With a North Coast Athletic Conference win over Fall Break, the Oberlin College football team has matched last year’s record and will have plenty to play for tomorrow and the remainder of the season.

Coming off of a 1-2 run in three straight conference games, the Yeomen will go into tomorrow’s game against the Earlham College Quakers with a 2-2 NCAC record and a chance to not only improve upon last year’s mark, but also to tie Oberlin’s best NCAC win total ever. The Yeomen can also finish .500 for the first time since 1974 if they win out.

Sandwiched between losses of 49-10 and 51-6 to the College of Wooster and Wabash College — both of whom are undefeated — the Yeomen earned their second win of the season on Oct. 19th, beating the Kenyon College Lords 56-17. In defeating Kenyon for the second straight year, Oberlin took a 34-33 lead in the all-time series, which dates back to 1892.
Oberlin drove for scores on eight of its 13 possessions in the victory Kenyon, and also added a defensive score when junior Quammie Semper picked off a Kenyon pass and returned it 71 yards to the end zone.

“It’s the type of game you worry about all week,” head coach Jeff Ramsey said. “You know it’s a game you should win, so you wonder if your team’s going to rise to that.”

The Yeomen indeed rose to it, racking up 577 yards of offense against the Lords, including 157 off the legs of sophomore running back Travis Oman, and 310 off the arm of senior quarterback Chris Moffatt. Moffatt only attempted 13 passes the entire game, but he completed 10 of them for a 31 yards-per-completion average.

Sophomore receiver Scott Barker and junior tight end Brian Senne were the beneficiaries of Moffatt’s efficiency, needing only four catches each to post 168 and 122 receiving yards, respectively.

Oberlin’s longest scoring drive only took two minutes, 42 seconds, as the Yeomen struck quickly and often.

Sophomore Greg Jaquay, playing just his second game at linebacker, led the team in tackles against Kenyon with 12 and was named NCAC Defensive Player of the Week. Jaquay had played wide receiver up until the Wooster game, but seems to have adjusted quite well.
“He’s really just a good football player — that’s why he’s made the transition so well,” Ramsey said.

At 2-2 — 2-5 overall — Oberlin is in a three-way tie with Earlham and Allegheny College for fourth in the conference, making tomorrow’s game even more important. A win over Earlham would give the Yeomen either sole possession of fourth should Allegheny lose to heavily-favored Wittenberg University on Saturday, or a tie for third if Allegheny pulls off the upset.

Earlham should prove to be a fairly even matchup for the Yeomen. Both teams enter the game with overall records of 2-5. In three common games, the Yeomen and the Quakers have come away with the same results: big wins over Kenyon and equally big losses to Wooster and Wabash. Earlham’s other win came against Denison University.

Earlham features a strong running game, averaging 166 yards per game on the strength of its two tailbacks, Darrian Story and Jermel Hurt, who have combined for 1000 yards through seven games. Both average more than six yards a carry. Oberlin has been hurt by surrendering big running plays this season, but the Yeomen were able to hold the NCAC’s leading rusher, Tony Sutton, to 125 yards, well below his average.

“It’ll be a be a challenge for our defense,” Ramsey said of the Earlham rushing attack, but “it makes them somewhat easy to defend. We’re going to try to stop them on the run and make them beat us with the pass.”
Earlham has a meager passing game, averaging only 110 yards per game and only 8.5 yards per catch compared to Oberlin’s 180 yards per game and 14.6 yards per catch.

Overall, the Yeomen offense has fared slightly better than Earlham’s in both points and total offense this season, but Earlham’s defense has been stronger. Oberlin is plus one in turnovers for the season (20-19), while Earlham is plus two (17-15).

The one are where Oberlin could have an edge is special teams. Returns have generally been a bright spot for the Yeomen this year, and sophomore Ryan Drews has played through serious back pain to do an excellent job at punter.

Most importantly, sophomore place kicker Steve Willever is 10 of 13 on extra point attempts and 10 of 11 on field goal attempts. Willever needs only two more PATs to tie the Oberlin Career record of 32. Earlham kickers, on the other hand, have been unsuccessful in all four field goal attempts this season.

“To me this is a game we should win,” Ramsey said, but he noted that Oberlin will have to bring its best game. Last year, these two teams looked similarly well matched, but Earlham shut Oberlin out 21-0 in the season’s final game to finish tied for fifth while Oberlin dropped to seventh.

“[The Quakers] don’t make many mistakes. They don’t take many chances,” Ramsey said. “We’re going to have to have a big game out of our running backs and offensive line to score the three or four times we need to win this ballgame.”

If the Yeomen get that big game, they will become just the second Oberlin team to win three NCAC games since the conference’s inception in 1983. Only the 1984 Yeomen were able to accomplish the feat. A win would also make the Yeomen the first team to win at least three games since 1989.