Wabash Suffers Second-Straight Loss, Falls to Fourth in NCAC Standings
After a devastating lastsecond loss to The College of Wooster (4-3, 3-3 NCAC), Wabash football fell in an overtime game to Ohio Wesleyan University (6-2, 5-2 NCAC). The team has lost two games in a row after starting undefeated through five games in the season. These games were certainly filled with offense as the teams combined for more than 1100 yards against Wooster, and just under 900 yards against OWU. That’s a net 2000+ yards in two contests, which has made for some high-scoring games in which the Little Giants fell just short in both.
Despite the close games and tough losses, there is still confidence among the football team that the guys can emerge from their previous struggles and get back to playing winning football. This response includes quarterback Liam Thompson ’24, who accepted responsibility in leading the team to success.
“I feel like it is the responsibility of the quarterback, captains, and leaders of the team to keep the guys going through adversity,” Liam Thompson ’24 said. “We hit a rough patch these last couple of weeks and I definitely feel like it’s on me to help the team stay positive.”
Thompson made it clear that his teammates are not afraid of adversity, and they are aware that the problems will not go away if they are not addressed. And as a leader he feels it is his job to stand with his guys and solve these problems.
Thompson also focused on the team’s upcoming game against Kenyon, who sits towards the bottom of the NCAC standings. “Going into this week we’re most focused on cleaning up the mistakes we’ve had in all three phases of the game and working to get back on track for the final third of the season,” he said. “We are working to play our best game each and every week so we can be playing our best football at the end of the year.”
This response had hints of Head Coach Don Morel’s philosophy in football, which consists of focusing on the task at hand and not getting ahead to other weeks before you fix the mistakes for the current week.
“Our attitude going forward is to just learn from our failures and continue to improve and go 1-0 this week,” Thompson continued. “We can’t necessarily control where the chips fall as far as conference and playoffs, but that doesn’t change the fact that we have three big games left, including the Bell game, which is one of our highest goals as a team. We are staying positive and excited for this week.”
This idea of consistent progression shows resiliency after coming off of two tough losses in a row, and it certainly helps when dealing with a team that is coming close to the end of the season. This is a good sign for the Wabash football fans that the team will keep giving it 100 percent no matter what happens, even if they can’t control outside elements.
Thompson was also quick to shut down any slander coming to his defense after the two high-scoring games that the team has had, knowing that it does not all fall on one unit of the team. “I would say that if you watch the tape from the last two weeks we had a ton of opportunities as an offense that we let slip away and by no means do those games fall on the defense,” he said. “I have full confidence in our defense going forward and my personal priority is to clean up my own mistakes and our offense’s mistakes so we can finish the season strong and win out.”
Wabash (5-2, 4-2 NCAC) travels to Gambier, Ohio for a matchup against Kenyon (2-5, 2-4 NCAC) this Saturday at 1 p.m. It is clear that the guys have no intention of giving up on the season, so expect to see another steady uphill trend leading into the coming weeks. Thompson made it clear that the team intends to put in the work to fix their current issues, and they don’t look to make any excuses during this time either. The Little Giants expect to return to their winning ways, and with the Monon Bell rivalry matchup against DePauw in two weeks, hopefully sooner than later.