>>BOX SCORE
(COLUMBUS, Ohio)--Capital University’s football team, ranked No. 3 in the nation, scored 21 points in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter to pull away from Marietta College for a 52-10 Ohio Athletic Conference victory Saturday in Columbus.
Capital moves to 4-0 (3-0 OAC) and wins its 10th regular season game in a row, while Marietta started the season 2-0 now stands at 2-2 (1-2 OAC).
Capital entered the fourth quarter with the football and holding on to a 24-10 lead. The Crusaders then scored 21 points over the next 3:17 to put the game away.
Three plays into the quarter, Capital quarterback Rocky Pentello (Westerville/Westerville South) tossed a 19-yard touchdown pass to Derrick Alexander (Grove City/Grove City). On Marietta's next play from scraimmage quarterback Jason Vrable was intercepted by James Starks (Toledo/Toledo-St. Francis) who returned it to the Pioneer five-yard line. Four plays later, runningback Jeremy Mulkey (Dublin/Dublin Coffman) punched it in from three yards. Vrable was intercepted again three plays into the ensuing drive as Thom Hausler (Hilliard/Hilliard Davidson) returned it 70 yards for a score to expand the lead to 45-10. Capital tacked on a final touchdown, a four-yard run by Charlie Smith (Westerville/Big Walnut) for the 52-10 final.
Alexander finished with a career-best 178 yards receiving with touchdown catches for 47, 55 and 19 yards. Pentello passed for 333 yards to become just the third quarterback in the 105-year history of the OAC to throw for over 10,000 career yards (10,140) while his 37 attempts in this game make him the conference's leader in attempts with 1,282. Mulkey finished with 88 yards rushing on 21 carries with a pair of touchdowns.
Capital forced five turnovers, three interceptions and a pair of fumbles, which the Crusaders converted four of those into touchdowns. Junior defensive back Matt Coleman (Westerville/Westerville South) had a career-high 14 tackles to lead a Capital defense that had 11 tackles for loss, three sacks and held the Pioneers to eight total yards rushing on 23 carries.
Vrable completed 32-of-57 passes for a game-high 338 yards to lead the Marietta offense. His top target was Chad McDaniel, who had 13 catches for 121 yards. Brian Hahn had a team-high eight tackles.
Marietta recovered the opening kickoff with an onside kick, but two plays later Capital linebacker Cody Malott (Washington C.H./Miami Trace) recovered a fumble on the Pioneer 42-yard line. It took just four plays for the Crusaders to get on the board as Mulkey had a one-yard touchdown run. Capital made it 14-0 midway through the quarter when Pentello hooked up with Alexander on a 47-yard touchdown pass.
In the second quarter, Capital extended the lead to 24-0 on a 37-yard field goal from Matt Spitz (Xenia/Xenia) and a 55-yard touchdown reception from Pentello to Alexander. Marietta got in the scoring column with a 26-yard field goal from Pat Lane to make it 24-3 at the break.
Marietta took the second half kickoff and used a short passing attack to go 82 yards in 16 plays with a one-yard touchdown pass from Vrable to McDaniel to close the gap to 24-10 and set up the fourth quarter.
Capital travels to OAC-foe John Carroll University next week. Kickoff is a 7 p.m. at Don Shula Stadium in University Heights, Ohio. The game will be broadcast on WMNI 920AM in Columbus starting at 6:30 p.m., with the Capital Countdown pregame show.