Marietta College running back Bryce Agnew (24) will lead the Pioneers into battle Saturday at Wilmington. (Photo by Jordan Holland)
MARIETTA — The Pioneers sit at 3-2 through the first half of the football season. Their only losses so far have been to second-ranked Mount Union and No. 12 John Carroll, which defeated Marietta last weekend 31-28.
Despite the loss, this is the closest any team has gotten to beating the Blue Streaks besides No. 11 Univeristy of Wisconsin Whitewater, which beat John Carroll 27-23. The next closest margin of victory the Blue Streaks have had this year was a 23-point victory over Baldwin Wallace.
Given its peformance against John Carroll, signs are pointing to Marietta College breaking away from the middle of the pack in the OAC and solidifying itself as the third team in the conference behind Mount Union and John Carroll. This week, Marietta College looks to test its mettle against the Wilmington College Quakers.
In last week’s matchup against the Blue Streaks, the Pioneers found themselves down 21-0 at the end of the first quarter, but were able to hang around.
Marietta College quarterback Connor Vierstra had one of his flashier games last Saturday. He went 35 of 50 through the air for 395 yards and four touchdowns. Vierstra was also the team’s second-leading rusher, with eight attempts for a total of 29 yards. Running back Bryce Agnew led the Pioneers in rushing yards, compiling 65 yards on 20 attempts. Agnew also hauled in two passes for an additional 30 yards. Wide receiver Dawson Snyder had an impressive performance, scoring three touchdowns on 15 catches for 164 yards. Marietta lost the turnover battle, but only slightly. Vierstra threw two interceptions to John Carroll’s Joe Collins’ one.
Pioneers head coach Andy Waddle said of how the game went, “We dug ourselves a bit of a hole. I don’t think we were playing totally characteristically of how we normally do. I think we dug ourselves a bit of a hole, but our guys fought out of the hole. We were disappointed that we weren’t able to make a couple plays at the end to win.”
He went on to cover Marietta’s ability to get back into the game after trailing by 21 by the end of the first quarter, “I think that we got back to doing some of the things a bit better than we had done. We gave them great field position on the first few drives they had. We got better field position, eventually, and were able to get a pick. Offensively, we stuggled to find our rhythm in the passing game. We did it one play at a time. We got it to a 21-14 game at half, which made us feel like we were right back in it. We’ve been a bit of a slow start team this year. Even in the games we have won, we havent started as I’d like.”
Wilmington College also has a 3-2 record through five games. The Quakers opened the season with a 63-43 victory over Wooster. In Week 3, Wilmington beat Capital, 49-24. Outside of those two matchups, the Pioneers and Quakers have played the same three teams: Baldwin Wallace, Otterbein, and John Carroll.
Marietta has outperformed Wilmington against every common opponent. The Quakers lost to Baldwin Wallace 61-25, whereas the Pioneers won against BW by a score of 42-21. Wilmington beat Otterbein 47-21, while Marietta shut them out, 50-0. Although both squads lost to John Carroll, they did so in very different fashions. The Quakers lost by 52 at a score of 59-7, and the Pioneers lost by just three points, falling 31-28 to the Blue Streaks.
Waddle was incredibly complementary of what the Quakers bring to the table as an opponent, “They’re just a really athletic team, especially on offense. They have a really talented wide receiver running back combo. Their running back (Nehemiah Jenkins) is top ten in the country in rushing yards per game, the wide receiver (Lathan Jones) is leading the conference in receiveing yards per game and the quarterback (Derek Larimer) is also leading the conference. They do a good job at getting athletes the ball in space. Wilmington gives you a different look than other people give you, so its’s gonna be a challenge.”
Marietta College won its matchup against Wilmington by a score of 34-0 last year. The last time the Quakers bested the Pioneers was back in 2012.
Having played five games thus far, Waddle described the Pioneers’ mindset going into the back half of the season, “We’re excited to play the remaining five games. I feel like we are able to be competitive in all those games. We’re looking to clean up some of the mistakes we have made and put together a stronger second half than we did the first half.”
Contact Aaron Lee at alee@newsandsentinel.com
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