Marietta College’s Taz Morris (11) carries the ball during Saturday’s game against Baldwin Wallace at Don Drumm Stadium. (Photo by Rebecca Wheeler)

MARIETTA — Saturday afternoon was not only Homecoming day for Marietta College but also a history making day for the Pioneers.

Marietta rolled to a 47-7 win over Baldwin-Wallace to improve to 7-0 for the first time in the storied history of the college.

The dominating win was just another one in a season full of them as the Pioneers have scored at least 35 points and allowed no more than 14 in all seven of their games.

“We have got a great group of seniors that care about each other and lead the right way by example and sacrifice,” said Pioneer 12th year head coach Andy Waddle. “They demand a lot from the underclassmen but they care about them first and that’s not normal. This is a special group.”

The Marietta defense gave a glimpse of what was to come on a beautiful Saturday afternoon at Don Drumm Stadium as they not only stopped the Yellow Jackets but they forced them to lose 12 yards on their opening possession thanks to a sack by senior Chance Knight.

The Pioneers were unable to get anything accomplished on their first possession as well but the defense quickly got the ball back in the hands of the offense when Sal Laure intercepted a Charlie Bubonics pass at the Marietta 42-yard line.

Later in the first quarter the Pioneer offense began to find its rhythm as they drove 59 yards on just five plays to take a 7-0 lead.

A 37-yard pass from Connor Vierstra to Dawson Snyder moved the ball deep into Jacket territory and two plays later Vierstra connected with Vante’ Hodges on a swing-pass that turned into a 23-yard touchdown for the home team.

A Jake Visnik sack brought a short conclusion to the next BW drive and once again the Pio offense responded by getting points on the board.

Completions of 18 and 29 yards from Vierstra to Snyder quickly moved the ball deep into Yellow Jacket territory before it stalled at the nine-yard line.

The Pioneers were prepared to kick a field goal but got a huge break when the ‘Jackets jumped offsides giving the Pioneers a first down and goal at the 4-yard line.

Taz Morris got the call on back-to-back plays with the second one pushing the ball into the end zone for the second MC score of the game.

The PAT attempt was no good leaving the Pioneers with a 13-0 lead.

The next BW possession resulted in a similar result as a tackle for loss by Anthony Sabatino keyed yet another three-and-out and put the ball back into the hands of the dangerous Pioneer offense.

Once again a pair of connections of 16 and 31 yards respectively between Vierstra and Snyder moved the ball into the red zone where Vierstra found Morris on a 6-yard touchdown pass as the Pioneers began to put some distance between themselves and the Yellow Jackets.

Baldwin Wallace answered by putting together its best drive of the half as they moved the ball to the Pioneer 18 but that drive was thwarted once again when Brady Pannuci intercepted a pass at the goal line and returned it to the Marietta 35-yard line.

After a Pioneer penalty pushed the ball back to their own 20 they found themselves needing to march 80 yards in less than two minutes to try and add to their lead before the end of the half.

Vierstra used all of his receivers on the final drive of the half as he connected not only with Snyder on a 15-yard pass but a 14-yarder to Jay Melchiori and another 14-yard flip to Zion Jackson-Wilborn to move the ball deep into BW territory once again.

With just four seconds left on the clock before half Viersta and the Pioneer offense scored for the fourth consecutive time when freshman tight end Quinn Brown pulled in a 15-yard pass from Vierstra that he somehow threaded through triple coverage to give Marietta a commanding 27-0 lead at half.

Both teams traded punts to begin the second half but on Marietta’s second drive of the half they marched an impressive 97 yards in eight plays with a pair of 34-yard passes from Vierstra to Melchiori setting up a 3-yard plunge by Jackson-Wilborn to give Marietta a 34-0 lead.

Baldwin Wallace would not come close to reaching the end zone until they finally managed to score a touchdown in the closing 10 seconds of the game.

The Pios scored their sixth and seventh touchdowns of the game on a 7-yard pass from Vierstra to Snyder and a 7-yard run by Larson Brown.

Vierstra played like the leader Waddle knows he has become as he made his 37th start in a Pioneer uniform.

