On Saturday, Oct. 20, while many Oberlin students were packing up and leaving campus, the football team was getting psyched up for what would be its first win in over three years. In the team’s most cohesive game of the season, the Yeomen dominated the Kenyon Lords, cruising to a 53-22 victory and laying to rest an NCAA-high 44 game losing streak.
It was the first Yeomen win since Oberlin defeated Thiel 18-17, and their first conference victory since defeating Kenyon 14-8 in 1992, a span of 59 conference games. The Yeomen made national news, including ESPN and CNN, with their win, which improved their conference record to 1-2 and their overall record to 1-5.
The follow-up to the Yeomen’s Oct. 20 win wasn’t what they’d been hoping for, as the College of Wooster blanked them last Saturday while putting up a score in every quarter to defeat Oberlin 28-0. The loss dropped Oberlin’s conference record to 1-3 and their overall record to 1-6.
Oberlin controlled the game on offense, on defense and on special teams. It was their best defensive effort of the season and their 53 points were the most an Oberlin football team had scored since 1975.
“It was a great feeling to not only to come out victorious versus Kenyon, but to dominate in all aspects of the game. We won decisively,” senior captain Sam Hobi said. Hobi led the defensive effort, making 11 tackles, including a sack, forcing two fumbles and blocking a punt. He was also named NCAC Defensive Player of the Week. He celebrated with his wife and newborn son. For Hobi and the other seniors, the win had been a long time in coming.
It was no less important to the team’s younger players. “It was big because I knew how bad all the other players wanted it,” first-year Chris Handley said.
The victory was also the first for Jeff Ramsey as head coach of the Yeomen. “I’m relieved. I’m happy,” he said. “I’m extremely pleased for the players and the coaches most of all.”
For the fourth time this season, Oberlin scored first, but this time they never looked back. With 3:34 remaining in the first, sophomore defensive back Mark Lengel intercepted a Kenyon pass and returned it to the Kenyon 35. One play later first-year quarterback Ryan Squatrito hit first-year receiver Scott Barker with a 24-yard touchdown pass. It was all the passing Squatrito would need to do.
On Kenyon’s following drive, Hobi’s blocked punt at the 28 was recovered by Barker in the end zone, giving the Yeomen a 14-0 lead. First-year kicker Steve Willever would add a 36-yard field goal in the second, and the Yeomen took a 17-7 lead into halftime, having held Kenyon to just over 100 yards total offense in the half.
In the second half the Yeomen turned almost entirely to the running game and tore into the Lord defense, while simultaneously shutting down Kenyon’s running game, holding them to 3.2 yards per carry.
Barker capped his day by scoring a third touchdown on a 22-yard rush to open the scoring in the second half. Two minutes later first-year running back Travis Oman, who carried the offense in the game, scored on a 42-yard rush. Oman would finish the day with 209 yards rushing on 35 carries, and was named co-offensive player of the week.
He was aided in the rushing attack by Squatrito, who had 71 yards in the game and a three-yard touchdown run in the fourth, and sophomore back David Lightfoot, who rushed 56 yards for a score in the fourth. Junior receiver Ricky Valenzuela chipped in with a 51-yard rush, as well, and he Yeomen totaled 419 yards rushing on the day, while passing for just 29.
“We’d been wanting our run game to be efficient,” Ramsey said, “Our run game was working so well, we decided not to throw as much.”
For Kenyon, it was just the opposite, as the longest rush the Yeomen allowed was 16 yards, and Kenyon managed only two drives of more than 40 yards, scoring touchdowns at the end of the third and end of the fourth quarters.
“We stopped the run, something we hadn’t done all year,” said Ramsey. “We forced them to throw, which played to our strength.”
Kenyon’s quarterback made 49 pass attempts in the game and only completed 22 as the Yeomen held the Lords to 192 yards in the air. The defense forced four turnovers in the game, as Lengel had another interception, and senior Dave Smolev had one as well. Smolev recovered one of the fumbles Hobi forced and returned it 43 yards for Oberlin’s final score of the game.
Willever tied the school record for PATs in a game with five. The only one he missed in the game was blocked by Kenyon, but the ball bounced the Yeomen’s way as first-year Adam Polisei recovered for a two-point conversion.
“We’ve been there the whole time,” Handley said of the win. “Finally we just pushed over the top.”
There were only 850 in attendance, the smallest crowd for a home game this year, but Ramsey said it was the largest crowd he’d seen over a break and “they were loud.” As the game ended, the fans came onto the field in celebration. Ramsey put it simply: “There was a lot of happiness [on the field].”

In the most recent game against Wooster, the rushing game looked good, as the Yeomen gained 145 yards rushing, led by first-year running back Travis Oman’s 59 yards. But it was not enough to make up for the dismal passing results. First-year quarterback Ryan Squatrito was only four of 23 passing for 33 yards. He was picked off once and sacked six times.
Head coach Jeff Ramsey described it as “a matter of inches,” citing dropped passes and balls that were just barely overthrown as the keys to the breakdown of the passing game.
“If we make those plays it’s a heck of a ballgame. At least now we’re close to making those plays,” Ramsey said.

Oberlin made just one trip into the Wooster red zone, where a 28-yard field goal attempt by first-year kicker Steve Willever was blocked.
The defense played reasonably well, continuing to contain the pass offense by holding Wooster to 169 yards in the air. Sophomores Adam Polisei, a linebacker, and Quammie Semper, a defensive back, each had interceptions. For Semper, it was his fifth, which leads the conference.
The defense was unable to dominate the running game as it had against Kenyon, though, allowing Wooster a net of 274 rushing yards.

Wooster’s scores came on a six-yard run in the first, a six-yard pass in the second, a 31-yard pass in the third, and a 56-yard run in the fourth.
“We didn’t come out to play,” first-year Chris Handley said. “Everyone was waiting for someone else to do something.” He said the team learned from this game that “you gotta’ earn your victories.”
The Yeomen will have to earn it if they’re going to win on Saturday, as the Ohio Wesleyan Battling Bishops, owner of a 7-1 record, come to Dill Field. The Bishops are third in the conference, but have a better overall record than second place Wabash, who handed the Yeomen their worst defeat of the season.

“It’s 11 versus 11,” Handley said of the upcoming game, “If everyone does their job we should be able to win.”
Ramsey echoed that sentiment. “We have the physical ability [to defeat Ohio Wesleyan],” Ramsey said, “It’s more a matter of execution.”