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Mount Union 47 Marietta 0 by Dick Ross |
| ROLLIN'
ON THE RIVER LEFT A GOOD JOB IN THE CITY
This week, however, the trip to Alliance is
just the journey to the "line of departure." When I arrived, I got a taste
of what non-game Saturdays are like on campus, before boarding the alumni bus for
Marietta. Parking near the Campus Center was still quite hard to come by, the
buffet was just as good, but the lunch crowd was almost all students and the new north end
of the dinning commons was blocked off, with a folding wall. Whether that is to save
on utilities or clean ups, I'm not certain. More than two dozen of us boarded the big
white "Carnation Coach" (A&M Transit) at noon and headed west to I-77.
Entrancing the Interstate from U.S. 30, south of Canton, we crossed the Tuscarawas,
trickling under the bridge. The waters of the Tuscarawas join the Walhonding at
Coshocton to form the Muskingum which, swelled by the Licking under the "Y"
bridge in Zanesville, runs about 112 miles down to the Ohio at Marietta.
One of the first settlements, at this spot,
was "Campus Martius" a fortification built around the home of Rufus Putnam which
is now enclosed by a museum bearing the same name. The lands of the Northwest
Territory had, at one time, belonged to the French and the town that grew at the
confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum was named for Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI,
beautiful and vivacious young queen of Another well known Frenchman, the Marquis
de la Fayette, made two triumphal post war visits to the United States. The first,
which might have been described as "for his health" was during 1793.
Lafayette's second tour, in 1825, included a stop in Marietta, where he stepped ashore
near the site of the hotel which bears his name 'till this day. Brass markers,
reaching up to the second floor of the building, record the high water marks of the Ohio
and Muskingum Rivers at this spot through 1930. During the Great Depression the Army
Corps of Engineers began to harness the Rivers with great construction projects, such as
the Muskingum Conservancy District, up stream on both rivers.
Marietta College was founded in 1797 as
"Muskingum Academy" and chartered as a College in 1835. Home games are played in
Don Drumm Stadium, about a block from the river, between the two bridges to West Virginia.
The stadium is owned by the City of Marietta and was named for Don Drumm who spent
42 From some sort of quirk in scheduling, we manage to play a lot of our road games against schools who are having long weekends. Marietta's undergrads were mostly elsewhere, on a four day weekend, this evening. The visitors' side was almost full, the home side was only about half so and, it seemed, that a majority of them were purple wearing people who simply preferred to have the sun and the wind, out of the Northwest, to their backs. The Pioneers took the field in solid Navy,
almost black, blue with white numerals and a serif "M" on one side of the
helmet, only. Our squad came in road white jerseys with the always popular purple
pants and matching headgear. The game opened slowly with both teams going three and
out, followed by a short
Sr. RB # 10 Chuck Moore of Mogadore, who already owns Mount's career
records in touchdowns and points scored, entered the evening needing 180 yards to break
Russ Kring's 1983-1987 career mark and he picked up 74 the first time he touched the ball.
Moments later, Dan Pugh went the final few for his second touchdown of the evening.
Marietta burned four minutes off the clock and made certain to wind the clock so
that Mount got the ball back with only three seconds of tail wind left. Kehres,
Adamson and Candle took full advantage: one play, 83 yards near sideline, end of quarter,
thank you. Midway through the second period two half
the distance penalties, following a punt return, found the Purple and White at the
six-yard line perilously close to West Virginia which begins at the edge of the river. The kick failed, but the score was now
33-0. As the first half closed, Coach Montgomery's Purple Gang was already playing
well beyond the "two deep" chart. I'd be willing to bet that both the
coaches and the players coming off encouraged the supernumeraries to preserve the
"shut out." The replacements bent, but did not break, and Mount took over
on downs at their own nine. From that spot, Chuck Moore had runs of 13 and 24 yards
and Dan Pugh caught an eight-yard pass before # 42 Jr. RB Vince Ilacqua of Willoughby/Lake
Catholic helped spring Chuck for 46 yards and his second touchdown of the evening.
Adamson had two more handoffs, one
The abbreviated period, absence of scoring
and zero incomplete passes by Mount Union, the third period passed by like "the wink
of a young girl's eye."
