Footballers fall to Earlham

Quakers score on four TO's, coach describes game as 'quirky'

On Saturday, the football team got stuck in a Quaker vortex.

"We played well on offense, we played well on defense," said cornerback junior Sean Wesolowski. "It just seemed like when we made a mistake it snowballed."

Those words accurately describe the Yeomen's game on Saturday at Earlham College. The Quakers returned four turnovers for touchdowns and rolled to a 64-18 victory. Oberlin's defense struggled as well, surrendering 461 yards on the ground, and 552 yards total to a team that had been last in the conference in total offense.

Oberlin made several defensive changes for this game, such as moving junior Karlos Parham to the defensive line and moving senior Gerald Blankson to linebacker. For a little while in the first half the changes worked as the defense held Earlham several times. But the offense did not respond.

"In the first half we stuffed them a couple of times. We needed to step up on offense," said Head Coach Pete Peterson. "We made mistakes that really cost us. But it's really rare to see four turnovers returned to the end zone. It was real quirky."

The first turnover came when senior James Parker's pass was intercepted and returned 22 yards for a touchdown to put Earlham ahead 14-6. Still the Yeomen responded to this, scoring early in the third quarter to close the gap to 24-12.

The game really turned in the fourth quarter when Earlham cornerback Paul Stanley scored two defensive touchdowns within 55 seconds to break the game open at 43-12.

"The offense gave up 28 points," said wide receiver junior Felix Brooks-Church. "We didn't help the defense. If we didn't give up those points maybe we would have scored and made it a game."

After a while the game got out of hand. "That's putting it mildly," said Peterson.

"The whole thing was a fiasco," said Blankson. "It should have been 7-6 at the half."

Peterson had an explanation for the Yeomen's deficiencies on Saturday. "Our execution needs to be very precise, especially with our offense. Some of our guys tried too hard, they got a little anxious."

Once again the Yeomen got strong efforts from Parker, Brooks-Church, and junior Anthony Johnson. Sophomore Rick Kocher again played both offense and defense, and scored his second touchdown of the year.

Overall, Peterson said, "the team can improve, but they played hard right to the end".

"Earlham wore us down," Peterson said. "They came in with a good game plan."

This weekend the season comes to a close at home against the Allegheny University Gators. Last year, Parker and Brooks-Church set conference records in a loss, and this year looks to be similar. Allegheny is 8-1, and needs a win to advance to the NCAA playoffs.

The game will also be the final one for Parker, Blankson, Salter, and offensive linemen Garth Stidolph and Chris Lavin.

"This is a great group of seniors. This team has improved a thousand times since they were freshmen, and it's to these guys' credit," said Peterson.

I got threads: Junior Eli Miles models Yeomen fall football fashions, suitable only for the most hard-core practices and warm-ups. (photo by Heidi Good)