Once a team Wilmington College dominated, Heidelberg has turned things around.
The Quakers won eight of the first nine Ohio Athletic Conference meetings with the Student Princes.
But since a 23-20 WC win in 2008, Heidelberg has won 12 straight and only the first one (17-14) was close.
“Their coaching staff has been there forever and they have done a great job sustaining the energy in that program,” said WC head coach Bryan Moore, who previously coached at Heidelberg.
Wilmington travels to Tiffin this weekend to face Heidelberg. Kickoff is set for 1:30 p.m. Saturday.
Heidelberg won last year’s meeting 38-16.
“Heidelberg is a very high-paced football team,” Moore said. “They return pretty much everyone.”
The Student Princes were OAC runnersup last season and are currently ranked No. 23 in the nation.
The Quakers lost their season opener to Southern Virginia 41-34 in overtime while the Student Princes were 48-20 winners over Adrian College.
“We held a multiple touchdown lead with six minutes to go in the third quarter and then had some critical errors when we had a chance to put the game away,” Moore said. “It is a terrible feeling and it hurt bad. The only thing worse that could happen is if we fail to learn from this situation.”
Derek Larimer made his first start at quarterback for the Quakers and went 36-58 for 366 yards and two touchdowns.
Tavion Bryant, preseason All-America linebacker for WC, left the game last week in the second half.
“Our athletic training staff does an elite job of getting our players safely back on the field,” Moore said. “Tavion is our emotional leader on that side of the ball. When he was not there in the second half last week, I think it was an uneasy feeling for our defense.
“I have 100 percent confidence that Tavion will be flying around the field up in Tiffin on Saturday.”
Xzerious Stinnett led Wilmington with seven tackles.
