Travis Marmon
Sports Editor
Senior Day ended in disappointment for the Wooster football team, as Kenyon College’s Dan Shannon hit Greg McIntosh in the endzone with 10 seconds left in the game. The play lifted Kenyon to a 21-17 victory. The Fighting Scots did not trail in the entire game up to that point, so the Lords’ last-minute comeback was exceptionally crushing in the final game at John P. Papp Stadium this season.
Wooster’s special teams opened the scoring late in the first quarter. Justin Rice ’15 came through the line to block a punt, which was recovered at the 18-yard line by Keith Lemke ’16 and taken in for a touchdown to give the Scots a 7-0 lead. Kenyon tied the game up with five minutes left in the first half when Shannon found McIntosh for a nine-yard touchdown pass.
Due to injuries to Richard Barnes ’14 and Brett Frongillo ’14, Wooster gave Alex Hohl ’16 his first career start at quarterback. The undersized first-year came up big at the end of the second quarter with a 38-yard touchdown strike to Jordan McIntyre ’13, putting Wooster up 14-7 at halftime. The score was the highlight of an efficient day for Hohl, who completed 16 of 20 passes for 121 yards.
Late in the third quarter, the Scots drove all the way to the Kenyon five-yard line. Hohl’s third down pass to Tyler Sinclair ’13 was incomplete, but Tyler Gerwig ’15 knocked in the easy field goal to increase the home team’s lead to 17-7.
Shannon led the Lords down the field quickly in response. On the ensuing drive, he connected on three passes in a row for 67 yards to get the ball to the Scots’ five-yard line. He ran in for the score from there to narrow the deficit to 17-14 at the end of the third quarter.
The teams struggled offensively for the next 10 minutes before Kenyon received a punt at its own 12-yard line. Shannon led an extremely methodical and efficient drive from there, converting on all five third down attempts. On 3rd-and-9 from his own 13, Shannon found leading receiver Carlo Gagliardo for 15 yards. Three plays later, he ran for a first down on 3rd-and-1. Shannon hit Gagliardo again for an 11-yard completion on 3rd-and-8, and then led the team to the Scots’ 26-yard line. A third-down completion to Nick Gasborro put Kenyon in position to score. Wooster forced another third down with 15 seconds to play, but Shannon completed the drive with his clutch touchdown pass to McIntosh.
The Scots put in 6’8” punter Dana Obery ’13 at quarterback for one last shot at the endzone with six seconds left to play, but he was sacked to end the game. Wooster dropped to 2-7 (1-5 NCAC), with just a 1-4 record at home. They finish up the 2012 season tomorrow at Ohio Wesleyan University. Kickoff is at 1 p.m.