by Jordan Houser
Despite outscoring their opponent in the second half, the men’s football team was unable to recover from a substandard first half and fell 44-17 to the Wittenberg Tigers Saturday afternoon at Bernlohr Stadium.
Wittenberg began the game with a 63-yard touchdown drive on their first possession putting them up from the start.
The Crusaders responded with freshman Bo Hardy rushing for a touchdown that was then called back by the officials on penalty.
With no downs left to waste, sophomore kicker Travis Bosanac put away his first career field goal from 35 yards out.
The remainder of the second half was a barrage of Wittenberg touchdowns and Crusader punts.
The Tigers scored an unanswered 23 points, including a touchdown from a blocked punt to end the half 30-3.
“Going into the first game there are always first-game jitters and those types of things,” Capital Coach Stanford said. “When halftime hit we talked to the players and calmed them down.”
The Crusaders showed up after halftime and totaled 26 yards and 12 first downs in the final two quarters.
Stanford’s ability to relax his players led to a 3-14 game, with a pair of touchdowns accounting for the second half points.
“In any type of game when things go bad, you need some moments to step back and see the big picture and then move forward. That’s what happened,” Stanford said.
Upcoming games bring Marietta to Bernlohr Stadium Sept. 15 before the Crusaders travel to Ohio Northern University for their first away game of the season Sept 22.
This bye week will allow the team more time to prepare for facing Marietta.
“Everyone’s going through it right now with the bye week,” Stanford said. “We’re going to go back to the basics and back to the things we installed during camp: the fundamentals of blocking, tackling, throwing, catching, pursuing the ball. Those kinds of things.”
With first-game jitters gone, expectations for the Crusaders will be high for the next few games.
jhouser@capital.edu
