The 6-0 Wabash football team handled its business Saturday against winless Kenyon. For the third time this season, the Little Giants held a team to negative yards. The Lords finished with minus-seven rush yards in a 52-10 lopsided North Coast Athletic Conference win.
"Early in the year we felt a little bit up and down," Coach Erik Raeburn said. "We would play really good for a quarter, then struggle for the next. But I'm really happy that we've been able to string together some good games lately."
A host of Little Giants strung together Saturday's dominant effort. Seven players had a rush attempt, seven more caught a pass, and 23 made a tackle. Backup linebacker and special teams ace Connor Karns had six-and-a-half tackles, the second most by a Wabash defender.
"You don't want to go out as a two and drop off in performance from the ones," Karns said. "You want to go out there and keep the tempo up and make the stops."
Karns and the rest of the twos took the field with 6:59 remaining in the third quarter. He added a sack in cleanup time and still found the energy for his special teams duties.
"If you're sitting around long enough your legs will be stiff, but you're still ready to go," Karns said. "Special teams for me is like defense. I'm not a one on defense so I have to make plays to help the team out."
The starters' legs were loose and ready to go when arriving in Gambier. In the first quarter, Mason Zurek and Tyler Holmes punched in one-yard scores. Houston Hodges caught a 19-yard pass from Michael Putko as Wabash jumped to a 21-0 lead.
Szabi Simo connected on a 24-yard field goal in the second quarter for Kenyon before Holmes responded with his second rushing touchdown to give the Little Giants a 28-3 halftime advantage.
Wabash added 24 points in the third quarter. Putko found Sammy Adams from 14 yards out, Zurek found the end zone from 20 yards away, and Andrew Tutsie nailed a 20-yard field goal. Then, Holmes capped the Wabash scoring and the starters' days when he took a short pass and ran 44 yards for a touchdown, 52-3.
Kenyon scored late in the fourth quarter for its only touchdown.
Raeburn rotated quarterbacks Putko and Connor Rice for the second straight week, though Putko played more. He finished 9-of-18 passing for 232 yards and three touchdowns. Rice completed 2-of-5 passes.
"I thought we threw the ball well," Raeburn said. "They really ganged up on the run and tried to outnumber us in the box so we did a good job taking advantage of the matchups outside."
The Little Giants attacked through the air in the first half. Wabash attempted 15 passes, completing eight.
"As opposed to banging our head against the wall trying to run it, we felt like we could throw to the one-on-one coverage and let our guys get yards after catch," Raeburn said. "We took a lot of shots and even the ones we missed, we were close on. In our run game I thought our quarterbacks ran it really well."
Hodges led Wabash with four catches for 87 yards and a score.
Seven touchdowns kept kicker Tutsie busy. He converted all of his PAT attempts on top of the made field goal.
"Ian (MacDougall '14) had a great year last year so it's obviously big shoes to fill," Tutsie said. "Ian had a much bigger leg than I do, but I've always had the mentality that if I make all of my short kicks, the rest are just bonuses. It's easier when the offense puts the ball in the end zone and I have extra-point attempts all day long."
Tutsie is perfect on 35 extra-point attempts this year and of his three missed field goals, two were blocked.
After two games on the road, Wabash will host Oberlin 1 p.m. Saturday.