The Wilmington College football team stays on the road this week to face the Baldwin Wallace Yellow Jackets 1:30 p.m. Saturday.
After a shocking loss to Bluffton in their season opener, the Yellow Jackets are 3-1 in the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) with its lone loss coming to nationally-ranked John Carroll, 17-14.
“BW is good team that is well coached and it always comes to battle every single week,” said Wilmington head coach Stacey Hairston. “They are always in the game and rarely get blown out by teams.”
Senior quarterback Tyler Moeglin leads the Yellow Jackets in both passing and rushing. He is currently fifth in the OAC, averaging 84.2 yards rushing and sixth in the league with 167.0 yards passing. He is responsible for 13 of Baldwin Wallace’s 20 touchdowns.
In the win over Marietta, Moeglin was 15-of-22 for 222 yards and two touchdowns, both to Bryon Cook.
“He is the heartbeat of their offense,” said Hairston. “How he goes is how the team is going to go. He is their leader and we have to try to find a way to minimize him. We can’t allow him to have success running and throwing the ball. We need to try to make him one-dimensional and keep him in the pocket.”
Junior receivers Cook and Tyler Wolf combine for 34 catches for 489 yards and five touchdowns, all by Cook. Senior Isaac Reed III is second on the team with 236 yards on 47 carries.
Defensively, the Yellow Jackets will challenge Wilmington’s young offensive line that features two sophomores and three freshmen.
“They bring a lot of pressure and give you a lot of different looks by moving people around,” said Hairston. “They are a very physical defensive team. For us, the key is to make sure we understand who is coming from where and make sure we don’t have any missed blocking assignments.”
Although Hairston anticipates a plethora of pressure from BW, they only have eight sacks on the season. Junior Andy Schultz leads the team with four of the eight sacks.
Sophomore Sam Groff leads the team with 44 tackles, while junior Brock Hull is second with 35.
