Football Game Notes (2022 Game 1) | Football Record Book

The College of Wooster football team (0-0, 0-0 North Coast Athletic Conference) opens its 2022 season on Saturday evening at Geneva College (0-0, 0-0 Presidents' Athletic Conference). Kickoff from Reeves Field is set for 7:30 p.m. Saturday's game marks Wooster's first lid-lifter on the road since the 2018 season, and the Fighting Scots last opened at a PAC institution in 2016, the last of four straight openers against Washington & Jefferson College.

On The Air: Geneva will provide a livestream of this week's contest at https://www.pacdigitalnetwork.com/geneva/. WQKT Sports Country Radio is not carrying this week's contest as both Ohio State University and the Cleveland Guardians play on Saturday evening.

All-Time Series: Wooster leads the all-time series 1-0. The teams first met in the 2021 opener at John P. Papp Stadium, a game won by Wooster 42-35.

Last Meeting: Then-sophomore Kobe Nadu (Summerville, Ga./Darlington School) electrified Wooster with a rare "pick-six" fumble return, and the Black and Gold got the stop it needed late to hold off visiting Geneva 42-35 on September 4, 2021 at John P. Papp Stadium. The third quarter was where the wildness happened, and it started when Nadu snatched Amos Luptak's pitch attempt out of the air. The Scots' strong safety ran the fumble recovery back 46 yards for the touchdown. It marked Wooster's first fumble return for a touchdown on an opponent's rushing play since alumnus Robert Alvarez's 33-yard runback at Bluffton University in 2018. Then-junior Dorion Talley (Chagrin Falls, Ohio/Kenston) snuffed out a fourth-and-6 play in the closing minutes, closed in just in time to break up a Luptak-to-Peyton Schell pass attempt, and that breakup secured the victory for Wooster.

Last Time Out: Wooster was unable to upend archrival Wittenberg University, falling 44-29 at Edwards-Maurer Field on November 11, 2021. Two areas where Wooster did have success came when matched up one-on-one on the outside and on shots down the field. Senior Mateo Renteria (Houston, Texas/Cypress Creek) found then-first-year Bryant Douglas II down the sideline for a 98-yard touchdown strike, with that completion marking the program's longest, surpassing a 91-yard Vic Rowcliffe-to-Phil Puryear pass at Case Western Reserve University in 1990. It also tied the NCAC record for longest touchdown pass, and at the time, it was tied for the second-longest in Div. III for the 2021 season.

Offense Notes: Cole Hissong (Shreve, Ohio/Triway) was a first-team D3football.com Preseason All-American, marking his third year earning preseason All-American honors from the popular website dedicated to covering NCAA Div. III football. Hissong is already tops in program history among tight ends with 15 touchdown receptions. Hissong needs 42 yards to surpass alumnus Jacob Lewis for most receiving yards in program history by a tight end. Hissong is at 1,427 and Lewis tallied 1,468 from 2016-19. In fact, Hissong is on the verge of a top-10 spot in program history for receiving yards, as Tony Harris (1984-87) and Price Daw (1948-50) are in 10th-place with 1,474 receiving yards each. Renteria needs 446 yards to surpass Gary Muntean (2014-17) for most passing yards in program history. Renteria has the most (3,237, 2021), fourth-most (2,483, 2018), and sixth-most (2,130, 2018) passing yards in single-season program history. Renteria is also five passing touchdowns shy of Muntean's career school record of 65.

Defense Notes: Junior Alex White (Fayetteville, Ga./Fayette County) is Wooster's lone all-conference returnee on defense. However, the Scots have numerous starters back in the fold, as eight players are back who started at least half of the games in 2021. The other returning starters are junior linebacker Andrew Armile (Poland, Ohio/Cardinal Mooney), junior Domenic DeMuth (Mayfield Village, Ohio/Mayfield), who has transitioned from defensive line to linebacker, senior defensive tackle Quincy Taylor (McDonough, Ga./Forest Park), senior linebacker Chris Savaglio (Centerport, N.Y./Harborfields), Talley, senior defensive back Matt Ulishney (Greensburg, Pa./Serra District Catholic), and senior defensive back Langston Williams (New York, N.Y./Xavier).

Special Teams Notes: Senior placekicker Lake Barrett (Columbia, S.C./Hammond School) and senior punter Matt Pardi (Arlington, Va./Washington-Liberty) were among the D3football.com Preseason All-Americans. Barrett earned first-team College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-America® honors last fall, a season in which he earned second-team D3football.com all-region and second-team All-NCAC honors. Barrett went 47-for-47 on extra-point tries last season, becoming the program's first placekicker to make over 40 in a season without a miss. Pardi also earned D3football.com all-region and All-NCAC honors as a junior. He averaged 42.9 yards per punt, which is the highest mark in program history, however, Pardi did not meet the minimum punt requirement to officially hold the record. Pardi is Wooster's nominee this year for the Allstate® American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Good Works Team®.

This and That: Wooster has six players - wide receiver Troy Baughman (McKinney, Texas/Frisco Independence), linebacker Harvey Briscoe (West Bloomfield, Mich./West Bloomfield), wide receiver KJ Coleman (Lubbock, Texas/Lubbock), Hissong, Renteria, and Savaglio back for a fifth season, thanks to the extra year of COVID eligiblity. Wooster head coach Frank Colaprete is in year 10 as the Scots' head coach. Colaprete has the fourth-longest tenure in program history trailing L.C. Boles (24 years), Phil Shipe (17 years), and Mike Schmitz (13 years). This is the 125th season of Wooster football, with the program dating back to 1889. Wooster is looking for its fifth-straight 1-0 start to the season. Wooster last started 1-0 in five consecutive seasons from 2002-06. Wooster has players from 27 different states - Ohio (35), Georgia (8), Texas (8), California (7), New York (5), Pennsylvania (4), Tennessee (4), Indiana (3), Florida (3), Michigan (2), Virginia (2), Alabama (1), Arizona (1), Kentucky (1), Louisiana (1), Maryland (1), Massachusetts (1), Minnesota (1), Mississippi (1), New Jersey (1), Nevada (1), North Carolina (1), Oklahoma (1), Oregon (1), South Carolina (1), South Dakota (1), Utah (1) - plus Washington, D.C. (1), Canada (2), and Germany (1).