“He’s learned how to be poised and he has worked so hard to become the player that he is,” said Waddle. “We’ve raised expectations for him and he has raised expectations for our program through his work ethic and his consistency.”

Vierstra completed 24-of-36 pass attempts for 363 yards and four touchdowns.

Among those 24 completions, 10 of them went to Snyder for 181 yards while six more went to Melchiori for 107 more.

“I think they are both All-OAC type players and they showed it today,” said Waddle. “They are very good and I’m proud of the way they played today.”

The Marietta defense continued its streak of not allowing a point all season long in the opening period while also limiting Baldwin Wallace to just 192 total yards in the game.

“We have some incredibly talented players like Chance Knight who is just an animal on the inside and as good a player as there is on the inside in Division III,” said Waddle. “He’s got Harley Hopkins and a bunch of other good guys behind him and I think our guys just do a great job of understanding where they fit into the scheme.”

The win was the 12th in a row dating back to last season for the Pioneers which is tied with Army for the second longest current streak in the NCAA.

It also allowed the Pioneers to stay even with Mount Union at the top of the Ohio Athletic Conference with a perfect 6-0 record.

Marietta will travel to Mount Union in two weeks but first must set its focus on Wilmington next Saturday back at Don Drumm.

“We try to focus on one game at a time and being 1-0,” said Waddle, whose team closes its regular season with the home game against Wilmington followed by enormous road tests at Mount Union and John Carroll. “We have some goals beyond that but our daily talk is about being 1-0.”

With a crowd of more than 4,000 in attendance Waddle hopes to see even more next Saturday when Marietta closes out the home portion of its season.

“We will have the challenge of Wilmington next week here at home and if you haven’t come out and seen the Pioneers yet, please do,” said Waddle. “We are on the verge of doing something special.”

Glenville State 37, West Liberty 14

GLENVILLE – De Vante Roberson’s 35-yard pick-6 capped Glenville State’s 37-14 Mountain East Conference victory versus West Liberty here Saturday afternoon at Morris Stadium.

The G-men (4-4, 4-2) of head coach Mike Kellar, who play next Saturday at Wheeling, held a 16-7 halftime cushion and forced five turnovers in the affair.

WLU (2-6, 2-4), which welcomes in Charleston next Saturday, went for it on fourth-and-5 at the Pioneer 34 on the first series of the game, but quarterback Levi Gullion was sacked by Jamair Diaz.

However, GSU signal-caller Anthony Garrett was then picked off by Trent Crawford, who returned it 82 yards to the 1. Hunter Patterson took it in from there and it was 7-0 Hilltoppers at 8:15 of the first following Tyler Waddell’s extra point.

The hosts trimmed the deficit to 7-3 via a 26-yard field goal from Brody Layman at the 3:53 mark.

Head coach Roger Waialae’s squad found itself trailing 16-7 at intermission after Garrett had touchdown strikes of 37 yards to Amari Colon-Brown and 7 yards to Tariq Miller, who finished with three catches for a game-high 79 yards.

West Liberty cut the deficit to 16-14 early in the third following Patterson’s 11-yard touchdown catch from Alex Dunlevy, but Zay Wood’s 5-yard TD burst made it 23-14 entering the fourth.

The visitors had the ball second-and-10 from the Pioneer 14 early in the fourth, but Dunlevy was picked off by Isaiah Macklin, who returned it 60 yards to the Hilltopper 30. However, three plays later DJ Johnson intercepted Garrett, but the G-men got the ball right back when Gullion fumbled and Marion Lawson pounced on it.

That led to Mark Rucker’s 2-yard TD run, which made it 30-14 just 42 ticks into the fourth.

GSU managed a quartet of sacks on the afternoon. Diaz was joined with a sack apiece by Tank Gant (fumble recovery), Joshua Carr (forced fumble) and Anthony Bachinski.

Aside from Macklin’s and Roberson’s picks, Elias Ofosu also had an interception in the victory.

Garrett finished 12 of 22 for 208 yards with the three TDs and a pair of INTs. Wood (15-60) and Rucker (10-44) led the ground attack.

Dunlevy hit on 10 of 16 for 114 yards with Ben Turner (7-66) doing the most damage. Patterson finished with 17 carries and 76 yards.