Wabash Gamenotes vs. Kenyon (pdf)

The Little Giants will focus on the line of scrimmage battle Saturday when they play host to the Kenyon College Lords.
 
Kenyon (4-2, 4-1 NCAC) will enter the contest with the third-best rushing defense and fourth-best rushing offense in the NCAC. Wabash (5-0, 4-0 NCAC) possesses the conference's top rushing offense and defense.
 
"It's a battle up front — our offense live versus their front seven or eight, and their offensive line versus our front seven or eight," Coach Erik Raeburn said. "Whoever is more successful is going to go a long way into deciding who wins the football game. If they run the ball better than we run the ball, we're going to be in trouble."
 
The Little Giants have churned out 281-yards-per-game this season. However, the depth at running back grew thin in the previous weeks. Tyler Holmes and Mason Zurek saw their seasons end early due to injury. Last week, Anthony Stella stepped into the lead-back role and rushed for 189 yards in 2 touchdowns in the most significant action he has ever had at running back. The Ben Davis graduate played linebacker through high school and his freshman year before he switched to running back this season.
 
"He's getting more comfortable — surer of himself," Raeburn said. "It's a difficult thing to switch positions and learn a whole new system. Mentally, the more comfortable you are with what you're doing, the confident you are and faster you play."

Stella became the third back to eclipse the 100-yard mark this season. No matter who has lined up in the backfield, the consistent play of the offensive line has provided holes — often gaping — for the back to power through.
 
"It's always great to have some chemistry going," right tackle Mark Riffle said. "You know what the tendencies of the guy next to you are and you can begin to trust the others guys around you.

"You'll start to pick up the appropriate time to leave a double team and go up to the second level. During pass protection, we want to same on the same level when we set back. If we're on different levels, that's when guys can do slants and stunts to beat us. That's something that takes a lot of time to develop chemistry between one another."
 
The offensive line will try to execute with the same cohesiveness, but Saturday may prove to be its toughest test this season. The Lords use a complicated scheme and implement it well.
 
"It will be critical for us to have some balance," Raeburn said. "They're too good defensively for us to think we can just run it the whole game and be successful. Every week, whoever they play, they decide what you're best at and they take that away. They do what they can not to let you beat them with your strength."
 
Riffle was just as impressed by the Kenyon defense.
 
"For every game this year, they have a different scheme each week," he said. "They have a ton of fronts. It's kind of like playing four different teams in one team. The game will be physical, but will also take a lot more mental effort this week."
 
Kenyon will pack a punch on offense as well. Brandon January and Casey Beaudouin provide a thunder and lightning running attack, with Beaudouin listed as 5'4 and 155 pounds. The duo has combined for 836 yards and 4 touchdowns. Fullback has also scored four touchdowns on 26 attempts.
 
"They come off the ball really well, but I think our team is more physical," defensive end Jorge Diaz-Aguilar said. "We need to have our defensive linemen take on those blocks to free up our linebackers to make the tackles. That will get us going and once we stop the run, we can really try to pin our ears back and get after the quarterback."
 
Diaz-Aguilar has 9 tackles this year with 1.5 for loss. He acknowledged that his role in the defense is not necessarily to make all the plays.
 
"I'm trying to eat up space and free up (Nate) Scola, (Cody) Buresh, and (AJ) Akinribade to get those guys flowing through the gaps," he said. "It's really more of a sacrificial lamb stand point."
 
Diaz-Aguilar and the rest of the defensive line will need to flex their muscle Saturday. The group will likely decide which team's ground and pound is stronger.
 
Kickoff will be at 1 p.m. in Byron P. Hollett Little Giant Stadium. Jim Amidon '87 and Steve Hoffman '85 will announce the game. The broadcast is available on live video at http://www.wabash.edu/live.