#5 Capital 52, Muskingum 14
(COLUMBUS, Ohio)—Capital University’s football team, ranked No. 5 in the nation, maintained its hold on second place in the Ohio Athletic Conference with a 52-14 win over Muskingum College Saturday in Columbus.
Capital now stands at 8-1 overall and 7-1 in OAC, while Muskingum stays winless in the OAC at 0-8 and is 1-8 overall.
Capital senior quarterback Rocky Pentello (Columbus/Westerville South) was 17-for-23 for 240 yards with two touchdown passes in the first half. His 240 yards passing moved him into fifth place in NCAA Division III history with 11,287 yards.
His favorite target was Mike Niedzwiecki (Norwalk/Norwalk-St. Paul) who had a seven catches for a game-high 97 yards, while Charlie Smith (Westerville/Big Walnut) had a game-high 46 yards rushing on five carries. Luke Schnittger (Cleveland/Lutheran West) had a team-best eight tackles to lead a defense that held Muskingum to 181 total yards.
The only scoring in the first quarter was a Smith six-yard touchdown run to give Capital a 7-0 lead.
Capital made it 14-0 early in the second quarter when Jeremy Mulkey (Dublin/Dublin Coffman) ran in a touchdown from three yards out. Pentello then tossed a 10-yard touchdown pass to Niedzwiecki pushing the lead to 21-0.
The Muskies then miss handled a pair of punt to set-up two more Capital scores. Muskingum punter Bryan Gulley mishandled a snap and was tackled on the Muskie four-yard line. One play later, Ty Parks (Minster/Minster) ran in for the score with 5:29 left in the second quarter. On the ensuing drive, Gulley’s punt was blocked by James Starks (Toledo/Toledo-St. Francis) who recovered the ball in the end zone to stretch the lead to 35-0 with 3:25 before halftime. Capital tacked on another touchdown before the half going 62 yards in just 27 seconds when Pentello hit Dylan Kelly (Hilliard/Hilliard Darby) to make it 42-0 at the half.
Muskingum then intercepted a Marty Assmann (Columbus/Bishop Hartley) pass on the first drive of the second half and turned it into a 7-play, 39-yard, scoring drive with quarterback Andre Nash tossing a 10-yard touchdown pass to Dwight Sutton to make it 42-7. Capital answered as Matt Spitz (Xenia/Xenia) matched his career-high with a 41-yard field goal to send the score to 45-7.
The score went to 52-7 when Nick Bucci (Hudson/Hudson) sacked Andre Nash and forced a fumble that Brett Welch (Marietta/Marietta) recovered in the end zone with 13:29 to go in the game. Muskingum backup quarterback Marcus Boggs tossed a 23-yard touchdown pass to Jack Murray for the 52-14 final.
Boggs had 90 yards passing and touchdown to lead the Muskingum, while Caleb Rich had eight tackles to lead the defense.
Capital closes out the regular season next week at Baldwin-Wallace College. Kickoff is slated for 1:30 p.m. from the George Finnie Stadium and you can listen to the game LIVE on the radio on WFCO 90.9 FM and online on www.capitalcrusaders.net