Box Score

Greencastle, IN – The Oberlin College football team was unable to slow down the Tigers of DePauw University, falling 45-11 on Saturday afternoon at Blackstock Stadium.
 
The Tigers took advantage of four Yeomen turnovers and used a fast paced offensive attack to earn their first win of the year. They improved to 1-4 overall and 1-3 in the NCAC while Oberlin fell to 1-4 and 0-4 in league play.
 
The Tigers intercepted quarterback Lucas Poggiali on the Yeomen's first drive of the game and quickly converted it into seven points. Nikkio Sansone finished off a 3-play, 40-yard drive with a 17-yard touchdown run.
 
The Yeomen would respond with an 8-play, 73-yard scoring drive of their own but would have to settle for a field goal rather than a touchdown. A 31-yard hook-up between Poggiali and Blake Buckhannon setup a 1st-and-goal from the Tigers' 10 but the drive would stall. However, Erickson Andrews would go on to convert his first field goal of the season from 27-yards out.
 
Later in the quarter the Yeomen let a golden opportunity slip away. Sansone muffed a punt that was recovered by Ben Venerdi at the Tigers' 38-yardline. On the very next play, Poggiali hit Adam Niec on a deep post pattern down to the 1-yardline, but despite running six plays from inside the five, the Yeomen were unable to find the end zone. After getting a new set of downs on a personal foul, Poggiali rolled out on a 3rd-and-goal play from the four, but had his pass picked off in the end zone by Garrett Rice.
 
The Tigers would then go on to score touchdowns on each of their next three drives. Freshman quarterback Matt Hunt capped a 6-play, 80-yard drive with a 13-yard TD run of his own. On the next drive the Tigers needed just 3:09 to complete a 6-play, 91-yard drive, and just before the half they would go 99 yards on 8-plays in 3:38. It ended with a 2-yard TD run by Andrew Cusumano and gave the Tigers a 28-3 lead at the intermission.
 
Barry Flynn, who finished with nine catches for 156 yards , would catch his second TD pass of the game with seven minutes left in the third quarter to effectively end any threat of an Oberlin comeback.
 
However, Oberlin would respond with its best drive of the game, covering 75 yards on seven plays in 2:45 seconds. The drive, which was aided by a 15-yard personal foul penalty, ended with Buckhannon catching a crossing route over the middle and turning up field for a 28-yard touchdown to make it 35-11.
 
Buckhannon finished with 214 all-purpose yards with 75 yards rushing, 70 yards receiving and 69 yards on kickoff returns.
 
Poggiali was 13-of-24 for 159 yards passing with one touchdown and three interceptions. Niec was his top target with five catches for 72 yards.
 
Senior Kirby Livingston paced the defense with 10 tackles and a forced fumble.
 
The Yeomen will be back in action next Saturday when they return home to host Allegheny College at 1 p.m.