GRANVILLE, Ohio (October 21, 2023) – The Denison University football team found itself down by at least one touchdown three times in the game, but three receiving touchdowns by Josh Aiello over the first three quarters followed by two rushing touchdowns for Trey Fabrocini in the fourth quarter helped the Big Red earn a 35-31 win over the College of Wooster. With the win, the Big Red will keep ahold of the Battle of the Old Red Lantern trophy for the ninth season in a row.

Denison (5-3 overall, 4-2 North Coast Athletic Conference) trailed 14-0 after a 75-yard touchdown pass by the Fighting Scots in the first quarter, but got on the board with a 45-yard touchdown pass from Jimmy Stines to Aiello as time expired at the end of the first quarter.

Aiello scored again on a 19-yard pass in the final three minutes of the second quarter to tie it at 14-14 and somehow got his foot down for a 25-yard touchdown to make it 21-21 early in the third quarter.

In addition to scoring three receiving touchdowns for the second week in a row, Aiello broke the Denison single-season program record with 14 receiving touchdowns so far this season. The previous record was 13 receiving touchdowns by Dushawn Brown in 2014.

Trailing 28-21 with 6:21 left in the third quarter, Denison proceeded to put together a 12-play, 65-yard drive featuring 11 runs by Fabrocini and ending with a three-yard score by Fabrocini on the first play of the fourth quarter.

Then on the ensuing drive by Wooster (2-5, 1-4), a forced fumble behind the line of scrimmage by Michael Ballenger was recovered by Jeff Moore to give Denison the ball back at the Wooster 23-yard line, and then three straight runs by Fabrocini led to a one-yard touchdown run to give the Big Red their first lead of the game (35-28) with just under 14 minutes left to play.

After a field goal on the next Wooster drive, the teams continued their sloppy play and swapped turnovers on a fumble on a punt return by the Fighting Scots, followed by the third interception of the game thrown by Stines.

In all, both teams had two lost fumbles and both had a blocked field goal, Denison's being a block by Sam Secrest on a 47-yard field goal by the Fighting Scots in the final two minutes of the first quarter.

Following a 29-yard return on the interception to set Wooster up just before midfield with 5:31 left to play, a 17-yard sack on second-and-eight by Clay Denstorff helped set up an incompletion on fourth-and-18 to give Denison the ball back in Fighting Scots' territory with just 3:30 to play.

With Wooster having used up all their timeouts and Denison looking at fourth-down and-one with 1:49 on the clock, a first down would be all she wrote, and Fabrocini delivered with a 15-yard run to seal the victory.

In all, Fabrocini rushed a season-high 39 times for a new career-high of 224 yards and two touchdowns while Aiello totaled six catches for 110 yards, in addition to his three scores.

The defense, meanwhile, was led by Moore with nine tackles, Jack Nimesheim with seven tackles, Christian Lariviere with six tackles, and two sacks for 23 yards by Denstorff.

Next up, Denison will play its final road game of the season at Kenyon College on Saturday, November 4. Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m. from Gambier, Ohio, as the Big Red look to defeat the Owls for the 17th season in a row.