WESTERVILLE, Ohio — Junior running back
Roger Walker (Palm Bay, Fla./Bayside) rushed for over 100 yards for the seventh straight game but it wasn't enough as Otterbein University defeated Marietta College 49-21 Saturday (Nov. 12) afternoon in Memorial Stadium.
The Pioneers finish the 2016 season 3-7 overall and 3-6 in the Ohio Athletic Conference. Otterbein improves to 5-5 overall and 5-4 in conference play.
Trailing 14-7 less than two minutes before halftime, Marietta elected to go for it on fourth and five at the Cardinal 9-yard line.
Darrien Fields (Aliquippa, Pa./Aliquippa) tried to hit Walker on the play but the pass fell incomplete giving the ball back to Otterbein.
Otterbein proceeded to march 91 yards on 10 plays to push the lead to 21-7 at halftime. Cardinal quarterback Logan Stepp completed 4-of-6 passes on the drive for 58 yards and Isaiah Richmond added 25 yards on three carries, including the final 4-yard scoring run.
The Cardinals got the ball to start the second half and had great field position after Hunter Joseph returned the kick 55 yards to the Pioneer 32-yard line and a personal foul against Marietta moved it to the 17-yard line.
Following a 1-yard run by Stepp, OU scored on a 16-yard pass from Stepp to Julian Lowe. Joe Sanfillipo added his fourth PAT for a 28-7 Cardinal lead.
Stepp passed for 222 yards and four touchdowns in the game completing 18-of-23 attempts. Lowed finished with nine catches for 107 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Christian Johnson had eight carries for 87 yards and two TD's, while Stepp rushed for 62 yards on 11 carries.
Walker led the Pioneer attack with 30 carries for 179 yards and three touchdowns. He finishes the season with 1,292 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns. Walker is Marietta's first 1,000-yard rusher since Lamar Hunter ran for 1,031 in 2009.
Fields completed 23-of-38 passes for 206 yards. Seven different Pioneers caught passes.
Ryan VanMeter (Maysville, W.Va./Petersburg) had six receptions for 51 yards.
Billy Frauens (McKees Rocks, Pa./Sto-Rox) had five catches for 47 yards and Walker had five for 36 yards.
For the season, Fields threw for 2,038 yards and 13 touchdowns completing 190-of-295 pass attempts. MC's last signal caller to throw for over 2,000 yards was Andrew Keller with 2,223 in 2011.
Otterbein got on the board first early in the second quarter. Stepp hit Lowe on a 3-yard pass to cap an 8-play, 70-yard drive. Marietta answered with an 11-play, 84-yard scoring drive of its own to tie the game at 7-7. Walker ran it in from 9-yards out for the first of his three touchdowns.
Any momentum Marietta had going was quickly erased as Otterbein needed just one play to regain the lead. Following the kickoff, Johnson broke off a 52-yard touchdown run putting the Cardinals in front 14-7 with 9:25 left in the second quarter.
After scoring on the opening drive of the second half, Stepp added touchdown passes of 21 yards to Payton Vanderkool and 15 yards to Joseph. Johnson scored OU's final points with a 1-yard run in the fourth quarter.
Walker scored twice in the second half. His 5-yard TD run capped a 90-yard Pioneer drive in the third quarter and his final score was a 29-yard run in the fourth quarter.
Defensively, sophomore linebacker
Garrett Davis (Marietta, Ohio/Marietta) led the Pioneers. Davis made 14 tackles including three behind the line of scrimmage.
Eric Klopfenstein (New Albany, Ohio/New Albany) added nine tackles and
Cody Walker (Nelsonville, Ohio/Nelsonville York) had seven.
Fans can follow all the Pioneer teams all year long at
pioneers.marietta.edu. You can also follow the Pioneers on Facebook at
facebook.com/MariettaCollege and @MariettaPioneer on Twitter and Instagram.
