Football Ranked 25th Hosts Grove City Saturday

Sept. 5 – (PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – After an impressive 33-10 victory in last Saturday's season opener at the University of Rochester, Carnegie Mellon will look to win their twelfth straight regular season game as they host Grove City College this Saturday at Gesling Stadium.  Kickoff is slated for 1:00 p.m.

The traditional series continues, as the Tartans enter the contest against the Wolverines for the 49th time, with Carnegie Mellon leading the series 29-17-2. The Tartans have squared off against the Wolverines more times than any other team except for Washington & Jefferson College. Carnegie Mellon has won five of the last six meetings including a 28-0 triumph last year in Grove City.

“Last year’s victory was a key game to our season, it was an indicator that we felt we had a real good football team and it got us started on our role,” commented Head Coach Rich Lackner.  “This is not just a tradition between the series, but a tradition between Grove City’s Head Coach Chris Smith and myself.  He is a graduate of Grove City and I am a graduate of Carnegie Mellon.  It has been a great rivalry over the years and they run a quality class program and I have a lot of respect for them,” added Lackner.

The Tartans' powerful running game produced all five touchdowns in the win over Rochester on their way to rushing for 445 yards, second most in a single game.  Senior running back Robert Gimson (Palm Beach Gardens., Fla./The Benjamin School) led the way with a career-high 185 yards and one score on 16 carries, while senior fullback Travis Sivek (Traverse City, Mich./St. Francis) tallied 135 yards and two scores.  Senior running back Colby Whitman (Sarasota, Fla./Cardinal Mooney) was the Tartan third leading rusher with a career-high 72 yards and two scores.  

Lackner stated, “It is not just the backs that allowed us to run the ball as well as we did.  You need to credit the offensive line for doing such a great job opening the holes.  The backs did do a super job last week in finding the holes and blocking for each other.”

While the offense proved that they are able to move the ball, the Tartans defense left off where they finished last season.  The Cardinal and Gray defense held the Yellowjackets to 44 yards on the ground and 186 of total offense.  The senior safety tandem of Cody Vild (Willoughby, Ohio, Willoughby South) and Jon Scholl (Coraopolis, Pa./Pittsburgh Central Catholic) played a huge part in the defenses success.  Scholl recorded a career-high 14 tackles as Vild recorded his first two career interceptions in the victory.

“It was my chance to show that I am able to this for my team,” comments Vild.  “Without my team I would not have been able to accomplish the success.  As a team we came together and executed greatly. We have a great team this year and I hope that we can continue this from here on out.”

Grove City enters the contest with a strong passing attack.  In last week’s game, sophomore quarterback Andrew DiDonato completed 24 of 45 passes for 252 yards and one touchdown strike in a 17-13 loss to visiting Dickson.  Junior split end Stephen Mercer accounted for 109 of DiDonato’s yards, while hauling in five receptions including the Wolverines lone touchdown.
 
Last season DiDonato set new single-season records for Grove City with 151 pass completions and 275 attempts. He threw for 1,554 yards and 13 touchdowns and rushed for six touchdowns to lead the team in scoring.

“It is a little different of an offense that they have used in the past, they have a very strong passing game with a good accurate passer,” said Lackner.  “They have good receivers with fine hands that run good routes.  Grove City is very well coached.”

In the backfield for the Wolverines, seniors Matt Weil and Ian Tobin are both returning starters. Weil has led Grove City in rushing each of the last two seasons. Tobin caught 22 passes out of the backfield and averaged 4.5 yards per carry.

Defensively, The Wolverines return their top three tacklers, Shane Coughlin, Ian Minster and Bill Waugh. Waugh led Grove City with 102 total tackles, four sacks and 15 tackles for loss a year ago, while Coughlin led the team with 63 solo stops.

Last year the Tartans rushed for 360 yards against the Wolverines, while out gaining them 478-157 in total offense.  Grove City’s passing attack last season was not a factor against the Tartans, as DiDonato completed 10 of 16 passes for 53 yards in his first collegiate start.