Also worthy of mention, among 43 Mount
Union players who appeared in this game, are # 23 Sr. LB Jason Perkins of
Wakeman/Firelands, leading the defense, and # 36 Soph. RB Michael Deitrick of Seven
In a triumph of timing, Dorothy Davis
popped a tape of last year's Stagg Bowl into the bus's VCR, leaving Marietta. Saint
John's called their final timeouts at the Alliance City Limits, Rodney Chenos kicked the
winning field goal as the bus crossed Parkway Blvd. and Chris Carter ended the game as we
pulled to a stop on Campus.
Dick Ross
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For the first time since June of 2000, I got the OK
to make the trip to Alliance "solo." After an all day Friday rain, in
Cleveland, I backed out into bright sunshine and scattered high cumulus clouds. The
Big Goodyear sign in Independence read 45 degrees as I passed it just after ten A.M.
During the Revolution, Washington told his friend, General Rufus Putnam of Massachusetts,
about the beauties that he had seen in the valleys of Ohio and his ideas for settling the
territory. Following the war, the new Nation found itself strapped for cash, but
rich in lands and resources. Men who had served in the war were paid with warrants,
redeemable for lands in the West. General Putnam was the leader of the first 48
settlers who arrived at what is now Marietta, in 1788. 210 years later one of his
direct descendants, Nancy Putnam Hollister, became the first woman Governor of the State
of Ohio, filling an eleven day vacancy between the resignation of George Voinovich and the
inauguration of Robert Taft. Ms. Hollister had also been the first female mayor of
Marietta and Ohio's first woman Lt. Governor, elected with Gov. Voinovich in 1990.
France who had been very
helpful to the American cause during our War of Independence. Marie also became a
symbol of frivolity and extravagance and helped to precipitate the revolution that
eventually claimed her life, on the guillotine, in October of 1793.
In the days before roads through the wilderness, Marietta's location at the intersection
of two major navigable rivers made it a center of commerce. It was, however,
bypassed by both the National Road which went through Zanesville and the B&O Railroad
which went through Parkersburg, leaving the city off the main travel routes until I-77
came through in 1967.
time to visit with some of
the tailgating team parents. The game opened in brilliant sunshine, with the setting
sun directly in our eyes, just as it was in Bedford. That, and the fact that both
teams wore dark blue, were to be among very few similarities between the two games.
series by
the Pioneers. Midway through the period # 7 Jr. QB Rob "the Rifleman"
Adamson of Akron/Manchester found the range to # 9 Sr. WR Jason "Burner" Candle
of Salem/West Branch for two "soft hands" receptions, before # 31 Jr. Dan Pugh
rumbled 39 yards down towards the river. # 1, Sr. Rodney Chenos added the conversion
to make the score 7-0 and it was all downhill for the rivermen after that. 
Adamson wound up and
tossed one to # 6 Jr. Derrick Leach of Summerfield/Shenandoah, who headed north and was
stopped only by the chain link fence beyond the end zone. 94 yards of the pass and
run actually counted, about three feet less than the school record of 95 yards, set by QB
Larry Kehres and Bruce Cartwright in Ada, Ohio in 1970.
each to
Pugh and Moore, before all three took a seat at half-time.
The intermission seemed shorter than usual and, as the third period started, folks sitting
around me noted that the clock started at 12 minutes, high school rules, not the 15 usual
for college play. Since there were no protestations, and the same setting was
repeated for the final period, I assume that it was done with the consensus of both
coaches and the officials.
# 3 Jr. Rourke
Skelton, of Chelsea, Mich. opened the final dozen with a 21-yard punt return to the
Marietta 30. Quarterback Jesse Burghardt made a nice 19-yard pitch to # 82 Jr. TE
Randall Knapp of Kent/Field, for six. Freshman # 48, an unusual number for a kicker,
George Wilder (in the program) or Wilders (on the scoring summary) a freshman from
Loveland/Kings came on for the conversion. This is the first time I believe, since
Brandon Bakos graduated, that someone other than Rodney Chenos has deliberately applied a
foot to the ball, in a game situation. I was not familiar with the young man's
hometown, but if I referenced it right, we'll be relatively close to his home next
Saturday. 
Hills/Normandy who hit the line 14 times
in the second half. Altogether, it was an interesting and satisfying evening.
The only bad news was that Mount fumbled five times and lost three, one at the opponents
22-yard line and two into the opposing end zone, for touchbacks.