Wabash looks to rebound after last week's 16-13 loss to Ohio Wesleyan when the Little Giants travel to Oberlin this weekend to continue the North Coast Athletic Conference portion of its 2017 schedule.
 
Despite the first loss of the season, Wabash can still work to achieve the goals the team set at the start of the year.
 
"We still have control of our own destiny," Wabash head coach Don Morel said. "We can still win a conference title, we can still play beyond the regular season, we can still win the Monon Bell. What we learned is we have to play mistake-free football, and that didn't happen against Ohio Wesleyan. The effort on Saturday was excellent. The loss wasn't because of effort. We just made too many mistakes. No matter how hard you play, if you're doing the wrong thing it's not going to work. I think we have corrected that."
 
While the Little Giants were unable to find the end zone on offense, the Wabash defense limited an Ohio Wesleyan that came into Crawfordsville averaging 25 points a game and showed steady improvement on offense to one touchdown and three field goals. Wabash played even in the turnover department thanks to a Henry Webberhunt forced fumble recovered by Klay Fullenkamp. Evan Hansen recorded a career-best 14 tackles, including 11 solo stops in the game for the Little Giants.
 
Now Wabash has to take the lessons learned from Saturday's loss into its road game this Saturday at Oberlin. The Little Giants play away from Hollett Little Giant Stadium for only the second time this season against a Yeomen team that will be happy to see the familiar sights of the Austin E. Knowlton Athletics Complex. Oberlin won its first two home games of the season against Kalamazoo (24-6) and Kenyon (31-10) at home, but have played the past four games on the road. The Yeomen dropped all four contests on their month-long road trip to Wittenberg (34-0), Denison (45-17), DePauw (26-10), and are coming off a 38-28 loss at Wooster last Saturday.
 
Oberlin jumped out to a 7-0 lead against the Scots last Saturday on a 79-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Zach Taylor to junior wideout Ryan Gleeson. Taylor has been solid in 2017, completing 87-of153 passes for 1,088 yards and 7 touchdowns versus 5 interceptions. He has also rushed for two TDs and averages 13.4 yards a game.
 
Senior Khalil Rivers leads the rushing attack for the Yeomen with a 45.7 yards-per-game average with two rushing touchdowns. Sophomore Melvin Briggs averages 50.2 rushing yards a game and has scored once.  
 
Gleeson leads the Yeomen with 36 catches for 442 yards and three touchdowns. Corey Fussinger ranks second on the team with 22 receptions for 327 yards and is tie for the team lead with three touchdown receptions. Robby Reinheimer is third with 21 catches for 333 yards and a pair of touchdown receptions.
 
Oberlin is fifth in the NCAC in total defense at 403..7 yards per game and scoring defense with an average of 26.5 points allowed per game. Von Wooding leads the unit with 58 tackles. Jubreel Hason has made 44 solo tackles as well as forced and recovered a fumble. The Yeomen have sacked opposing quarterbacks 13 times, led by Luis Solorzano with 3-1/2 for 30 yards. Bennett Jackson, Devin White, and Jabree Hason have each recorded interceptions for Oberlin this season.  
 
"Oberlin is a team that has made a lot of improvements from last year and keeps getting better each and every week this season," Morel said. "It's evident they've lost four road games in a row. But equally evident is the fact that we're struggling to score points. Any opponents going to say if they can score some points, they've got a chance against Wabash. We've got some hurdles to overcome and our kids are completely aware of it."
 
Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. A live video feed and live statistics will be provided by Oberlin at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/oberlin/.  WNDY (91.3 FM) Radio will carry the Wabash coverage of the game, with Terry Byrom and Brent Harris handling the announcing duties. The broadcast begins at 12:40 with the Don Morel Pregame show and can be heard online at https://www.wabash.edu/live.