#2 Mount Union Travels to Heidelberg Saturday For Key OAC Matchup

2011 University of Mount Union Football
#2 Mount Union Purple Raiders (5-0, 4-0 OAC) vs
Heidelberg Student Prince (4-1, 3-1 OAC)
Sat., Oct. 15 - 1:30 pm - Mayer Field (Tiffin, Ohio)

RADIO:

WDPN 1310 AM (Alliance): LISTEN LIVE
WRMU 91.1 FM (Alliance): LISTEN LIVE

LIVE STATS: http://livestats.prestosports.com/mountunion

Complete Mount Union Game Notes in PDF Format: CLICK HERE

HEIDELBERG: 

THE GAME
No. 2 ranked Mount Union takes on Heidelberg Saturday at 1:30 pm at Mayer Field on campus in Tiffin, Ohio.

Heidelberg moved back on campus for the first time in 64 years late in the 2009 season and this is Mount Union's first on campus visit since 1942 -- The Student Prince won that game 20-12.

Mount Union's defense posted 10 sacks, grabbed two interceptions -- one returned for a score and held Marietta to 107 total yards in a 62-0 rout last Saturday. The offense was led by junior running back Jeremy Murray (Martins Ferry/Martins Ferry) post his fifth straight 100-yard rushing performance has he had 112 yards on 11 carries with a touchdown while junior wide receiver Jasper Collins (Geneva, N.Y./Geneva) had 106 yards on five catches with a touchdown and also returned a punt for a score.

Heidelberg knocked off then undefeated Muskingum, 17-7. Germany Woods rushed for 136 yards, Michael Mees threw a touchdown pass to CJ Powell, who had five catches for 94 yards and Dan Kilger kicked three field goals to pace the offense. The defense had five interceptions and three sacks as Craig Sykes had 13 tackles.

MOUNT UNION FOOTBALL ON THE RADIO, TV AND ONLINE
All Mount Union football games will be broadcast on the radio on WDPN 1310 AM and WRMU 91.1 FM and simulcast online along with a LIVE STATS game tracker at http://athletics.mountunion.edu. You can also here the WRMU 91.1 FM feed on any phone by calling (330) 445-7900.

The remaining home games will also be shown on television via tape delay on regional sports cable channel SportsTime Ohio and WIVM TV39 (Stark County), WIVN TV29 (New Philadelphia), Time Warner Cable (ch. 989-Stark County, ch. 99-Tuscarawas County), Massillon Cable (ch. 21) and Clear Picture Cable (ch. 21-Wayne County). Image Video produces the broadcasts with Joe Tait, who just finished a 39-year run as the radio voice of the Cleveland Cavaliers, does the play-by-play and Harry Paidas handles the color commentary.

THE SERIES
This is the 55th meeting between the teams with Mount Union holding a 41-13 lead in aseries that dates back to a 34-0 Purple Raider win in 1910. Mount Union has won the last 22 meetings with Heidelberg's last win coming in 1988, 24-14 in Tiffin.

THE COACHES
Larry Kehres (Mount Union '71) is 308-23-3 (.926) in his 26th season as head coach as one of the most successful coaches in college football history. His teams have won 21 OAC Championships, including the last 19 in a row, along with 10 of the last 18 NCAA Division III National Championships.

Mike Hallett (Mount Union '94) is 19-24 (.422) in his sixth season as head coach at Heidelberg. In his first season in Tiffin, Hallett snapped the school's 36-game losing streak, finished with four wins and won OAC Coach of the Year honors and D3Football.com North Region Coach of the Year honors. Prior to coming to Heidelberg, Hallett spent eight seasons at Thomas More (Ky.) and was head coach for the final three of those seasons with a 15-15 record to make his career record 36-39.

UP NEXT ...
The Purple Raiders stay on the road traveling next week to take on Capital on Oct. 22 at 1:30 pm in Columbus.

SCOUTING THE STUDENT PRINCE
Heidelberg has a high powered offense with a dynamic running back along with anopportunistic defense that forced opponents into a lot of turnovers (+14 turnover margin)-- sound familiar.

The Student Prince has the OAC's No. 2 scoring offense, passing offense and total offense. Sophomore Germany Woods, an All-OAC second team pick a year ago, issecond in the OAC in rushing with 624 yds. (124.8 yds/game) with three touchdowns.Freshman Michael Mees is at quarterback and he has almost 1,100 yards passing with12 touchdowns to just three interceptions. His top targets are junior Mario Escalante (15rec., 310 yds., 1 TD) and senior CJ Powell (15 rec., 257 yds., 5 TD's).

The defense has 16 interceptions, 14 sacks and six fumble recoveries. Leading the unit is junior linebacker Craig Sykes who has 51 stops with three interceptions, a sack,a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. Fellow linebacker in All-OAC senior AndyFadenholtz has a team-best 4.0 sacks while junior defense back Tyler Levanduski alsohas three interceptions.

BY THE NUMBERS

158-6
Mount Union's win-loss record since 2000 

55, 54
The Raiders hold the NCAA's two longest consecutive college football win streaks -- 55 from 2000-2003 and 54 from 1996-99

58
game regular season win streak for Mount Union dating back to a 21-14 loss to Ohio Northern in Alliance on Oct. 22, 2005.

53
game home winning streak for Mount Union dating back to a 21-14 loss to Ohio Northern in Alliance on Oct. 22, 2005.

101
consecutive regular season road victories for Mount Union dating back to a 21-18 loss at Baldwin-Wallace on Sept. 28, 1991.

