Granville, Ohio - DePauw scored on its first seven offensive possessions on the way to a 53-34 North Coast Athletic Conference win at Denison. The Tigers, ranked 10th in the latest coaches' poll and 13th by D3football.com, improved to 6-0 overall and 4-0 in the NCAC, while the Big Red dropped to 4-3 overall and 4-1 in conference play.

DePauw's defense started with a three-and-out before the offense responded quickly as quarterback Nathan McCahill picked up 25 yards on the first play before completing an 8-yard pass to Robby Ballentine. Caden Whitehead gained 11 on a run and McCahill connected with Ballentine for a 13-yard score with 10:53 left in the first.

Another three-and-out for Denison was followed by DePauw's 6-play, 39-yard drive which culminated in Whitehead's 3-yard touchdown run to make it 14-0 with 5:23 left in the first.

Matthew Berry's 25-yard field goal early in the the second pushed the Tigers' lead to 17-0, but Denison's Jaylin Epps returned the ensuing kickoff 97 yards for a score to close the DePauw lead to 17-7.

McCahill and Ballentine teamed for a 43-yard score on DePauw's next series before Jonathan Bruder picked off Tyler Green's pass and returned it 70 yards for a score to extend DePauw's lead to 30-7 with 6:01 left in the half.

Denison then embarked on a 10-play drive capped by Green's 14-yard touchdown pass to Tommy Asleson to cut the Tigers' lead to 30-14 with 1:56 remaining in the half. 

The Tigers closed out the half with Ben Gomez nailing a 48-yard field goal as the halftime horn sounded to push the lead to 33-14.

The Tigers needed just six plays to score at the beginning of the third period with McCahill tossing a 14-yard pass to Ballentine to make it 40-14 with 11:25 left in the third.

Denison's Trey Fabrocini capped a 12-play drive with a 3-yard run to close the gap to 40-20, but DePauw responded again as McCahill found Ballentine for a 2-yard score which was part of a 13-play series that took over seven minutes off the clock. The touchdown catch was Ballentine's fourth of the day which tied the DePauw single-game record.

The Big Red came back with a 12-play drive with Asleson scoring on a 10-yard pass play from Green to trim the DePauw lead to 47-27. The Tigers fumbled on the first play of their next possession and Denison took over on the DePauw 30. Three plays later, Fabrocini scored on a 7-yard run which made it 47-34 with 9:12 left in the contest.

The teams exchanged punts before DePauw wrapped up the scoring on Carson Johnson's 1-yard run with 1:37 left.

Whitehead led the Tigers with 126 rushing yards as the Tigers totaled 217 as a team. DePauw held Fabrocini to just 27 rushing yards with the Big Red finishing with only two as a team.

McCahill completed 19-of-23 passes for 272 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions with Ballentine catching six for 118 yards and four scores. Gabe Quigley followed with six receptions for 71 yards.

Green completed 24-of-42 passes for 270 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. Asleson caught nine for 134 and two touchdowns with Aidan Brownlee catching eight for 54 yards.

Matthew Coons led DePauw with nine tackles and three pass breakups with Bruder and Luke Nolan each totaling five. Nolan had 2.0 of DePauw's 5.0 sacks.

Nick Pellicciotta paced Denison with 14 tackles with Michael Ballenger finishing with nine.

DePauw outgained Denison in total yards, 489-272, and held a 28-21 edge in first downs.

DePauw hosts Wittenberg on Saturday, Oct. 26, at 1 p.m.


NOTES

• The win was DePauw's 20th straight regular season victory which is the fourth-longest active streak on all NCAA levels.
• DePauw has won 16 consecutive conference games which is the 11th-longest active Division III streak
• Robby Ballentine's four touchdown receptions tied the school record held by Jaylon Smith (9/30/2023 at Oberlin) and Chase Sadler (10/15/2016 at Allegheny)
• Today marked the 11th straight game in which Ballentine has caught a touchdown pass
• DePauw, which entered the game ranked sixth in scoring offense in Division III, topped the 50-point mark for the fifth time this year
• Jonathan Bruder's pick-six was the Tigers' third of the season