Posted September 30 2001, 09:30 am
Posted by: Ryan Maurer
The Wittenberg University Tigers are used to winning on the football field. Just not this way.
After struggling to move the ball on offense all day, the Tigers rallied in the final eight minutes to stun visiting Allegheny College, 21-17, before a Homecoming crowd of 3,509 at Edwards-Maurer Field in Springfield. Wittenberg, ranked No. 19 in the country and riding a 23-game North Coast Athletic Conference win streak, came from 10 points behind on a pair of touchdown passes from junior quarterback Greg Cornett (Franklin, Ohio/Franklin) to Michael Aljancic (Louisville, Ohio/Louisville), the last one coming with just 16 seconds on the clock.
The win moved the Tigers, the four-time defending NCAC champions, to 4-1 overall and 2-0 in the conference. The Gators lost their third road game of the year to a top-20 team in falling to 1-3 and 1-1.
The game was primarily a defensive struggle, particularly in the first half as Allegheny managed just two first downs, 12 rushing yards and 63 total yards and Wittenberg was only marginally better with 167 total yards. The only score of the first half came with 4:25 left in the opening stanza as Cornett hit junior wide receiver Adrian Crane (Indianapolis, Ind./Ben Davis) on a four-yard scoring strike.
Allegheny then opened the second half with 17 unanswered points to put Wittenberg in the unfamiliar position of having to rally from the brink. Tight end Jared McNeilly started the onslaught with a 31-yard touchdown reception from quarterback Bubba Smith with 7:22 left in the third quarter, and then Smith put the Gators ahead with a two-yard touchdown run with 46 seconds remaining in the frame.
The fourth quarter started in much the same fashion as the Gators drove 81 yards on 13 plays but couldn't punch the ball in on third down and settled for an 18-yard Aaron Smith field goal.
That defensive stand would be a turning point as Wittenberg went 58 yards on six plays in response and Cornett hooked up with Aljancic from four yards out with 6:37 left to play. The Cornett to Aljancic connection produced 45 of those 58 yards on three receptions.
The Tigers then came up with another defensive stand and took possession of the ball again with 2:42 remaining. All they did from that point was convert four third downs in a drive that took 2:26 off the clock, culminating in a game-winning six-yard touchdown pass from Cornett to Aljancic with 16 seconds left.
Allegheny, which lost All-American tailback Shane Ream on the second play of the game with an ankle injury, was led statistically by Brian Woods with 59 yards on seven carries and Jon Turner with 89 yards on five receptions. Defensively, Joe Cowart finished with 10.5 tackles to lead the team, while Gene Dziurzynski chipped in with four tackles for loss, including 2.5 sacks.
Wittenberg held the Gators to 219 total offensive yards and just 4-of-15 on third down conversions. Senior defensive tackle Michael Houck (Cincinnati, Ohio/Colerain) showed the way with 9.5 tackles, while senior defensive tackle Juan Howard (Wooster, Ohio/Wooster) and junior linebacker Ryan Gresham (Columbus, Ohio/Eastmoor) chipped in with three tackles for loss each. The Tiger defense racked up five sacks in the game.
Offensively, the story was once again the play of Aljancic. Two weeks after posting a career-high 10 catches for 143 yards in the stunning loss at Alma College, Aljancic was at it again, catching 11 passes for 130 yards, nine of them for 105 yards in the second half alone. The 11 receptions in a game is the second-best total in school history, one short of the 27-year-old mark set by 2001 Athletics Hall of Honor inductee Ron Duncan against Denison in 1964. He is closing in on several Wittenberg receiving records, including yards, receptions and touchdowns, all of which he ranks in the top three in school history.