NEW CONCORD, Ohio — Marietta College spoiled rival Muskingum University's Homecoming with a lopsided 38-6 victory Saturday (Oct. 19) evening and retained the Shrine Trophy for an eighth straight year. The Pioneers improve to 6-0 overall and 5-0 in the Ohio Athletic Conference. Muskingum falls to 4-2 on the season and 3-2 in the OAC.
Marietta features one of the best defenses in NCAA Division III football and the Muskies learned that the hard way. On the opening drive of the game, Muskingum drove to the Pioneer 10-yard line before failing to convert a fourth-and-two turning the ball over on downs.
The Pioneer defense sacked Muskie quarterbacks three times, forced a pair of interception, including a pick-six, blocked a field goal attempt, and held its sixth straight opponent under 100-yards rushing for the game.
Linebacker Brady McManaway scooped up the blocked field goal and returned it 49 yards before the Muskies were able to bring him down right before halftime. McManaway did find the endzone in the third quarter when he intercepted a Muskingum pass and returned it 39 yards for the touchdown.
After going three-and-out on its first possession, Marietta started its second drive at its own 15-yard line. The Pioneers drove to the Muskie 14-yard line before settling for a 31-yard field goal from Derek Cline for the 3-0 lead early in the second quarter.
Following a Muskingum punt, Marietta took over near midfield and after a 1-yard run from Vante' Hodges, quarterback Connor Vierstra completed a 9-yard pass to Hodges, a 20-yard pass to Derek Witsberger and then connected with Jay Melchiori on a 34-yard touchdown. Cline added the extra point for a 10-0 lead.
Marietta extended its lead to 17-0 on Vierstra's second touchdown pass of the game. Vierstra capped a 7-play drive when he found his favorite target, Dawson Snyder, on a 6-yard touchdown. With 1:55 left in the first half.
Muskingum responded with one of its best drives of the game. The Muskies moved the ball to the Marietta 19-yard line before stalling. Aaron Meyers attempted a 36-yard field goal, but it was blocked by Anthony Sabatino and returned by McManaway to the Muskie 33-yard line.
Marietta was not able to capitalize on the field position and went into halftime leading 17-0.
The Pioneers received the second half kickoff and quickly extended the lead. Aided by a defensive pass interference call on a second-and-21, Vierstra completed four straight passes, including a 34-yard touchdown to Jay Melchiori.
Muskingum's next two possessions ended on interceptions. The second was McManaway's pick-six extending the Pioneer led to 31-0 with 4:05 left in the third quarter.
Taz Morris capped a 9-play, 58-yard drive for the Pioneers in the fourth quarter with a 3-yard touchdown run pushing the margin to 38-0 and all but sealing the victory for Marietta.
The Muskies managed to get on the board with 6:51 left on the clock when Garrett Gurney completed a 3-yard touchdown pass to Travanti Keitt. The extra point snap was bobbled resulting in a failed pass on the conversion attempt.
Vierstra completed 18-of-27 passes for 252 yards and three touchdowns and went over 7,000 career passing yards in the game and now has 7,221 career passing yards.
Melchiori caught six passes for 123 yards and two touchdowns. Snyder had five receptions for 56 yards and a touchdown. Morris finished with 13 carries for 52 yards rushing and one touchdown.
Harley Hopkins led the Pioneer defense with nine tackles. Chance Knight recorded 1.5 sacks increasing his total for the season to 9.5, tops in Division III. McManaway finished with three tackles and the pick-six interception. Brady Russell added an interception and Sabatino had the blocked field goal.
Gurney completed 20-of-28 passes for 199 yards and one touchdown for the Muskies. He also carried the ball 19 times for 73 yards on the ground. Davion Grant caught five passes for 88 yards.
Marietta returns home to host Baldwin Wallace University for Homecoming on Saturday (Oct. 26) at 2 p.m.