The Wabash football team has dominated the first half of all three games this season. The Little Giants have outscored opponents 113-0 in the first 30 minutes this year. That trend could be challenged Saturday in Wooster, Ohio. The Fighting Scots (2-1, 2-0 NCAC) will provide the toughest test for the Little Giants (3-0, 2-0 NCAC) after three straight wins by a combined score of 184-13.

"They're a team on the rise," Coach Erik Raeburn said about his week-five opponent. "You can see as they're getting used to the new scheme, they're playing better and better on defense so it'll be a real challenge for us."

Wooster fell to Washington and Jefferson to start the year before it defeated Oberlin and Hiram in the last two weeks. The Scots are led by dual-threat quarterback Richard Barnes.

"Raeburn was saying after practice if Barnes has a great game, the whole team will have a great game," linebacker Cody Buresh said. "Our goal is to make him have a bad game. Last year, we did a great job of corralling tackling. If he did escape someone, the next person would light him up."

The senior quarterback has thrown for 750 yards and 8 touchdowns to just one interception this season. He has added 217 more yards on the ground with two touchdowns.

As Buresh noted however, the Little Giant defense held Barnes in check the last time the teams squared off. Barnes only threw for 139 yards with an interception, and was held to 21 yards on the ground in a 30-0 shutout victory for Wabash.

"We want to come off the edge more and make him step up in the pocket instead of giving him the opportunity to spin out and scramble," Buresh said. "The ends will try to get to his up-field shoulder. If he steps up, we usually have guys up the middle to keep him contained."

Despite last year's success, Wabash will face a reshaped Wooster team with new Head Coach Frank Colaprete. The Scots have scored 32.67 points-per-game this season under his guidance.

"There's some elements they're running that was similar to things they did a year ago," Raeburn said. "But you can't read too much into last year's game. I felt like one of the reasons we played so well against them last year is we did a great job of containing Barnes. We just never let him get away from us and we finished the plays."

A pair of defensive backs leads the Scots in tackles. Brandon James has 35 tackles and an interception while Mitchell Czerniak has 27 stops including one-and-a-half tackles-for-loss.

The Wabash offense has benefited from two backups thrust into a starting role at Allegheny. Andy Walsh started at quarterback while Mason Zurek filled in for the injured Tyler Holmes at running back. Walsh connected on his first eight pass attempts and finished 10-for-13 for 96 yards and a perfectly-thrown ball to Houston Hodges for a 14-yard touchdown over the middle.

"I thought he made the right decision on nearly every play," Raeburn said about Walsh. "The throw to Houston on the touchdown was a great ball. We felt like we had to throw a lot of bubble screen against them because they were really loading up the box. I thought every bubble screen he threw was really accurate so Houston could catch them on the run."

Walsh completed 7-of-12 passes for 119 yards and 2 touchdowns in his only start last year against Wooster.

Raeburn added Zurek was real decisive in his cuts and ran north and south. The running back displayed these traits on a 70-yard touchdown run when he made a defender miss in the hole, then raced through the Gators' defense.

Walsh's and Zurek's performances represented backups being ready. Raeburn has stressed preparation to the second team this year.

"We talked to them about being one play away from being the guy," he said. "I think they took that to heart. Last week (against Denison), the second-team defense gave up some big plays. But our second-team defense played outstanding Saturday and continued the high level of defense our first team played with."

The downfall, however, is the starters haven't played for three quarters this year, much less a full game. Buresh acknowledged this and said the defense did more in practice and stayed after for extra conditioning. Perhaps the extra wind sprints will be useful for the starters Saturday.

Kickoff will be at 1 p.m. The game will be broadcast locally on WNDY Radio (91.3 FM). A live video feed is available from Wooster here.

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