Wooster quarterback Austin Holter has been a thorn in Wabash’s side the last two years.
His sophomore season, Holter rushed for 105 yards and passed for 129 in Wabash’s 21-10 victory at Wooster, Ohio. Last year, Holter rushed for 66 yards and passed for 286 in Wabash’s 45-24 victory at Crawfordsville.
The Little Giants this Saturday will focus on containing Holter as they travel to Wooster for a 1 p.m. kickoff.
“He is just too good of a player to stop,” Wabash coach Erik Raeburn said. “If you stack a bunch of guys in the box to stop the run, then he’s going to pass for 400 yards. And if you drop a bunch of guys back to stop the pass, then he’s going to run for 200 yards.”
With Holter averaging 228 passing yards and 87.2 rushing yards per game, Wooster comes into Saturday a perfect 3-0 in North Coast Athletic Conference action and 4-2 overall. The Fighting Scots join Wittenberg as the two remaining undefeated teams in league play.
The No. 18-ranked Little Giants are coming off their first loss of the season — a 10-7 setback to Wittenberg — and are 5-1 overall and 3-1 in league play entering Saturday. Quarterback Matt Hudson will miss his second consecutive game after being injured in the fifth week of the season against Washington - St . Louis.
Josh Miracle, who threw for 194 yards and one touchdown in the loss to Wittenberg, missed the first two days of practice this week because of the flu. He returned to practice Wednesday and expects to play Saturday.
Holter led the Fighting Scots to a come-from-behind 24-20 victory at Washington-St.Louis last Saturday. Down 24-20, Holter led Wooster on a 12-play, 79-yard drive that was capped with his 27-yard touchdown run.
Holter on the game-winning drive completed 5-of-6 passes for 38 yards and also rushed the pigskin five times for 46 yards. He finished the contest with a career-high 424 total yards, the third most in Wooster school history. He rushed for 152 yards and passed for 272 yards.
“He is the best quarterback we have faced this season and everything goes through him,” Raeburn said. “When you have a great passer that can also run the ball, it makes it easier on the other running backs to run the ball.”
Wooster is second in the conference with its average of 198.2 rushing yards per game. Complementing Holter is sophomore Robert Flagg, who is ninth in the conference with his average of 54.8 yards per game.
While Holter was able to move the football against Wabash last year, the Scots committed six turnovers — four of those Holter interceptions.
“Our focus has been on eliminating big plays,” Raeburn said. “We gave up too many explosive plays last year and let them rip off 30-yard runs and 40-yard passes. We were fortunate because we were able to get six turnovers against them.”
The Little Giants will look to establish the run game against the Scots, who rank ninth in the conference by allowing teams an average of 164 yards per game. Wabash was unable to get its ground game going against Wittenberg, finishing with only 42 yards.
“We wanted to run the ball last week, and we were very disappointed that we had no success running the ball,” Raeburn said. “We have a veteran offensive line, but last week we produced nothing in the running game.”
Saturday’s loss ended Wabash’s 20-game NCAC winning streak. Wabash has won 11 of its 13 meetings against Wooster, including the last four.
“The guys were disappointed because they put a lot of energy and effort into the game last week,” Raeburn said. “It was tough to swallow, but we have been practicing hard and are ready to go this weekend.”
