MARIETTA, Ohio – The Marietta College football team was defeated by the No. 1 ranked University of Mount Union on Saturday (Nov. 16) afternoon to cap the 2019 season. The loss drops the Pioneers record to 5-5 overall and 4-4 in the Ohio Athletic Conference, while the Purples Raiders improve to 10-0 overall and 9-0 in the OAC.
"Obviously I'm disappointed that we weren't able to keep the game closer than it was. But we played a really good team today that made a lot of great plays," Marietta head coach
Andy Waddle said. "With only six seniors, we are a young team. We saw glimpses today of some of our younger players like Bryce (Agnew) and Logan (Domer). We are going to continue to get better as we look to the future."
Mount Union received the opening kickoff of the game and drove the ball 75 yards in five plays. The Purple Raiders took a 7-0 lead on a 47-yard touchdown pass from D'Angelo Fulford to Justin Hill. After a Marietta punt, Mount Union capped a nine play 50-yard drive when Josh Petruccelli ran for a five-yard touchdown, to put the Purple Raiders on top 14-0.
Petruccelli led the Raider ground attack rushing for 126 yards and one touchdown on 12 carries. Fulford completed 18-of-20 passes for 296 yards and five touchdowns. Hill finished with 12 catches for 204 yards and four touchdowns.
Kyle McSweeney (Independence, Ohio/Trinity) completed 18-of-30 passes for 133 yards.
Austin Veatch (Pittsburgh, Pa./Brentwood Senior) had nine catches for 74 yards, while
Robert Nelson (McKees Rocks, Pa./Trinity) caught six passes for 57 yards.
The Pioneer offense answered on their ensuing drive for their only points of the afternoon. Marietta scored when
Logan Domer (Orrville, Ohio/Orrville) ripped off a 66-yard touchdown rush, to cap the four play 79-yard drive.
Jacob Griffin (Wellington, Ohio/Norwalk St. Paul) converted the extra point and the Pioneers cut the Mount Union lead to 14-7. Domer finished with 82 yards rushing on seven carries.
After each team had possessions end in punts the Purple Raiders added to their lead when Braxton Plunk connected on a 64-yard touchdown pass to Derrick Harvey. Mount Union ended the first quarter with a 21-7 lead. On the day, Plunk completed 9-of-16 passes for 179 yards and three touchdowns.
The Purple Raiders tacked on a pair of touchdowns early in the second quarter. Fulford threw a pair of touchdown passes, the first to Harvey for 11-yards and the second Hill for 11-yards. Mount Union capped off the second quarter with a 22-yard touchdown down pass from Plunk to Edwin Reed. The Purple Raiders missed the extra point, but led 41-7 at the half.
Marietta's defense blocked a pair of Mount Union field goals attempts in the first half.
Kyle Gallagher (Chesterland, Ohio/West Geauga) blocked a 34-yard attempt in the first quarter and
Tay Pryor (Canton, Ohio/GlenOak) got a piece of a 31-yard Purple Raider attempt in the second quarter.
Mount Union controlled the second half of the game as they scored 14 points in both the third and fourth quarters. In the third quarter Fulford threw for a pair of touchdowns. The passing scores were both completed to Hill for 39-yards and 11-yards, and the Purple Raiders led, 55-7 to enter the final quarter.
Mount Union added two more scores in the fourth when Plunk connected with Jordan Lee for a 15-yard touchdown, and KJ Redmond scored the final touchdown of the game with a 1-yard rush.
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.
