Wabash opens its 136^th season of college football Saturday when the Little Giants travel to Virginia to play Hampden-Sydney College in the fourth Gentlemen's Classic. Kickoff at Everett Stadium is at 1 p.m.
 
Wabash scored on its final drive to claim a 52-48 victory over Hampden-Sydney in the 2022 Gentlemen's Classic contest. The Little Giants ran for 271 yards and three touchdowns and passed for 392 yards and four TDs. Liam Thompson paced the Wabash offense by rushing for 102 yards and two TDs in addition to his 392-yard, four-TD passing effort. Cade Campbell added 69 rushing yards for Wabash, and Donovan Snyder ran for 61 yards, including the game's final scoring play. Derek Allen, Jr. caught a team-best eight passes for 172 yards and three touchdowns with a 75-yard catch in the second quarter to cut the Hampden-Sydney lead to 21-17. Wabash outgained the visiting Tigers 663 yards to 493 yards in the shootout victory.
 
Steven Thomas, Joe Rios, and Mike Holsclaw each made eight tackles. Thomas recorded three tackles for losses totaling 12 yards and made a seven-yard sack. The Little Giants recorded four sacks in the game and made 11 tackles for a loss of 34 yards. 
 
Wabash returns ten starters on offense and eight on defense from its 2022 squad. All five offensive linemen are back for the 2023 Little Giants, including 2021 D3football.com All-Region Four Second Team and two-time All-North Coast Athletic Conference center Joe Mullin. Joining Mullin on the offensive line for Wabash are 2022 First Team All-NCAC pick Quinn Sholar and Second Team All-NCAC selection Mark Caster.
 
Derek Allen, Jr. and Penn Stoller received 2022 All-NCAC First Team selections at wide receiver and tight end, respectively. Cooper Sullivan garnered all-conference honors for the third consecutive season, earning Second Team honors in 2022 and 2019 and a First Team selection in 2021. Donovan Snyder starts at running back after earning Second Team All-NCAC honors in 2022 after picking up First Team honors in 2021. Starting quarterback Liam Thompson is a three-time all-conference selection and the two-time NCAC Offensive Player of the Year (2021 and 2022).
 
Wabash led all NCAA Division III teams in passing offense last season by averaging 363.5 yards per game. The Little Giants were second in total offense with an average of 535.5 yards per contest and ranked tenth in scoring offense with an average of 42.5 points per game.
 
Defensively, Second Team All-NCAC lineman Steven Thomas is back up front for Wabash. Defensive lineman Will Olive and linebacker Gavin Ruppert join Thomas as 2022 Third Team All-NCAC picks. Will Netting earned Honorable Mention All-NCAC honors in 2021 as a defensive back.
 
Senior tight end Penn Stoller earned a 2022 D3football.com Second Team All-America selection and picked up 20223 Preseason First Team honors. Stoller caught a team-best nine touchdowns last season to rank second in the conference and 42^nd among Division III receivers. His 691 receiving yards were third-best on the team and eighth-best in the conference. Stoller averaged 16.85 yards per reception in 2022, third-best by an NCAC player for the season.
 
Senior quarterback Liam Thompson enters his final season at Wabash as the Little Giants' second-leading passer in school history. Jake Knott threw for 11,213 passing yards while playing from 1999-2002. Thompson starts the season with 8,721 career passing yards for second on the Wabash career passing list and ranks fourth in North Coast Athletic Conference history. Thompson is third among active Division III quarterbacks in career passing yards, trailing fifth-year senior Braxton Plunk from Mount Union (11,611 yards) and Methodist senior QB Brandon Bullins (8,859 yards).
 
Thompson broke the Wabash and NCAC single-season passing record after throwing for 3,588 yards last season. His 34 touchdown passes in 2022 tied for the second-most in Wabash single-season history and the third-highest total in conference history.
 
Wabash won 12 consecutive season openers from 2007-2018 before the streak snapped in 2019 with a 31-28 loss at Wisconsin-Stevens Point. The Little Giants won its opening contests in the past two years. Wabash is 80-46-9 overall in season-opening games.
 
Hampden-Sydney Scouting Report:
Hampden-Sydney searches for its first victory against Wabash in The Gentlemen's Classic. The Tigers would also like to start Head Coach Marty Favret's final season with a win. Favret announced his retirement at the end of the 2023 season after 24 years as the H-SC head coach.
 
Hampden-Sydney produced 346 yards of offense in last year's 52-48 loss at Wabash. Melik Frost returns at running back for the Tigers after rushing for 101 yards and two scores on 17 attempts in 2022. Senior wide receiver Jamahdia Whitby caught three passes for 32 yards and hauled in one of four touchdown receptions for the Tigers in the contest. Austin Fernandez added three catches for 29 yards. H-SC threw for 346 yards and completed 28-of-41 passes with one interception and four sacks.
 
Either senior Andrew Puccinelli or sophomore Carter Sido will earn the start on Saturday. Puccinelli completed 66-of-94 passes for 646 yards and six TDs in 2022 as the backup to Tiger starter Tanner Bernard. Sido completed all three of his pass attempts for four yards.
 
Senior safety Will Pickren earned a place on the Associated Press All-America First Team, an AFCA DIII Second Team All-America selection, and a D3football.com 2023 Preseason All-America pick. He paced the Tigers with 123 total tackles and recorded two interceptions and five tackles for losses. Pickren made five tackles against the Little Giants last season. James-Ryan Salvi, a Second Team All-Old Dominion Athletic Conference pick in 2022, led the Hampden-Sydney defense with 15 tackles, including eight solos, in the 2022 game at Wabash. Senior linebacker Dorian Green made a team-high four sacks as part of his 70 tackles for the year. Senior co-captain Tramell Thompson played in all ten games for the Tigers last season and ranked fifth on the team with 39 tackles. The Tiger defense surrendered 663 yards of offense (271 rushing, 392 passing) last year when facing Wabash. The Little Giants averaged 5.4 yards a carry on the ground and 16.3 yards per completion against the H-SC defense.