Football Travels to Canton to Take on Walsh
The Game
After a home game in each of the last two weeks, the Oilers will hit the road to take on Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) opponent Walsh University on Saturday, Oct. 12. The game will kick off at 1:00 pm from Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio.
The Series
A relatively young series, Findlay and Walsh have met six times. The Oilers hold a 5-1 advantage in those meetings including a 24-16 victory last season in Findlay.
Radio Coverage
Every Oilers football game will be broadcast on 88.3 WLFC and can be listed to locally on the radio or streamed online at WLFC.com.
Video Stream
Video streaming for the contest will be produced by UFTV and aired on the Great Midwest Digital Network.
Click any of the options below to find the contest live:
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Head Coach Rob Keys
Head coach Rob Keys is in his ninth season at the helm of the Oilers football program in 2019. He has recorded a 59-35 record with the program as a head coach, which includes a 48-30 mark in conference games. He has coached Findlay to winning records in seven of his eight seasons including last season when he lead the Oilers to their first ever NCAA Division II Playoffs.
For Findlay's 2019 coaching staff, please click on the following link:
Findlay Oilers (3-2, 2-1 G-MAC)
After a 1-2 start to the year, Findlay has rattled off a pair of convincing wins over conference opponents Alderson Broaddus and Kentucky Wesleyan. The Oilers' high powered offense is putting up more than 35 points per game and 478 yards of offense per game, both second in the conference. A bulk of those yards have come on the ground where Findlay is picking up 264 rushing yards per game and have scored 15 touchdowns, both the best in the league. Perhaps more impressive is the amount of backs that have contributed. Junior Brian Benson, senior Nate Slagel, junior Derek Lynch, and sophomore Brenan Auer have each rushed for more than 100 yards in a game at least once the season, the most 100+-yard backs of any team in the league.
To counter a good run offense, the Oilers run defense is the best in the conference as well, allowing just 123 rushing yards per game. That is due to Findlay fielding one of the most talented front-sevens in the league.
Junior Jack Trombetti is Findlay's second-leading tackler with 34 stops and 1.5 tackles-for-loss while fellow linebacker, senior Isaac Miles, has 30 tackles with 3.0 tackles-for-loss and a sack. On the defensive line, junior Kyle Gibson has made 19 tackles including three for loss while David Marbury has exploded the last two weeks and leads all freshman in the nation in sacks and tackles-for-loss with four and 6.5, respectively.
In the secondary, the play of sophomore Christopher Jefferson has jumped off the charts this season. Through five games Jefferson has a league-best five interceptions, including three in one game last week against Kentucky Wesleyan. He also has ten pass breakups, the most in the conference, to go along with 22 tackles.
2019 Season Statistics
2019 Roster
Walsh Cavaliers (1-4, 1-2 G-MAC)
The Cavaliers were selected to finish fifth in the Preseason Coaches' Poll released in the beginning of August. Two months later, fifth is exactly where Walsh sits in the standings. Despite remaining ahead of teams like Lake Erie, Alderson Broaddus, and Kentucky Wesleyan in the standings, 2019 has not exactly been smooth sailing for the Crimson and Gold. At 1-4 on the year - 1-2 in the G-MAC - Walsh is still looking for their first statement win since joining the conference in 2017 as all their wins have come against teams named Kentucky Wesleyan, Alderson Broaddus, Lake Erie, and former football member, Malone.
Statistically Walsh is off to an abysmal start offensively, scoring just 7.2 points per game which is second-to-last in the country. Should that trend continue, it would be the lowest point-per-game total in program and conference history. The team has scored just five touchdowns through five games, less than half the amount of touchdowns as the next-lowest scoring team in the league, Lake Erie, which has found the end zone 12 times.
Scoring points is difficult if the offense can't move the ball, and that has been the case for Walsh. At just 175 yards per game, the Cavs are putting up 160 less yards per game than Lake Erie and 350 less yards per game than G-MAC leader, Tiffin.
The reins of the offense belong, at least according to the Walsh depth chart, to Tadas Tatarunas, a redshirt freshman from Mentor, Ohio. He has played in four of the five games thus far and is completing just 38% of his passes (25-of-66) for only 173 yards. Tatarunas has yet to throw a touchdown pass but has thrown three interceptions. Tatarunas splits time with junior Nick Gassman who has not been much better. Gassman has completed 20-of-47 (43%) for 231 yards and a touchdown, but has thrown five interceptions.
With an inability to throw the ball consistently, the Cavs would hope for a solid rushing attack to counter the lack of passing production. That rushing attack has not been there for Walsh. Junior Koby Adu-Poku, a first team all-G-MAC selection last season, has rushed for 297 yards in five games, just 59.4 yards per game. Adu -Poku, who leads the G-MAC in carries with 105, has just one touchdown this year after rushing for 11 TDs last season.
Defensively it doesn't get much better for the Cavaliers. Walsh is allowing 419 yards of offense per game, sixth in the conference, and are allowing 33.2 points per game, good for seventh. The one bright spot for the defense has been their pass rush. The Cavaliers lead the G-MAC in sacks this year with 11. Findlay will combat that with one of the best pass protecting offensive lines in the country that has allowed just four sacks this year.
Links
NCAA Division II Stats
NCAA
NCAA Division II Football
American Football Coaches Association
D2Football.com
Great Midwest