Danville, Ky. - DePauw jumped out to a 21-0 first-half lead and extended its regular season win streak to 26 with a 35-14 win at Centre. The Tigers improved to 2-0, while the Colonels dropped to 1-1.
It was a big night for the Ballentine brothers as sophomore quarterback Scott completed 28-of-41 passes for 407 yards and four touchdowns, while senior Robby caught 15 of those for a school-record 244 yards and two scores.
DePauw's defense recorded a three-and-out on the opening series of the game and the offense capitalized with a 7-play, 75-yard drive culminating in
Scott Ballentine's 5-yard pass to
Robby Ballentine.
Centre drove to the DePauw 12 on the next series, but the Tigers stopped the hosts on fourth down.Â
The teams exchanged punts before DePauw embarked on an 86-yard drive that ended with
Evan Pitzer's 1-yard run with 12:00 left in the second quarter.
The Tigers' defense again came up big as
Luke Nolan sacked Centre quarterback Jack Gohmann on third down and forced another punt. DePauw needed seven plays to cover 54 yards as
Scott Ballentine connected with
Lleyton Lukowski for a 22-yard score that pushed the Tigers' lead to 21-0 with 6:56 remaining in the half.
Centre responded this time, driving 67 yards in 11 plays with Gohmann scoring on a 6-yard run. A bad snap on the extra-point was snatched by holder Jake Carson who scampered for the two-point conversion.
DePauw took the second-half kickoff into the Centre red zone, but
Matthew Berry's 35-yard field goal was off the mark. The Colonels, however, couldn't take advantage as
Joey Roland sacked Gohmann on third down for a 16-yard loss to the Centre 4.
Following a punt, the Tigers took over on the Centre 35.
Carson Johnson picked up 10 yards on the first play and then hauled in a 25-yard touchdown pass from
Scott Ballentine to extend the lead to 28-8.
DePauw's final points came on its next possession as it drove 65 yards in nine plays with
Scott Ballentine teaming with
Robby Ballentine for a 29-yard touchdown with 3:29 left in the third to make it 35-8.
Gohmann threw a 16-yard scoring pass to Blake Busson with 34 seconds left in the third to make it 35-14.
Neither team scored in the fourth as Centre turned it over on downs at the DePauw 25 and Berry missed a 41-yard field goal on DePauw's next series.
In addition to
Robby Ballentine's 15 catches which equaled the second-most in program history, Lukowski caught seven for 89 yards. Johnson led the Tigers with 20 rushing yards in three carries.
Gohmann completed 26-of-46 passes for 287 yards and one score with Busson catching 11 for 136 yards.Â
DePauw's defense, for the second straight week, held an opponent to negative rushing yardage as the Colonels totaled minus 34 yards in 20 attempts. The Tigers recorded 10.0 tackles for losses totaling 75 yards including 4.0 sacks for 59 yards.
Toreeq Jimoh-Oyesigi led DePauw with eight tackles, while
Dominic Seibal and Nolan each had two tackles for loss. Nolan had two sacks with Roland and Seibal finishing with one each.
Joey Fico had the lone interception of the game.
Brooks Sapone and Ollie Carter each had eight tackles for Centre.
DePauw outgained Centre, 474-253, and held a 21-15 advantage in first downs.
The Tigers open the home portion of their schedule on Saturday, Sept. 20, with a 1 p.m. game against Kenyon.