September 1, 2007
Box Score

RIPON, Wis. - Any time a David plays a Goliath, there's always a chance that the smaller of the two will come away victorious. For one quarter of play on Saturday, Ripon tried to play the role of David and slay their competition, taking a 6-3 lead in their season opener against UW-Oshkosh. That lead would be short lived however, as the Titans physically wore down the Red Hawks with 41 unanswered points, en route to a 44-6 victory.

UW-O (1-0)started the scoring on their first drive of the game, as Lucas Raschke knocked home a 30 yard field goal. After Ripon (0-1) forced the Titans to punt on their next drive, the fans at Ingalls Field finally got something to cheer about. With 4:19 left in the opening quarter, junior quarterback Tygh Walters found Ted Bartels streaking down the field for a 60 yard touchdown, giving Ripon their only lead of the ball game.

"Ted made a great play on the ball and Tygh laid the ball out where it needed to be. We had good protection on that play, which shows that we're capable of getting the job done when we block the right guys and do the right thing. We just didn't do those things consistently enough," head coach Ron Ernst said.

The Ripon defense was stingy for the better part of a quarter and a half, but eventually got worn down by the bigger, stronger UW-Oshkosh team. Andy Moriarty gave the Titans the lead for good with 9:47 left in the first half on a touchdown run from two yards out. UW-O would score once more just before the break on a 17 yard touchdown pass from Joe Patek to Matt Meronk.

Oshkosh continued to pound the ball in the second half, scoring on their first two possessions of the second half. Tyler Jandrin ran it in from one yard out, while Meronk caught his second TD pass of the day to give UW-O a 30-6 lead.

"They were able to control the line of scrimmage up front for most of the day," said Ernst. "Their backs ran very hard and had good vision, so it's a situation where they executed consistently and got good field positions at times."

The Titans would put the game on ice in the fourth quarter, scoring twice more, within a one and a half minute span. Moriarty saw the end zone for the second time on a three yard scamper, while Jeremy Roach capped the scoring with a 15 yard TD run of his own.

UW-Oshkosh led in every offensive category, except time of possession. The Titans ran for 221 yards, while passing for 196 more. Ripon on the other hand finished the game with 177 yards of total offense. Even so, the Red Hawks did have their bright spots. Linebacker Nick Little finished with a game-high 17 tackles, including seven solo. Bartels led the way for the Ripon offense, catching three passes for 72 yards.

"We did some good things, but there's definitely improvement from week-to-week. Offensively, we need to work on consistency and take care of some blocking assignments," said Ernst. "We know the areas that we have to work on, and we're certainly going to do that between now and next week."

The Red Hawks will kick off the conference season next Saturday, as they'll travel to Lake Forest to take on the Foresters. Game time begins at 1:30 p.m. and can be seen on www.midwestconference.tv.