an 83 yard touchdown. The explosive play tied the sixth-longest pass and catch touchdown in program history (tied with Taurice Scott to Roman Namdar vs Muskingum in 2015). Beaudrie then showed off his wheels as he took a hit, spinned, and stayed on his feet for an eight-yard touchdown run. On BW's next drive, Mount freshman
Zack Liebler (Massillon, OH/Massillon) knocked the ball out of quarterback Xavier Balson's hands and Raider senior
Marcus Jackson (Dallas, TX/Richardson) scooped up the loose ball and returned it 40 yards to the end zone for the first touchdown of his career. The return was the fifth-longest fumble return in school history.
Mount Union will next play at Otterbein on Saturday, Oct. 5 with a 12:30 p.m. start time.