112-0
Since 1996, the Raiders record when winning the turnover battle.

157-1
The Raiders record since 1990 when winning the turnover battle. That lone loss was a 20-17 loss to Wisconsin-LaCrosse in a 1995 national semifinal game. In that game, the Raiders had a +1 turnover margin.

THE RAIDERS in 2011

Mount Union returns 16 starters and 48 letterwinners in 2011.

300 WIN CLUB

With a 49-0 win over St. Lawrence in the first round of the 2010 NCAA Playoffs, Larry Kehres became the 11th coach in college football history to win at least 300 games. Here is a list of the others.

• 480 John Gagliardi * (Carroll, MT, St. John's, MN)
• 409 Eddie Robinson (Grambling State)
• 406 Joe Paterno * (Penn State)
• 377 Bobby Bowden (Samford, West Virginia, Florida State)
• 323 Paul "Bear" Bryant (Alabama, Maryland, Kentucky, Texas A&M)
• 319 Pop Warner (Georgia, Carlisle, Pitt, Stanford, Temple)
• 314 Roy Kidd (Eastern Kentucky)
• 314 Amos Alonzo Stagg (Springfield, Chicago, Pacific)
• 308 Larry Kehres * (Mount Union)
• 305 Frosty Westering (Parsons, Lea, Pacific Lutheran)
• 300 Tubby Raymond (Delaware)

* Active

DID YOU KNOW?
Sophomore Tim Scott (Norton/Norton) hit a 42-yard field goal against Marietta in his first ever collegiate attempt. It was the longest made field goal for Mount Union since Sept. 22, 2007 when Jay Carpenter booted a school-record 47-yarder vs. Muskingum.

MURRAY MOVES TO TOP 5
Junior running back Jeremy Murray (MartinsFerry/Martins Ferry) had 112 yards on just 11 carries with a touchdown last week. It was his fifth-straight and 12th 100-yard rushing performance of his career. He is the OAC's leading rusher averaging 157.6 yards per game (788 yds). In 19 career games, Murray has 2,404 yards on 415 attempts with 32 TD's. He jumped into fifth on the school's all-time list last week past Dave McLaughlin (2,341 yds., 1979-82) and Mark Choppa (2,321 yds., 1973-76). He is 891 yards behind fourth place spot of Russ Kring (3,295 yds. 1983-84, 86-87).

SACK ATTACK
Mount Union's defense had 10.0 sacks last week against Marietta. It is the most sacksin a single-game since the Raiders had 8.0 sacks against Washington (Mo.) on Sept.4, 2004. Eight different Raiders registered at least 0.5 sack led by junior Nick Driskill (Wabash, Ind./Southwood) who had 2.0 sacks as part of an 8.0 tackle performance.Three others had 1.5 sacks -- junior Frank Orteca (Twinsburg/Twinsburg), who also had a team-high 10 stops, high school teammate and sophomore Matt Fechko (Twinsburg/Twinsburg) and freshman Pat Mahoney (Jeannette, Pa./Greensburg Central Catholic).

MANY HAPPY RETURNS FOR COLLINS
Junior wide receiver Jasper Collins (Geneva, N.Y./Geneva) returned a punt 47 yards for a touchdown last week. It marked his third punt return for a touchdown in his career as he had a 47-yarder last year against Capital and two years ago an 89-yard return for a score against Marietta. He also had five catches for 106 yards last week, which was his second 100-yard game of the season and fourth of his career.

PURPLE RAIDERS IN THE PROs 
Wide receiver Pierre Garcon is in his fourth season as a member of the Indianapolis Colts and had five catches for 125 yards receiving and two touchdown catches in their 28-24 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs that had former Raider player and assistant coach Nick Sirianni on the sidelines as offensive quality control coach. Cecil Shorts III had three punt returns for the Jacksonville Jaguars in a 30-20 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. Another Raider in the NFL coaching ranks is Dom Capers, the defensive coordinator of Green Bay Packers.

300
With a 49-0 win over St. Lawrence in the first round of the 2010 NCAA Playoffs, Larry Kehres became the 11th coach in college football history to win at least 300 games. Here is a list of the others.
480 John Gagliardi * (Carroll, MT, St. John's, MN)
408 Eddie Robinson (Grambling State)
405 Joe Paterno * (Penn State)
377 Bobby Bowden (Samford, West Virginia, Florida State)
323 Paul "Bear" Bryant (Alabama, Maryland, Kentucky, Texas A&M)
319 Pop Warner (Georgia, Carlisle, Pitt, Stanford, Temple)
314 Roy Kidd (Eastern Kentucky)
314 Amos Alonzo Stagg (Springfield, Chicago, Pacific)
307 Larry Kehres * (Mount Union)
305 Frosty Westering (Parsons, Lea, Pacific Lutheran)
300 Tubby Raymond (Delaware)
* Active

NEW TURF, NEW HOME UNIFORMS
Mount Union replaced its 10-year old AstroPlay surface with a new FieldTurf playing surface this past summer. Fans will notice that the football and soccer lines are permanent with two tones of alternating green and black end zones. The black also carries over to new Nike home purple jerseys that the Raiders will wear this season. Mount Union's newest teams -- men's and women's lacrosse will start varsity play in the spring of 2013 and their lines will be painted onto the field. New turf was put in the South end zone which moved the students and band to the North end leading to Mount Union warming up on North side and entering the stadium from the Northwest corner of stadium.