MARIETTA, Ohio — Marietta College went on the road and knocked off a ranked rival on Saturday, October 31, beating No. 24 Heidelberg 24-13 in Ohio Athletic Conference play in Tiffin, according to Heidelberg University Athletics.
Heidelberg (6-2, 4-2 OAC) scored first on its Senior Day at Hoernemann Stadium. Quarterback Alex Arledge fell into the end zone on a 1-yard push with 55 seconds left in the first quarter, and Gryffin Bradley’s extra point gave the Student Princes a 7-0 lead, Heidelberg Athletics reported in its account of the game.
The home team’s afternoon unraveled from there. Heidelberg Athletics described a day of uncharacteristic mistakes by the Student Princes — one early example came on the drive after the opening score, when Tai Peterson made a leaping interception of a Marietta pass deep in Heidelberg territory, only for the offense to come away with nothing.
Marietta (5-3, 4-3 OAC) took the game over and closed out an 11-point road win, its second straight victory. The Pioneers came into Saturday off a 49-28 Shrine Trophy win at Muskingum on October 24, a game in which defensive lineman Harper Scott was named the OAC Defensive Player of the Week, according to Marietta College Athletics — Scott recorded five tackles, two tackles for loss, a sack and a forced fumble in that rivalry win.
The result also tightened the OAC race in a way that reaches beyond Marietta. The Canton Repository reported that Heidelberg’s loss, paired with Mount Union’s 58-14 win at Ohio Northern on Saturday, gave Mount Union control of its own path to at least a share of the conference title and an NCAA Division III playoff berth.
For the Pioneers, in their first season under head coach Tom Hinkle, a road win over a Top 25 team is the clearest sign yet of the program’s direction — Marietta has now won at Muskingum and at Heidelberg in back-to-back weeks after a midseason stretch that included a six-point loss at Mount Union.
What happens next: Marietta returns home to Don Drumm Stadium to host Wilmington on Saturday, November 7, while Heidelberg regroups from its second conference loss with the OAC race no longer in its hands.
Photo: w_lemay, CC BY-SA 2.0