GAMBIER, Ohio (October 16, 2021) – Two weeks after suffering its first North Coast Athletic Conference loss of the season against No. 18 Wabash College, the Denison University football team got back into the win column with a 45-7 victory on the road at Kenyon College on Saturday afternoon at McBride Field.

With both teams coming off a bye week, Denison outscored Kenyon 31-0 in the second half to improve to 4-2 overall and 4-1 in the North Coast Athletic Conference. Dating back to the 2006 season, Denison has now won 15 straight games against Kenyon (2-4, 2-3), the last five of which have been by 30-plus points.

On the first drive of the game, Kenyon moved the ball well with three effective running plays before a three-yard sack by Joey Muncie on first-and-10 from the Denison 41-yard line. On the very next play, Jeff Moore came up with a big eight-yard tackle for loss to make it third-and-21, and then on the ensuing punt, DJ Johnson returned it 24 yards to set Denison up at its own 32-yard line for its first drive.

What followed would be a long 15-play, 68-yard drive by the Big Red that started with a third-down conversion from Drew Dawkins passing to Mack Marston, followed by three straight rushes of six-plus yards by Trey Fabrocini. The next play after that was another third-down conversion from Dawkins to Marston, this time for 11 yards. In all, Denison had five first downs on its opening drive, took advantage of a personal foul by Kenyon on a missed field goal, and finished it off with a three-yard rush by Fabrocini to get on the scoreboard.

In the second quarter, Clay Denstorff came up with a nine-yard sack on third-and-10 for Kenyon from its own-19-yard line, which after the punt allowed Denison to start its next drive in Kenyon territory at the 46-yard line with five minutes left before halftime. That led to a 15-yard pass from Dawkins to Marston again on third down to move the chains, and then on the very next play Dawkins found Marston for a 10-yard score to make it 14-0. Marston finished with five catches for 49 yards in the first half.

Unfortunately, after Denison got the ball again near midfield with two minutes left before halftime, Dawkins was intercepted trying to force the ball downfield, and then Kenyon took advantage with a long 70-yard touchdown pass to get the Lords on the scoreboard.

In the third quarter, Denison started with a 41-yard field goal by Pat Kramer, and then on Kenyon's first drive, Denstorff got another sack, this time on third-and-20 from the 50-yard line to force a punt.

The Big Red proceeded to take the ball 70 yards in eight plays, finishing with a 13-yard rushing touchdown by Andrew Blanchard to make it 24-7.

Dawkins added two more long passing touchdowns in the fourth quarter and finished 18-for-32 for 268 yards and three total touchdowns. He also added nine rushes for 48 yards.

The other large chunks of Denison's 186 rushing yards as a team were from Blanchard with 18 carries for 74 yards and Fabrocini with 12 carries for 52 yards. Both men scored one touchdown and averaged just over four yards per attempt.

Josh Aiello led the Big Red receiving corps with four catches for 88 yards and a touchdown catch of 54 yards in the fourth quarter.

Denstorff finished the contest with seven tackles and three sacks for 23 yards while Moore matched him with seven tackles. As a team, the Denison defense recorded 9.5 tackles for loss and six sacks.

Next up, Denison will host the College of Wooster at 3 p.m. on Saturday, October 23, inside Deeds Field-Piper Stadium. The Big Red have won six straight against the Fighting Scots dating back to the 2014 campaign.