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Football
Pregame Information – The Gentlemen’s Classic – Wabash College vs #2 North Central College
- When: Saturday, September 10, 2022 at 1:00 p.m.
- Where: Giant Little Stadium at Wabash College
- Tickets: There are still tickets available. Go to https://sports.wabash.edu/tickets for more information
- Watch online: All Wabash home football games are streamed live at https://sports.wabash.edu/wcvn, as well as through the Wabash College Video Network app on Apple TV, Roku, and Amazon Fire platforms and through Apple Store and Google Play.
- Wabash is playing his 135th football season with an all-time record of 704-395-59. Wabash ranks 5th among Division III schools in all-time wins and 12th in winning percentage with a mark of .633. The Little Giants joined Notre Dame as the second Indiana school to win 700 games in the history of the football program.
- Wabash and North Central meet for the fifth time overall. The two teams first played in 1914 at Crawfordsville, with the Wabash claiming a 17-7 victory. The Little Giants won the first three meetings between the two schools, including a 29-28 win over the sixth-seeded Cardinals in the second round of the 2011 NCAA Division III football tournament. North Central defeated Wabash 51-15 at Naperville in the first round of the 2019 tournament to start the Cardinals’ national championship title race.
- North Central enter today’s game in second place in D3football.com’s latest Top-25 poll. Wabash won his last home game against a top 25 team with a 42-35 victory over 25th-ranked DePauw in last year’s Monon Bell Classic. The Little Giants lost at home to 13th-ranked Wittenberg 21-14 in 2017.
- Wabash produced 663 yards of total offense last week in their 52-48 win against Hampden-Sydney College in The Gentlemen’s Classic 2022. The Little Giants threw for 392 yards with four touchdowns and rushed for 271 yards and two touchdowns. Hampden-Sydney gave up 490 yards of total offense in the game for a combined 1,153 yards per game. That total ranked second among Division III teams in the opening weekend of the 2022 season, behind the 1,157 yards of total offense amassed by Guilford and Greensboro. Wabash trailed SUNY-Cortland (681 yards) and Mary Hardin-Baylor (674 yards) for the most total yards among Division III teams in the first week. Wabash’s 493 yards of total offense ranked ninth in single-game history. The school record is 711 yards of total offense (232 rushing, 479 passing) set against Denison University in 2000.
- junior quarterback liam thompson he earned North Coast Athletic Conference Offensive Football Athlete of the Week honors for his performance against Hampden-Sydney. The 2021 NCAC Offensive Player of the Year threw for a career-high 392 yards and matched his best single-game total with four touchdown passes. He had the first 100-yard rushing game of his career by rushing for 102 yards and two other touchdowns. Thompson’s 494 yards of total offense ranked second in Wabash single-game history, trailing only Dustin Huff ’07’s 499-yard effort against Franklin College in 2007. He topped 400 passing yards for the second time in his career 431-yard game last season against Kenyon. Thompson has thrown for more than 300 yards seven times in 22 career starts at quarterback.
- Junior wide receiver Derek Allen, Jr. caught a career-high eight passes with three touchdown receptions in Saturday’s win over the Tigers. He accounted for 20 of the Little Giants’ 52 points, adding a catch on a 2-point conversion attempt after Thompson’s 26-yard TD midway through the fourth quarter. Allen caught a 75-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter to match the longest reception of his career. He caught a 75-yard touchdown strike against Kenyon last season. Allen finished the game with 172 receiving yards, his second-highest total in a single game behind a 181-yard effort against Kenyon.
- Nine different receivers caught passes last week. Junior Cooper Sullivan he caught four passes for 33 yards and a touchdown. jacob’s riddle, connor thompsonY Penn Stoller finished with three receptions each. Patrick Gavin, heisman skeens, Donovan SnyderY cade campbell they all caught a pass each.
- Wabash limited Hampden-Sydney to 79 total yards in the fourth quarter, including just 29 rushing yards in the final 15 minutes of the game. The Little Giants only gave up 104 passing yards in the second half. steve thomas, Joe RiosY mike holsclaw each finished with eight tackles to lead the team. Thomas recorded a game-high three tackles for losses totaling 12 yards and made one of four sacks for the Wabash defense.
North Central Scouting – The last time Wabash and North Central met was in Naperville for the first round of the 2019 NCAA Division III football playoffs. The Cardinals posted a 51-15 victory en route to an overall record of 14 -1 and the 2019 NCAA DIII title. North Central amassed 588 total yards of offense in that game, including 373 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns.
Senior running back Ethan Greenfield earned a preseason All-America First Team selection from D3football.com. He led all of Division III in rushing for the second straight season with 1,796 yards. His 24 rushing touchdowns were second among all Division III players. Senior Terrence Hill added 796 yards and 16 rushing touchdowns to North Central’s totals in 2021.
Second-year quarterback Luke Lehnen threw for 3,284 yards and 33 touchdowns in his rookie season to help the Cardinals to the 2021 DIII national championship game. Junior Deangelo Hardy is a First Team All-Star preseason selection. America as a wide receiver after catching 51 passes for 1,009 yards and 12 touchdowns last season.
Second Team All-America Preseason selection Dan Gilroy had a team-best 16.5 tackles for losses totaling 75 yards, including 8-1/2 sacks for 61 yards. Senior linebacker Sam Taviani finished second on the team in tackles in 2021 with 64 stops. He added an interception, 6-1/2 tackles for losses totaling 20 yards and a sack. The Cardinals limited opposing teams to 203 points for the season, an average of 14.5 points per game.