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 Posted November 13, 2004 By Leonard Reich, Sports Information Director Saturday Night Fever Capital Hands Wittenberg First Shutout Since 1992 Capital 54, Wittenberg 0 [Box Score] (SPRINGFIELD, Ohio)—Capital University's football team opened the 2005 season with a dominating 54-0 win over non-conference rival Wittenberg University Saturday in Springfield. Capital junior quarterback Rocky Pentello (Columbus/Westerville South) matched a career-high with four touchdown passes, three in the first half, as he went 24-of-29 for 346 yards to lead a Crusader offense that generated 519 yards of total offense. Capital's defense was equally impressive right from the start as senior safety Thom Hausler (Hilliard/Hilliard Davidson) had a team-high 10 tackles, but it was his 48-yard punt return to Wittenberg 30-yard line after the Crusaders forced the Tigers to go three-and-out on the game's opening possession that provided the spark. From there, it would only take Pentello five plays and just under two minutes to get Capital on the board as he hit senior Kive Kraft (Amanda/Amanda-Clearcreek) with an 18-yard touchdown pass and after a Jared Zirillo (East Liverpool/East Liverpool) made it 7-0. Wittenberg would fumble away each of their next two possessions and Capital would convert each of them into a pair of rushing touchdowns: a two-yard dive from senior Colin O'Reilly (Bexley/Bexley) and a nine-yard scamper from junior Jeremy Mulkey (Dublin/Dublin Coffman) to make it 20-0 at the end of the first quarter. Capital would get in the endzone three times in the second quarter as senior Lewis Howes (Delaware/Principia, Mo.) would catch a 37-yard yarder for the first of his two touchdown receptions for the day, before Mulkey would run in another score from a yard out then catch a 10-yard touchdown pass to make it 41-0 at the break. Zirillo would kick a pair of field goals from 28 and 31 yards, in-between an 11-yard touchdown pass from Pentello to Howes for the 54-0 final. Howes finished the day with a game-high 117 yards receiving on seven catches, while Kraft also had seven catches for 96 yards. Mulkey had 68 yards rushing to lead a Capital ground game that generated 188 yards rushing. Wittenberg managed only 69 yards passing as senior quarterback Ryan Holmes went out in the first half with a broken collarbone. Runningback Tristian Murray led the Tigers with 83 yards on 20 carries. Capital is off next week before opening Ohio Athletic Conference play Saturday, Sept. 17 at 1:30 p.m. at cross-town rival Otterbein College. NOTES: A replay of this game will be broadcast Sunday, Sept. 4, at 8 p.m. on 1580 WVKO in Columbus ... The shutout was the first for Wittenberg since 1992 when Baldwin-Wallace beat the Tigers, 20-0 ... Capital senior Kyle Hausler (Hilliard/Hilliard Davidson) had an interception to give him 18 for his career, three off the school's career record of 21 ... Rocky Pentello is now 551 yards away from the being school's all-time leader in passing yards (6,669 - Shawn Wheeler, 1996-99). |
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