Oberlin, Ohio – The Oberlin College football team played with the 23^rd ranked Tigers of Wittenberg for nearly three quarters, but in the end the Tigers pulled away for a 35-3 win on Saturday afternoon at the Austin E. Knowlton Athletics Complex.
 
The Yeomen trailed just 10-3 at the half, but everything fell out of sorts down the stretch as the Tigers went on to the 32-point win to run their record to 7-1 and 6-1 in the North Coast Athletic Conference. Oberlin remained winless at 0-8 and 0-7 in league play.
 
Under relentless pressure all game long, freshman quarterback Zach Taylor showed his resiliency, throwing for 275 yards. He completed a career-high 30 passes on a career-high 48 attempts. Taylor, who was orchestrating the offense almost exclusively out of the spread, was also sacked seven times and threw one interception.
 
Justin Cruz and Jabari Clemons each caught 10 passes with Clemons finishing with a career-best 108 yards. He added 101 kick return yards en route to finishing with 206 all-purpose yards on the day. Cruz added 90 yards to run his career total over the 2,000 mark as he now has 2,045 with two games left to play.
 
The Oberlin defense held the Tigers high-powered offense in check early on as three of their first five drives ended with a punt and another on Devin Wilkins' first-career interception. The lone points of the first quarter came courtesy of a Will Gingery 20-yard field goal as he capped 13-play, 80-yard jaunt by the Tigers.
 
Early in the second quarter the Yeomen were looking to take the lead, driving down the Tigers' 4-yardline, but unfortunately the drive would stall out and Oberlin would have to settle for a 28-yard Michael Leshchyshyn field goal to tie the game.
 
Wittenberg would respond with a quick 4-play, 58-yard drive that ended with an 18-yard touchdown catch by Luke Bowling. He appeared to be wrapped up at the 10, but escaped free from a Yeomen tackle and walked into the endzone.
 
Looking for points before the half the Yeomen would get into the redzone, but were forced to try a 37-yard field goal that was blocked. Sensing the momentum sift, the Tigers tried to get aggressive, but Bennett Jackson shutdown the threat with his third interception of the season.
 
The Tigers would tack on a field goal on their first drive of the second half, and despite moving the ball for significant chunks of yards, the Yeomen were unable to produce any points. An interception deep in Oberlin territory put the Tigers in business and just two plays later DeShawn Sarley would run in from 16-yards out to make it a 19-3 game heading into the fourth quarter.
 
The final 15 minutes was all Wittenberg as the Tigers added two touchdowns and a safety.
 
Oberlin had 273 total yards, finishing with -2 rushing in the game. Their defense held the Tigers to just 324 total yards.
 
Defensively, Von Wooding led the way with nine tackles, while Anthony Allen added eight.
 
The Yeomen will honor their senior class and conclude the home portion of their schedule when they play host to DePauw University next week. Kickoff from the Austin E. Knowlton Athletics Complex is set for 1 p.m.