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WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The Otterbein University football team improved to 2-0 in Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) play Saturday afternoon, taking down Wilmington College by a score of 31-9 as part of Homecoming.

The Cardinals, missing a few starters and fighting through multiple other injuries, now sit 2-1 overall on the season and will be back in action next Saturday at Heidelberg, which lost 34-20 at Ohio Northern earlier today.

Otterbein and Wilmington played through a sluggish first half, with the Cardinals first getting on the scoreboard thanks to a 31-yard field goal from Brandon Bellman near the end of the opening quarter. Quarterback Kevan Green widened the advantage to 10-0 midway through the second quarter on a 3-yard touchdown run, capping a quick six-play, 48-yard drive in less than two minutes.

The Otterbein offense started strong in the second half, getting a 25-yard touchdown connection from Green to wide receiver Julian Lowe just over 90 seconds in, running the cushion to 17-0. Wilmington eventually tallied points midway through the period on a safety after a high snap during a Cardinal punt attempt.

 

Lowe would quickly help Otterbein put the game away, catching long touchdown passes of 62 and 50 yards, just two minutes apart, to continue his stellar day. One pass came from Green while the other was courtesy of Cole Benner, who was in the wildcat formation and allowed Lowe to go up to make a play.

"We just needed to start making plays at some point," head coach Tim Doup said. "We had some mismatches and just needed to play smarter in the second half. I thought it was a big team effort and everybody stepped up to do their part."

Wilmington scored with 4:46 remaining in the game on an Austin Jarbo touchdown run, and nearly found the end zone again on the final play of the day after going 73 yards against Otterbein's second-string defense.

Lowe finished with five catches for 150 yards and three touchdowns for an Otterbein offense that produced 402 total yards.

"I had to try and fit in when I first arrived, and we were also breaking in a new quarterback," Lowe explained. "I think our chemistry on offense is improving every day and things are starting to come together. We needed a spark in the second half and I was fortunately able to make some things happen downfield."

Green completed 13 of his 23 attempts for 193 yards, but also did a nice amount of damage on the ground by scampering 13 times for 103 yards. He had a hand in three total touchdowns and became the first Cardinal QB to eclipse 100 rushing yards in a game since Jack Rafferty did it twice back in 2007.

Justin Lee led the Quaker attack with nine catches for 87 yards, while Aroyal Wright hauled in four passes for 136 yards, including a 46-yarder on the final possession. Wilmington was mostly held in check by the Cardinal defense, which got nine tackles from safety Steven Carpenter and another eight from both Drew Ervin and Dalton Jarvis.

"I thought we played well defensively, better than what it might reflect in the box score because of some yards at the end," Doup explained. "They had trouble blocking us because our smaller, quicker guys were able to give them fits at times."

Although the team has won back-to-back games, Lowe and his teammates know there are still many areas to improve upon as they move forward.

"We still need to put two halves together," Lowe said. "We exploded in the second half today but now it's time to start doing it for four quarters."

Otterbein and Heidelberg will once again be playing for the Rhine River Cup next week, with the Cardinals looking to snap a four-game skid in the series. Kick off from Tiffin is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.