WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The Baldwin Wallace University football team opened Ohio Athletic Conference play with a 41-10 over Otterbein University inside Memorial Stadium.
BW (2-0, 1-0 OAC) improved to 39-12-1 in the all-time series with Otterbein (0-2, 0-1 OAC), including winning the past three meetings.
Offensively for the Yellow Jackets, junior Academic All-OAC quarterback Keagan Armitage (Ashland) completed 10-of-20 passes for 90 yards with one touchdown. Junior All-OAC running back Jon Murray, Jr. (Cincinnati/Withrow) led the ground game with a career-high 171 yards on 26 carries with three touchdowns. Senior wideout Darius Stokes (Canton/GlenOak) led the aerial attack with two catches for 32 yards with a touchdown. Defensively, junior linebacker Mason Levasseur (Panama City, Fla./South Walton) recorded nine tackles, one interception and two pass breakups. In addition, senior Academic All-OAC linebacker Nick Pankow (Medina), junior linebacker Dillon O'Donoghue (Cannonsburg, Pa./Cannon-McMillian) and sophomore linebacker Tyler Tobin (London) all recorded seven tackles. Pankow added an interception and quarterback sack.
The Cardinals were led on the offense by senior quarterback Bryce Hall as he completed 16-of-34 passes for 136 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. Senior running back Siraj Muhhamad led the rushing attack with 50 yards on 13 carries. Junior wideout Jalan Minney led the receiving corps with five catches for 63 yards with one touchdown. Defensively, junior linebacker Colton Doup tallied seven tackles.
In the first quarter, BW and Otterbein were held scoreless.
The Yellow Jackets scored the first points of the game when Armitage hit Stokes in the back of the endzone on a 17-yard pass play at the 3:14 mark of the second quarter. Junior kicker Dean Sarris (Canton/GlenOak) added the extra point to make the score 7-0. The Cardinals cut into the lead when junior kicker Caleb Meade hit a 22-yard field goal as time expired making the score 7-3.
BW added to its lead and opened the second half scoring when Murray, Jr. scored on a one-yard run at the 9:07 mark of the third quarter. The extra point was no good to make the scored 13-3. Just 59 seconds later, the Yellow Jackets added seven more points on the 30-yard interception return by Levasseur and Sarris with the extra point to push the lead to 20-3 with 8:08 left in third quarter. BW kept things rolling when Murray, Jr. scored his second touchdown on a five-yard run. Sarris tacked on the point after to extend the lead to 27-3 at 3:58.
The Yellow Jackets opened the fourth quarter scoring when Murray, Jr. rushed to paydirt for the third time on a seven yard carry. Sarris hit the extra point to push the lead to 34-3 at the 14:15 mark. BW went up 41-3 on the first collegiate touchdown for junior running back DJ Griffus (Euclid/Lake Catholic) at 10:01. Sarris added the point after. Otterbein got back on the board when Hall connected with Minney on a 22 yard touchdown. Meade hit the extra point to make the score 41-10 with 4:53 remaining in the game.
The Yellow Jackets close out their three-game season opening road trip when they travel to Alliance on Saturday, September 18 for an OAC game against No. 2 nationally-ranked and defending OAC Champion University of Mount Union at 1:30 p.m. The Yellow Jackets open the home portion of their schedule on Saturday, September 25 when they host an OAC game against Heidelberg University at 1:30 p.m.
