Wabash College senior running back Chris Morris (Zionsville, IN/Zionsville) made Senior Day a special one at Byron P. Hollett Little Giant Stadium on Saturday afternoon, running for a career-high 240 yards to lead Wabash to an 81-0 win over the Hiram Terriers.
Morris moved into second place on the Wabash career rushing chart, carrying for 3,145 yards in four seasons. He is now just 88 yards away from setting the all-time Little Giant rushing record of 3,232 yards set by Daryl Johnson '82. Morris also ran for four TDs in the game against the Terriers, equaling his career-best mark for TDs in a game.
It was a day of firsts and records for 14 seniors who played their final contest in front of the home fans at Wabash. Morris, Josh Bronaugh (New Ross,IN/North Montgomery), Stu Johnson (West Lafayette,IN/Harrison),Val Benoit (LaJoya,TX/LaJoya), Adan Garcia (Brownsville,TX/Homer Hanna), Dustin DeNeal (Muncie,IN/Delta), Artie Montes (Mission,TX/Mission),Olmy Olmstead (Alexandria,OH/Granville), Nick Fanelli (Crown Point,IN/Lake Central), Blair Hammer (Carmel,IN/Carmel),Nick Dawson (LaFontaine,IN/Southwood),Tony Warren (Apple Valley,MN/Cretin Derham Hall), Alex Barefoot (Yorktown,IN/Yorktown), and Dan Loth (Goshen, IN/Concord Community) won their 22nd conference game and moved their home game winning streak to 15 with the victory.
DeNeal had his best day as a quarterback for the Little Giants, finishing 5-of-8 passing for 69 yards, including his first career TD toss on a 14-yard pass to Brandon Clifton (Lafayette, IN/McCutcheon). Olmstead, a senior kicker, put nine extra point attempts through the uprights, but scored his biggest points of the season in the opening drive of the fourth quarter. Olmstead, who has spent the entire year practicing as both a kicker and an H-back, scored his first career touchdown on a two-yard run with 13:48 left in the contest.
Freshman running back Aaron Lafitte (Goodyear, AZ/Ironwood) reached another rushing milestone, breaking the Wabash freshman rushing record. The rookie tailback ran for 125 yards and three TDs, giving him 907 for the season to break the previous mark of 800 set by Tim Oliver '91 in 1987. Sophomore Tim Barnes (Indianapolis, IN/Northwest) scored his first career touchdown with a 41-yard punt return late in the contest. Fellow sophomore Eric Summers (Indianapolis, IN/Cathedral) added a 49-yard TD catch from sophomore quarterback Russ Harbaugh (Evansville, IN/Evansville Bosse) in the first quarter.
Johnson and Fanelli led the defense for the second consecutive week in tackles. Johnson finished with seven, while Fanelli added six. Montes had one of four interceptions for the Little Giants. Billy King (Peoria, AZ/Peoria), Josh Foster (Indianapolis, IN/Ben Davis), and Ralston Carter (Crowley, TX/Crowley) added the others. Junior Dustin Deno (Lafayette, IN/Jefferson) had his fourth blocked kick of the season.
Wabash racked up 611 yards of total offense, just 12 yards away from the school record. The 81 points by the Little Giants were the most scored since a 102-0 victory over Moore’s Hill in 1912.
Wabash moves to 6-3 with the win and finishes the season 4-2 in the North Coast Athletic Conference. The Little Giants will travel to Greencastle, Indiana next Saturday to play DePauw University in the 110th Monon Bell Classic. Kickoff for the nationally televised game will be at 1:07 p.m.