Football Comes Closet To Victory Yet This season

Give me that ball: Sophore Cody McCoy shakes the defense to get open for a pass (photo by Brian Hodgkin)

The Oberlin football team played two games over the break, their two best games of the season, but ended up losing both games making their record 0-7. The final score in against Hiram was 9-8, and the result of Kenyon 12-0.

Both games showed tremendous improvement throughout the entire team. What has been steady improvement this season suddenly took a big step forward in these past two weeks, most notably on defense.

Over the past two games Oberlin's defense has only allowed nine points, making them the fifth-ranked defense of 10 teams in the North Coast Athletic Conference.

On the other hand, Oberlin's offense is ranked last in the conference. The offense gave up a interception return for a touchdown against Hiram and a fumble return for a touchdown against Kenyon.

The Hiram game played on Oct. 14 was as close as they come. The Yeomen scored first on a one yard pass from Chris Moffatt to Brian Senne, they then tacked on a two point conversion to make the score 8-0 in the first quarter. They held the Tigers of Hiram scoreless until early in the second quarter when they kicked a 20 yard field goal to end a 62 yard drive, their best all afternoon.

This would be the last score allowed by the Yeomen defense for four quarters. Oberlin was ahead and in control of Hiram until mid-way through the third quarter when Jason Timmons of Hiram intercepted a pass and returned it 33 yards for a touchdown to put Hiram up 9-8. With a quarter and a half of football left to play, Oberlin held Hiram scoreless and was held scoreless by Hiram. The Yeomen did come close to scoring a couple of times but never succeeded.

The Kenyon game last weekend looked much like the Hiram game, with great defense and an offense unable to put points on the scoreboard. The game started off with neither team able to move the ball well on offense, but at the end of the first quarter Ben Mellino of Kenyon recovered an Oberlin fumble and return it 19 yards for the first points of the day.

Throughout the first half Kenyon only moved the ball successfully on one drive, when they took the ball 85 yards downfield at the end of the first half. They made it to Oberlin's one yard line, but after four tries they were stopped at the goal line by Oberlin's stingy defense. The second drive of the second half would result in a 23 yard pass for a touchdown for Kenyon making the score 12-0. With almost a half of football left Oberlin held Kenyon to 82 yards of offense, after giving up 268 yards prior to that point.

Some notable performances over the past two games include linebacker Sam Hobi with 41 tackles and 6 for a loss, two blocked kicks, and three sacks over the past two games. Also standing out were first-years Matt Usher, who accounted for three interceptions against Hiram, and Quammie Semper with an interception in each game. Brian Jansky also recorded two sacks in each game. Head Coach Jeff Ramsey said, "The offensive line played their best game of the season. They didn't give up any sacks after the first quarter, and we gained 100 yards rushing for the first time this season."

This weekend, the Yeomen play Wooster, who has been one of the top teams in the conference in past seasons, but after starting the season 4-0 have lost three straight. Wooster's offense ranks second to last in the conference, which should make for an interesting contest against a Yeomen defense that is playing better than they have in years. If Oberlin's offense can control the football and not make big mistakes the game should be very close.

Senior Jordan Kaltman was optimistic, saying, "They are ripe for taking."

Oberlin will be at home this week to take on the Scots of Wooster Saturday at 1:30.