Crawfordsville, Ind. - A rivalry that dates back to 1890 and touts underdog winners and dramatic finishes featured something new on a sunny afternoon in Crawfordsville as DePauw and Wabash went to overtime for the first time with the Tigers prevailing, 33-30, in two extra sessions. DePauw claimed its third straight North Coast Athletic Conference outright championship and finished the regular season at 10-0 for the first time in 136 seasons. Wabash finished its season at 7-3 overall and 6-2 in NCAC.
DePauw's
Gus Baumgartner scored on a 1-yard run with 10:16 left in regulation, but
Matthew Berry's point-after attempt was blocked and kept the score deadlocked at 27-27. The teams then exchanged punts after barely crossing midfield on their drives and Wabash advanced to its own 31 before time ran out in regulation.
The Tigers went on offense first in the overtime period and, after Baumgartner picked up two yards on first down, the second down snap glanced off tight end
Will Kaster, who was in motion, and was recovered by Wabash's Jake Pasch. Wabash's Xavier Tyler picked five and four yards, respectively, on runs before Liam Thompson's third-down pass fell incomplete. Brody Rucker, who booted two field goals in regulation, was called on to attempt a 33-yard field goal, but DePauw's
Ethan Lowry blocked the kick and gave the Tigers new life.
Wabash started the second overtime with Tyler gaining two yards and Thompson throwing an incomplete pass. Thompson was then forced to run on third down and made it just back to the line of scrimmage. Rucker came on and nailed a 41-yard field goal to give Wabash a 30-27 advantage.
The Tigers came out throwing as
Nathan McCahill completed a four-yard pass to
Robby Ballentine and then a 10-yarder to
Gabe Quigley for a first down at the Wabash 11. McCahill then found Kaster over the middle and the sophomore dove into the end zone and sent Tigers fans into a frenzy. Kaster came into the contest with just two catches for eight yards and one score this season.
DePauw took the lead on the game's first series as McCahill teamed with
Robby Ballentine for an 8-yard scoring play. Wabash countered with Cade Campbell's 5-yard run.
The Tigers were on the march on their next series, but McCahill's pass was picked off by Mike Holsclaw at the Wabash 14 and returned 26 yards. The Little Giants took advantage with a six-play drive that culminated in Tyler's 1-yard run on the first play of the second quarter. Rucker's point-after gave Wabash a 14-7 lead.
McCahill's 15-yard run capped another 8-play, 75-yard series and made it 14-15 with 11:33 remaining in the half. Rucker booted a 39-yard field goal on the Little Giants' next series and DePauw regained the lead as Baumgartner reached paydirt with a 17-yard run with 28 seconds left in the half.
Wabash drove into DePauw territory on its final drive of the half on runs of 16 and 31 yards by Tyler, but a holding penalty and an incomplete pass sent the teams to the locker room with DePauw leading 21-17.
After DePauw was forced to punt on its nest possession, Rucker nailed a 34-yard field goal with 8:04 left in the third cut the DePauw lead to 21-20.Â
The Tigers drove into Wabash territory but were stopped just past midfield and forced to punt. Wabash started on its own 14 and Donovan Snyder's 1-yard run gave Wabash a 27-21 advantage with 13:41 left in regulation. That set up DePauw's game-tying possession.
DePauw outgained Wabash, 435-424, with Wabash holding a 310-193 advantage on the ground and DePauw leading in passing yards, 242-114.
Baumgartner rushed fo 97 yards on 18 carries with Whitehead totaling 50 on 12 tries and McCahill 45 on three attempts.
Thompson rushed for 135 yards on 17 carries, while Tyler finished with 76 and Campbell 69.
McCahill completed 23-of-30 passes for 242 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. Ballentine caught seven for 68 yards with Quigley catching six for 92 yards.
Thompson was 11-of-21 for 114 yards and didn't throw a touchdown pass for the first time since the 2019 Monon Bell game - a streak of 30 games. Cooper Sullivan caught for for 41 yards.
Luke Marsh led DePauw with 11 tackles with
Jonathan Bruder and
Jake Comer each totaling nine.Brock Robertson paced Wabash with 16 tackles.Â
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NOTES
- DePauw became the first NCAC program to win three straight outright conference titles since Wittenberg won four consecutive from 1998-2001.
- The 10 wins broke the DePauw single-season record and the undefeated regular season is the first since the 1943 team was 5-0-1 and the first undefeted, untied campaign since the 1933 team was 7-0-0.
- Wabash leads the all-time series 63-57-9 and games played for the Monon Bell 44-41-6.
- DePauw is 2-0 in overtime games after a 41-35 win at Wittenberg.
- DePauw's back-to-back wins in the rivalry are its first since it won in 2007 and 2008.
- With two rushing touchdowns Gus Baumgartner moved ahead of Rich Bonacorsi's 30 and into second place behind Jeremiah Marks' 52 from 2004-07.
- DePauw's 14-game regular season win streak equals the longest in program history (1933-34).
- DePauw has won 10 straight regular season road games.
- The Tigers' 446 points smashed the program record of 414 points which occurred in 11 games.
