The Little Giants took a 14-0 lead on two touchdown passes from Jake Knott (Lafayette, IN/Jefferson) to Kurt Casper (Greenwood, IN/Center Grove) of five and eight yards in the first half. A safety and a 28-yard Todd Bower (Indianapolis, IN/Speedway) field goal gave Wabash a 19-0 halftime lead.
Earlham scored a touchdown in the third to cut the lead to 19-7 before Bower added a 45-yard field goal. Knott put his third score on the board with a 29-yard run midway through the fourth quarter to put the Little Giants in front 29-7. Wabash answered one final Earlham score with a 21-yard TD pass from Knott to Matt Piechocki (Evansville, IN/North Posey) to finish the game.
Knott threw for 296 yards, connecting on 28 of his 54 pass attempts. The sophomore has 3,910 passing yards in his 16-game career, moving him past Steve Hoffman and into fifth place on the Wabash career passing list. Casper finished with 13 receptions for 135 yards and two touchdowns. He moved past Jamie Bowers and into 14th place on the career receiving yardage list with 1,353.
The Wabash defense continued its stingy efforts against the run, holding Earlham to 20 yards on 38 attempts. The Little Giants recorded eight sacks for -41 yards and had 12 tackles for loss in the game. Wabash also benefited from two bad punt snaps, with one going out of the endzone for a safety in the second quarter. Treven Upkes (Springfield, OR/Springfield) led the Little Giant defense with 13 tackles, three for losses , and one sack for five yards. Last week's North Coast Athletict Conference Defensive Player of the Week Ryan Freeman (Delphi, IN/Delphi) had nine tackles with three for losses of 11 yards. B.J. Hammer (Carmel, IN/Carmel) added 2.5 sacks to his season totals along with a fumble recovery, two tackles for losses, and five tackles. The Wabash defense came up with three turnovers, while the Little Giant offense did not turn the ball over for the second consecutive game.
Wabash moves to 4-2, 3-1 in the NCAC. The Little Giants travel to Hiram, Ohio on Saturday to play the Terriers. Kickoff is at 12:30 p.m. (EST).