Sports
Baldwin Wallace Spoils Marietta’s Senior Day, 31-7
By: Justin Holbrock
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On their Senior Day game at Don Drumm Stadium, the Marietta Pioneers came out on the losing end, 31-7, against the Baldwin Wallace Yellow Jackets. This game was a story of two halves, as the Pios only trailed by seven going into halftime.
Turnovers plagued the Pioneers’ offense, which prevented them from getting into the end zone. Baldwin Wallace, however, had yet another effective week for its rushing attack, which dominated the second half of the game.
Although Marietta had 360 total yards of offense compared to the Yellow Jackets 313, the Pioneers were unsuccessful in converting those yards to touchdowns. The main reason for this problem was the three interceptions thrown by quarterback Tom Fulton. One of Fulton’s interceptions included a pick six to Yellow Jacket linebacker Dan O’Brien with only 31 seconds remaining before halftime, putting Baldwin Wallace up, 14-7. Fulton, a fifth-year senior, threw for 195 yards on 14 completions, but his three interceptions overshadowed his last home game as a Marietta Pioneer.
All three of Fulton’s interceptions were thrown on Marietta’s side of the field, which put a burden on its defense. After shutting out Wilmington in the fourth quarter of last week’s 50-22 victory, the Pioneers defense came out strong against the Yellow Jackets. The defense allowed Baldwin Wallace to score on its first possession, but held its offense scoreless the rest of the first half.
The second half, however, was a much different story as Marietta allowed its opponent to score 17 unanswered points. The Yellow Jackets were successful in the second half thanks in large part to its running game. After running 53 times for 328 yards in last week’s 28-12 win over Capital, Baldwin Wallace kept the same strategy this week with 45 rushing attempts. Marietta also relied heavily on the run game with 47 rushes, but didn’t have the same success as the Yellow Jackets. Baldwin Wallace gained 255 yards on the ground with three touchdowns while Marietta only had one touchdown and 165 rushing yards.
In last week’s game, the Yellow Jackets used a combination of Nolan Sordyl and Josiah Holt to gain a majority of their rushing yards. However, running back Issac Reed III stole the spotlight from this duo in the game against the Pios. Reed had 15 carries for 101 yards and two touchdowns in the game and proved that the Yellow Jackets have not one, not two, but three lethal weapons in the backfield.
Marietta needs to cut back on turnovers and play tough in both halves if they hope to defeat Otterbein University next week. The Pioneers travel to Westerville, Ohio, to take on Cardinals, who are looking to improving their record to over .500 on the year. Kickoff from Memorial Stadium is set for 1:30 p.m.