Fresh off its season-opening win over Bluffton and a bye week, the Wilmington College football team returns to the gridiron for its first Ohio Athletic Conference game of the season.
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The Fightin' Quakers host Capital 7 p.m. Saturday on Townsend Field in Williams Stadium with an eye on doing something that hasn't been accomplished since 1999, start a season 2-0.
It won't be an easy task as they haven't defeated Capital since the 2000 season, and the Crusaders bring a potent option attack to town.
"The triple option is designed to get yards," said Wilmington head coach Stacey Hairston. "The majority of their yards are going to be on the ground. Number one, you have to understand what they want to do, and two know you are not going to fully stop the run. They key is to make sure you are a sound defense, and physical. We have to win first down; we can't give them big chunks of yards on first down. You have to get them off schedule. If they are able to get five, six yards on first down, it's very difficult to get them off the field. Our goal is to be physical and get them off schedule."
Running back Brent Walton, the dive back, is the key to the offense. He was second in the OAC last season, averaging 112.5 yards per game.
He rolled up a career-high 233 yards and two touchdowns on 25 rushes in last season's meeting, and started the season with a 130-yard effort with a career-best three touchdowns against nationally-ranked Wittenberg.
"Any time you attack the triple option, you have to go dive to quarterback to pitch," said Hairston. "You have to stop one aspect first before you think about the other aspects. Our focus is to minimize Brent, and if he gets big yards – it's going to be a long day."
While Walton is the focal point of the offense, the other backs are equally as explosive. Walton averaged 6.2 yards per carry against Wittenberg, but there are two more backs with higher averages. Zak Sheridan averaged 6.4 yards, while Cory Heeter averaged 7.0 yards in the loss to Wittenberg.
Two signal callers, Sheridan and Nick Iske, will share snaps under center.
Defensively, the Crusaders will benefit from the return of Joe Rodriguez. The sophomore defensive back missed the Wittenberg game due to an injury. He had one of the biggest plays in last year's meeting, a 93-yard interception return for a touchdown. Defensive back J.R. Garrigo leads the team with 13 tackles.
Having them paired up could improve a passing defense that yielded 342 yards through the air, including a 197-yard effort from Zach Culvahouse.
"Capital has added a few wrinkles defensively, added some new looks," said Hairston. "They are going to fly around and try to change some things up on how they are going to attack you. At the end of the day, I am more concerned about us and the execution of our offense. If we execute properly, we can make it difficult on any team."
The Capital defense was able to slow down a usually potent Wittenberg rushing attack, holding the Tigers to 119 yards on the ground.
