GRANVILLE, Ohio (September 25, 2021) – The Denison University football team overcame a 16-0 deficit in the first quarter and pitched a shutout the rest of the way en route to taking down Wittenberg University 21-16 in North Coast Athletic Conference action on Saturday night at Deeds Field-Piper Stadium.

After Wittenberg scored touchdowns on each of its first two drives of the game and then added a field goal after its third possession, the Big Red defense buckled down and did its part to give the Denison offense a fighting chance to get back into the game.

Starting with just over five minutes left in the first quarter, the Big Red offense went on a 12-play, 83-yard drive that finished with a 20-yard touchdown pass from Drew Dawkins to tight end Mack Marston to make it 16-7 with 13:13 to go before halftime.

Then with 7:27 left in the second quarter, an eight-play, 37-yard drive for Denison over only a two-and-a-half-minute span resulted in Marston's second touchdown pass of the night, this one a three-yard catch from Dawkins to get the Big Red to within a field goal of taking the lead at 16-14.

In the second half, Denison began to dominate things on the ground offensively while the Tigers' offense struggled.

With 5:25 on the clock in the third quarter and starting from its own 12-yard line, Denison methodically moved the ball down the field with a long 19-play, 88-yard drive featuring 14 run plays. The final play of that drive would prove to be the game-winner as Andrew Blanchard refused to take no for an answer and charged into the endzone over his defender for a two-yard touchdown rush on fourth-and-one to make it 21-16 with 10:30 left to play.

From there, Wittenberg proceed to move down to Denison's 21-yard line before a big 13-yard sack by Joey Muncie on first-and-10 moved the Tigers way back.

After a turnover on downs by Wittenberg, the Tigers got the ball back with 4:30 left to play and great field possession at Denison's 31-yard line, but a field goal was not going to be enough as Wittenberg needed a touchdown. On a third-and-two play from Denison's 10-yard line, Francis Fay came up with a huge 12-yard tackle for loss on a jet sweep to a wide receiver to make it fouth-and-14.

One more incomplete pass by the Tigers would be all she wrote, and the Big Red got the ball back with 1:37 left and needed just one first down to put it away, which they did thanks to a nine-yard run by Trey Fabrocini.

In the end, Fabrocini led the Denison offense with 116 rushing yards on 20 carries, good for an average of 5.8 yards per attempt, while Blanchard added 72 yards on 17 carries, resulting in an average of 4.2 yards per carry.

As a team, Denison racked up a total of 230 yards on the ground and averaged 4.2 yards per rush whiling the Big Red defense worked to limit Wittenberg to only 33 yards rushing and 1.3 yards per carry.

Dawkins finished by completing 11 of his 21 passes for 101 yards and two touchdowns, both to Marston.

It was a huge win as Wittenberg was one of the two teams Denison tied with for first place in the NCAC back in 2019. Now, Denison improves to 3-1 overall and 3-0 in the conference while Wittenberg falls to 1-2 and 1-1.

Next up for the Big Red will be another huge matchup with major conference implications as Denison hosts the other team that tied them for first place two years ago, No. 20 nationally-ranked Wabash College. That matchup will take place at 3 p.m. on Saturday, October 2, during Big Red Weekend.