FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[e_lee]

I am gettting extra drunk at the reception now.

It would appear that Wabash does indeed always fight.

[Li'l Giant]

Yes, you are right, BashBro. Maybe I'll go play the Tivo'd Bell Game...

[bashbrother]

Eric Summers
Russ Harbaugh
Brandon Roop
Kyle Piazza
Josh Foster
Alex Barnstead
Chris Ogden
Peter Kempf
Aaron Selby
Tim Parker
Temarco White
Hunter Fields
John Maddox
Brandon Barkley
Jake Koeneman
Steve Smitka

Thanks for Everything.  You're a special class!

Wabash Always Fights!!!

[Li'l Giant]

Very nice, Bashbro. We're all so proud of the seniors. What a great career these guys had.

[smedindy]

Just back from the game. Wabash had every opportunity to succeed. Too many dropped passes and Roop's fumble was a killer.

The officiating crew was on another planet, though. They missed a couple of big calls for each team, and I think that Summers had the ball in a tie with the defender on that last pick.

But, Wabash made its bed with those missed opportunities. This was an outstanding game, with only a couple of big plays the difference in the two squads.

[Li'l Giant]

Smed, where did the officiating crew come from?

[OldPhart]

Sad day for NCAC and PAC today.  While I didn't choose my pick 'em this way my dream Stagg was for Wabash versus Thiel.  Not to be.    Time to go drown my sorrows.

[DarkSide-D]

Congrats to Wabash on a great season.  I didn't get to listen to the game.  Sounds like it was a battle of the Defenses.  Was this true?  Are there any comparisons to this game and the Woo-Carthage game last year?

[bashbrother]

Darkside -

It was all defense.  Both quality offenses struggled all day.

I think there we're 16 punts in the 1st half.

Wabash had 14 tackles for loss

Teams combined for 7/33 on third down.

Capital ended the day with 68 yards rushing....even though they had a single 65 yard run in the second half. Pretty telling.

The game came down to:

1 drive in the 1st Half for Capital
a couple of Pentello picks
a Wabash fumble at the Cap 1
a few dropped passes by Wabash
a 65 yard run for Cap
a few missed passes by Wabash
a Wabash Int in the endzone (would have been interesting if D3 had replay)
and a bunch of incredible Defense sprinkled in between.

As a former LB, you would have liked this one.

It's hard to single anyone out from Wabash's D on today's effort, but Wabash may never see a kid like Josh Foster again. (pound for pound)  Wow!  and Billy King and the boys in the d-backfield played the game of their lives......

[aueagle]

Outstanding season and a great run in the playoffs for Wabash. The NCAC is proud. Congrats to your team/alumni/fans.

[smedindy]

I'm not sure - I think the CCIW but I never found out.

[wally_wabash]

Back from C'ville with some thoughts without reading previous posts so I apologize if I'm repeating.....

- The Turkey Tailgate™ was a huge success.  If anybody is thinking about deep frying a bird for a tailgate, I highly recommend it.  Outstanding.  Easily our best spread of the year, which is high praise after Aloha Tailgate™ and Fiesta Tailgate™ earlier in the year.  

- The refs were horrendous.  Playoff football deserves better.  

- As bad as the refs were, they didn't cost anybody the game no matter how bad the interception call at the end of the game was.  Wabash had numerous, and I mean numerous opportunities today.  I counted at least four times when Wabash had receivers behind the secondary.  Russell missed a couple that should have been caught, Harbaugh slipped on the flea flicker with Summers WIDE open down the middle (10 yards at least behind the defense), and the big play to Summers inside the five that called back on holding.  Wabash had their shots and the game never should have come down to that last play.  FWIW, my opinion on that last play was that the pass was incomplete.  Both players were wrestling for the ball coming to the ground, came down out of bounds from my point of view, and the ball popped out when they hit the ground.  Looked like an incomplete pass to me.  

- The defenses were amazing.  22 punts forced.  Total yards: Wabash 240, Capital 239.  Amazing, amazing defense today.  

- Helluva season by Wabash.  11-1 with the Bell in C'ville is outstanding.  I know we wanted to play for another few weeks, but there's no shame in losing to that team.  Capital is very good and I think if Wabash and Capital play 10 times you can flip a coin to see who wins the most.  

- Congrats to the seniors on a great season.  They've been nothing short of amazing to watch this season.  I know Russ has had better games than he did today, but I can't say enough about the year he had.  He's by far had the best season of any Wabash quarterback ever, and that's no small amount of praise.  Here's hoping his name gets called in Salem in a few weeks.  He's as deserving as any of the candidates.  

- Finally, go Capital next week.  If somebody is going to beat those guys and it can't be Wabash, I hope it's Capital.  Everybody I talked to wearing Cap gear today was very amiable and classy.  Good fans today from Bexley.  

Wabash Always Fights!  Let's do it again in '06!!

[Li'l Giant]

Smed,

Just curious. I won't make an issue out of it because I think we had more than enough opportunities that didn't pan out.

On another note, I'd also like to thank everyone who helps make Wabash football a great experience without being in uniform: Brent Harris, Howard Hewitt, Jim Amidon, Smed, Jack Mansfield, and the (I apologize) equipment managers who keep the team equipped and the field looking good. I don't know names but they obviously do a great job keeping the team going. There is more to the games than what we see between the lines from the players.

If I forgot someone I'm sorry. I'm grateful that y'all do a great job for a program a lot of us love. Thank you all for a great season.

[smedindy]

Thanks!

Yes we had the chances. And Capital gave Wabash a lot of respect in the post-game press conference.

[Li'l Giant]

Oh, one more note to the equipment managers:

Can we bring back the white pants and red socks for the home games next year, please? Just throw the red pants away! 


And finally, the end of the season Wabash Haiku^TM:

Wabash comes up short.
A great season is over.
Thanks for the mem'ries.