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WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The Otterbein University football team suffered a disappointing loss Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium, falling 55-21 to Baldwin Wallace University in front of its home crowd.

Both teams entered with identical records on the season. As a result of the score, Baldwin Wallace improves themselves to 5-2 overall and 5-1 in Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) play while the Cardinals fall to 4-3 on the year and 4-2 against the league.

The Yellow Jacket offense began clicking on all cylinders from the get-go, scoring touchdowns on the first-two drives to grab an early 14-0 advantage.

Otterbein got on the scoreboard with 10:46 remaining in the second quarter, capping a four-play, 71-yard drive with an 18-yard touchdown run from senior running back John Pyles, who had slipped to the outside and eventually snuck inside the pylon.

BW quickly bumped the lead to 21-7 on the next possession, and silenced the Otterbein crowd with just 20 seconds remaining in the half when Trevor George hauled in a one-handed, 20-yard touchdown pass to give his team a 28-7 lead at intermission.

The Cards received the second-half kickoff, but were forced to punt and unfortunately saw BW scamper 64 yards in just six plays, running the margin up to 35-7. Otterbein quarterback Kevan Green would throw touchdown passes to Julian Lowe and Logan Stepp in the attempt to catch up, but BW's offense was just too much in coasting to the win.

Green finished 23 of 37 for 237 yards and two touchdowns while Pyles had 105 yards on only 11 carries.

Lowe, the OAC's leading receiver entering the day, posted game-highs of 10 catches for 95 and his touchdown. Stepp had his best game of the fall, catching five passes for 69 yards and a 20-yard score at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

Tyler Moeglin was surgical in quarterbacking the Baldwin Wallace offense, going 20 of 23 for 276 yards and two touchdowns. He also added 50 yards and another score on the ground.

Isaac Reed III crossed the goal line three times on the day for BW, carrying seven times for 84 yards. Five different BW receivers had anywhere from three to six catches as the Jackets piled up 568 yards of total offense.

Otterbein safety Steven Carpenter led all players with a new career-high of 14 tackles while linebacker Drew Ervin, the OAC's leading tackler, had 13 of his own. Ervin, who sat seventh nationally in tackles this past week, has compiled double-digit tackles in all but one game this fall.

The Cardinals will be forced to regroup and prepare for an even tougher battle next weekend on the road, traveling to face No. 1-ranked University of Mount Union in Alliance. The Purple Raiders blew past Wilmington College, 69-0, Saturday for their 100th-straight regular-season win.