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Pioneers’ dominant defense overwhelms Comets

By Jordan Holland 6 min read

MARIETTA -- Behind a defense that was in command from start to finish and an offense that finally got rolling in the second half, Marietta College pulled away for a 32-10 victory over Capital on Saturday at Don Drumm Stadium.

The Pioneer defense swarmed the Comets for four quarters, surrendering just 140 total yards of offense. Capital had 14 possessions in the game, resulting in seven punts, two safeties, two turnovers-on-downs, a lost fumble, a blocked field goal and a successful field goal. The Comets' lone touchdown came on a 97-yard kick return by Bailey Johnson.

"They've been lights out all year long," said Marietta head coach Tim Hinkle. "Even the field goal they gave up was a short field. Those guys were lights out all day long. They are the rock of this team right now. We've leaned heavily on them, and now we've got to get them some more help."

On a day where there were numerous defensive standouts, nobody shined brighter than linebacker Lukas Ratliff. Ratliff produced a pair of highlight-reel plays, both of which led to safeties.

"He is a freak athlete," Hinkle said of Ratliff, a 6-foot-3, 215-pound senior. "He's one of the best athletes I've ever been around and had the ability to coach, with how big he is, how well he can move and how long he is. He makes plays all over the field."

With 6:33 left in the third quarter, Capital quarterback Tyler Love dropped back into his own end zone. Ratliff came free on a blitz and laid a massive blindside hit on Love, jarring the ball free. Marietta tried to fall on it, but the ball squirted out of the back of the end zone for two points.

"Coach (Austin Cordova) called a great play there," Ratliff said. "I have to give the credit to him. I just made the play. He sent me out there to make it, and I made it. It was a great play. I wish we would've recovered it, but no, it was awesome."

Then, with 13:32 left in the fourth, the Comets lined up to punt from their own end zone. Ratliff timed up the snap, got around a chip block and got his mitts on the ball, which ricocheted out of the back of the end zone yet again.

That was the second time a Capital punt attempt went awry in the contest. Earlier in the third, Jensen Petro was back for the punt but dropped the snap. By the time he picked it up, Theo Talbott was there to strip it from him, and Drew Neal came up with the recovery. Three plays later, Joe Tenta threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Payton Newman to make it 22-10.

"We played lights out," Ratliff said. "Cap was a good team, but we played lights out. We were disciplined in how we played. We did our job today. That was our emphasis this week was doing our job, and that's what happened. Only let up three points, and they were in their own territory. That's pretty good."

Another slow start by the MC offense had things looking bleak at halftime as the Pioneers trailed 10-9. However, Tenta found a rhythm in the third quarter to change the narrative. The junior QB finished 26 for 42 for 361 yards and three touchdowns -- one each to Newman, Dalton Miller and Matthew Krutowskis.

"(Tenta) is great when he gets comfortable and has a lot of confidence," Hinkle said. "It's just getting to that point in the game where he's playing with that confidence sooner."

He was intercepted twice, once apiece by Malon Paige and Jio Rodriguez, the latter giving the Comets the ball at Marietta's 26 and resulting in the first points of the game, a 30-yard field goal by Petro. That and Johnson's kick return to the house were the only scoring plays of the day for Capital, which had started the season 2-0.

Love finished 12 for 33 passing for 85 yards. The Capital running game had 30 attempts for just 55 yards.

The Pioneers improved to 2-1 and will hit the road for the first time next week when they visit Otterbein. Miller caught nine passes for 98 yards for Marietta. Benny Lewis led the Pioneer ground game with 88 yards on 22 carries. Despite the anemic first half, Marietta finished with 511 yards of total offense.

"When your back's against the wall, there's two types of people -- people who give up and people who keep fighting forward," Hinkle said. "We definitely have a group that keeps fighting."

Antwon Johnson had a rushing touchdown in the contest for Marietta while Nathaniel Demuth made a 20-yard field goal at the end of the first half. However, special teams miscues were a theme again this week. In addition to the kick return TD allowed, the Pioneers had a field goal attempt blocked and were unsuccessful on two PAT tries. They're 6 for 10 on PATs and 1 for 5 on field goal tries in 2026.

"We've got to find out how to get these guys to start off fast," Hinkle said. "Once we get rolling, we're a really dangerous team, but we stop ourselves and we shoot ourselves in the foot. We had way too many turnovers and errors on special teams once again. Those are things that are going to cost us against really good football teams."

As they say, better to learn those lessons in a win than a loss.

"This is a big step compared to last week," Ratliff said. "We just got to get it rolling. The defense really picked it up today. We just got to get the gears going and we'll be fine."

Contact Jordan Holland at jholland@newsandsentinel.com.

At Don Drumm Stadium

Marietta College 32, Capital 10

C (2-1) 0 10 0 0 -- 10

M (2-1) 0 9 15 8 -- 32

C: Jensen Petro 30 field goal, 4:26 2nd

M: Matthew Krutowskis 27 pass from Joe Tenta, kick blocked, 2:12 2nd

C: Bailey Johnson 97 kick return, Petro kick, 2:01 2nd

M: Demuth 20 field goal, :05 2nd

M: Dalton Miller 4 pass from Tenta, pass failed, 10:55 3rd

M: Payton Newman 25 pass from Tenta, James Cornwell kick, 8:07 3rd

M: Safety, fumble out of end zone, 6:33 3rd

M: Safety, punt block out of end zone, 13:32 4th

M: Antwon Johnson 3 run, kick failed, 2:38 4th

Team stats

Capital: First downs: 8; Rushes-yards: 30-55; Passing yards: 85; Total yards: 140; Passing: 12-33-0; Fumbles-lost: 3-1; Penalties-yards: 9-78; Punts-average: 8-32.4

Marietta: First downs: 24; Rushes-yards: 44-150; Passing yards: 361; Total yards: 511; Passing: 26-42-2; Fumbles-lost: 2-2; Penalties-yards: 6-60; Punts-average: 4-42.2

Individual stats

Capital: Rushing: Brandon Hambric 11-48; Zion Solomon 7-11; Tyler Love 6-(-2); Passing: Love 12-33-0, 85 yards; Receiving: Preston Hannika 5-35; Finn Devine 3-31; Cody McCoy 1-10

Marietta: Rushing: Benny Lewis 22-88; Zion Jackson-Wilborn 7-21; Isaiah Mitchell 4-15; Cayden Carroll 6-9; Antwon Johnson 2-7, TD; Nas Foster 1-7; Joe Tenta 2-3; Passing: Tenta 26-42-2, 361 yards, 3 TDs; Receiving: Dalton Miller 9-98, TD; Chrys Taylor 5-70; Mitchell 2-53; Payton Newman 2-50, TD; Matthew Krutowskis 1-27, TD; Johnson 3-24; Foster 2-17; Lewis 1-12; Louis Goodnow 1-10

Next match: Marietta at Otterbein, 2 p.m. Saturday

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