DELAWARE, Ohio – The Ohio Wesleyan University football team opened up North Coast competition on Saturday night with a meeting with Wittenberg on Homecoming Weekend. The Battling Bishops got on the board first but other than that, a quiet first half led to a 31-point halftime deficit, ultimately ending in a 55-17 loss for the Red and Black.
Ohio Wesleyan slips to 1-2 on the season, and starts NCAC play 0-1. Wittenberg moves to 2-1 and 1-0 in the conference.
OWU started moving the ball early with
Bryan Hines Jr. taking the opening kickoff 46 yards to the Wittenberg 48 yard line. From there, the Bishops pushed all the way down to the nine yard line but ended up settling for a
Ryan Elliot 26-yard field goal to open the scoring at 3-0. Unfortunately, those three points were all the Red and Black could muster in the first half. On the other end, Wittenberg would tally 13 in the first quarter and 21 in the second to take a 34-3 lead into halftime.
The Bishops bounced back slightly with two touchdowns in the second half, the first coming via a
Devon Haley four-yard rush, and the second on a
Chanden Lee nine-yard touchdown pass to
Reddik Pillarelli. Unfortunately, those scores would be canceled out by Wittenberg's 21 second half points on three touchdowns, bringing the final scoreline to 55-17.
THE NUMBERS
C.J. Jackson led the OWU offense with 186 total yards. He was 18-for-28 passing for 142 yards, adding 44 as the leading rusher.
Chanden Lee was 6-for-7 for 59 yards and one touchdown.
Mysaun Sanders and
Devon Haley had a combined 63 yards on the ground. Sanders had 32 yards on 16 attempts. Haley had 31 yards on eight carries.
Josh Hurst led the Red and Black receiving corps with 50 yards on three receptions with a long of 32.
Reddik Pillarelli had five receptions for 49 yards with a touchdown.
Quin Schroeder recorded 45 yards on four catches. And
Austin Koslow secured five receptions for 33 yards.
On the defensive end,
John Banks Jr. led Ohio Wesleyan with 10 tackles and one tackle for loss.
Grant Johnson was right behind with nine tackles, followed by
Abram Beer and
Jake Smothers both with seven.
Chris Burns notched six and
Collin Wehner recorded five.
UP NEXT
The Bishops have a bye next Saturday before returning to action on October 4th at rival Denison. Kickoff for that classic matchup in Granville is set for 2 p.m.
