No. 24 Wooster Blows Past Bethany (W.Va.) 69-7

Tony Sutton amassed 295 all-purpose yards and scored four touchdowns against Bethany.

The running of junior Tony Sutton (Akron, Ohio / Archbishop Hoban) combined with opportunistic defense and special team units equated to a 69-7 thrashing by The College of Wooster over host Bethany (W. Va.) College in non-conference football action on Saturday.

Sutton emerged onto the NCAA Div. III scene against Bethany in 2002, amassing 298 all-purpose yards, including 171 on the ground on just 11 carries, in the teams’ meeting last fall. His performance Saturday was very similar, this time compiling 295 all-purpose yards, highlighted by 193 rushing on 15 attempts and capped by an 88-yard kickoff return in the fourth quarter for his fourth touchdown of the game. It also marked the Scots’ first kickoff return for a score since John Tomlinson ran one back 89 yards in 1991.

Wooster (2-0), which entered the contest ranked No. 24 in the D3football.com Top-25 national poll, seized control of the contest in the first quarter, with Sutton totaling 156 of his yards on just eight carries, including runs of 59 and 43, and two touchdowns to help build a 21-0 lead.

Sutton’s first score was a nine-yard scamper midway through the period that had been set up by an interception deep in Bison territory by defensive lineman Joe Pavlich (New Waterford, Ohio / East Palestine).

The next time the Scots got the ball, Sutton raced 59 yards on the first play, moving the ball to the Bethany 21. He eventually punched it in from five yards out.

Wooster’s third score of the quarter came from the arm of freshman quarterback Justin Schafer (Bethesda, Ohio / Union Local), who connected with senior Dan Steck (Brunswick, Ohio / Brunswick) on a six-yard touchdown pass. Schafer finished the day 8-of-12 for 127 yards and two touchdowns.

The Scots scored twice more in the second quarter to take a 35-0 halftime lead, and the second half was more of the same, with the exception of a late score by Bethany.

Not to be overshadowed by the offensive outburst was the play of Wooster’s defense. In the opener against Hope College, the Scots surrendered over 500 yards of offense, including 426 through the air, but the story was much different on Saturday, as the Bison only managed seven first downs and 149 total yards.

In fact, the Scot defense outscored Bethany on its own, as senior Kevin Rooker (Uniontown, Pa. / Laurel Highlands) and junior Brian Kight (Dublin, Ohio / Fallbrook — Calif.) returned 19- and 28-yard interceptions for touchdowns, respectively, in the second and third quarters. It was Rooker’s first career pick, while it marked the second year in a row Kight brought one back for a score.

Other Wooster players with touchdowns were senior tight end Rusty Miller (Westlake, Ohio / Westlake), who hauled in a 39-yard pass from Schafer, and freshman tailback Kevin Williams (Bay Village, Ohio / Bay), who ran one in from seven yards out. It marked the first scores for both in their careers.

Statistically, the Scots finished with 494 yards of total offense, including 367 rushing on 49 carries, and averaged 8.0 yards per play.

Wooster was nearly able to post its first shutout since the final game of the 2001 season, but Bethany scored late, thanks to the benefit of a short field following a bad snap on Scot punt attempt.

Leading the way in tackles for the Scots was Rooker, who collected nine, while first-years Andy Mizak (Warren, Mich. / Paul K. Cousino) and Evan Watson (Crawfordsville, Ind. / Crawfordsville) each had eight.

Also noteworthy, with nine extra points made on the day, junior kicker Richie McNally (Westerville, Ohio / St. Francis DeSales), tied the Wooster single-game record and broke the school’s career mark in that category. McNally has now connected on 80-of-84 extra points in just 22 games, surpassing Ben Arnold’s mark of 75.

Wooster will put its perfect 2-0 record on the line next Saturday (Sept. 27), when it travels to Cleveland for a match-up with Case Western Reserve University (3-0).