For the fourth straight football season, the Rhine River Cup will remain in Tiffin, Ohio, as the Otterbein Cardinals (2-2, 2-1) lost to the Heidelberg Student Princes (3-1, 2-1) by a score of 45-28.
Otterbein, leading by a touchdown at the halftime break, played a game of two completely different halves. The Cardinals offense stalled, getting shut out in the second half, while Heidelberg scored three touchdowns and a field goal.
“They started making plays,” third-year head football coach Tim Doup said. “If you take 10 minutes out of this game it’s a completely different game. In the second half we were playing not to lose. We were going into cruise control and you can’t do that against an explosive team.”
The first three Otterbein touchdowns in the first half came from junior running back Drew Irvin, who scored them from the 25, two and one yard lines, respectively. He now stands at six touchdowns on the season, second most in the Ohio Athletic Conference. With one minute and 34 seconds left in the half, senior quarterback Brick Davis added a 17-yard touchdown pass, giving senior receiver Ryan Thombs his first collegiate touchdown.
The Otterbein offense managed to limit Heidelberg’s All-American running back Cartel Brooks to just 69 yards on 18 carries. Brooks had over 300 yards and five touchdowns against Otterbein a season ago.
However, after halftime, momentum switched from the Cardinals to the Student Princes. Davis threw two interceptions. After only allowing one quarterback sack in the first half, the Otterbein offensive line gave up four sacks in the second half. A bad snap on a punt resulted in Otterbein turning the ball over to Heidelberg on the Otterbein 16-yard line.
Heidelberg senior quarterback Michael Mees, who was the OAC’s reigning offensive player of the week, put on a passing clinic throwing for 318 yards and six touchdowns. He was not sacked once in the game. Two of his touchdowns went to team-leading receiver Donteea Dye. Another went 79 yards to Michael’s brother, James Mees.
“The problem comes down to blown coverages,” Doup said on behalf of his defensive backs. “All three of their long touchdowns were because of blown coverage. And you can’t do that against a good team like Heidelberg.”
Individually for the Cardinals, junior defensive back Josh Bichsel played the most outstanding game of his career, leading Otterbein with 11 tackles and intercepting Michael Mees in the first half. Sophomore Reid Hutchison was the game’s leading rusher with 94 yards on 16 carries.
Otterbein’s next game will be against rival Capital (2-2, 1-2) under the lights at Memorial Stadium. The Crusaders are coming off a 75-0 home loss to Mount Union. The game will kickoff at 7:00 p.m on Saturday, Oct. 11. You can listen to it on 97.5 WOBN with coverage starting at 6:30 p.m.
