NEW CONCORD, Ohio – The Capital University football team traveled over to Muskingum University on Saturday afternoon where they defeated the Muskies for the first time since 2018 with a 36-25 victory.
The win propels the Comets to 3-2 on the season and 2-2 in the OAC, while Muskingum falls to 0-5 and 0-4 in the conference.
The story of the day for Capital proved to be a late run of defensive stops and turnovers as well as special teams coming through with much needed insurance when needed most. Ultimately, the Comets blocked two punts with one resulting in a touchdown and scored a kickoff return TD on a Muskingum onside kick attempt to seal the win.
HOW IT HAPPENED
After a strong opening drive defensively, Capital got the ball around midfield for their first possession on a Muskingum punt. On that opening drive, Capital got in the end zone as
Tyler Love connected with
Dareal King over the top for a 53-yard touchdown score. The touchdown catch for King marked the first in his career.
After the Comets went ahead, Muskingum responded with a pair of touchdowns with the second PAT sailing no good, bringing the score to 13-7 Muskies early in the second quarter. That score would hold through to halftime.
Into the third quarter, Muskingum found the end zone again to go up 19-7, but again they missed the extra point as this time
Declan McAdams broke through to block the kick.
That score would hold into the fourth quarter as a huge defensive turnover yielded the Comets' next score. First,
AJ Adams stripped the Muskie quarterback and recovered the fumble on the 16-yard line, giving Capital a short field. In just three plays, Cap found the score as
Tyler Love passed nine yards to
Preston Hannika.
Ethan Graham's PAT made it 19-14.
Then, on Capital's next defensive possession, the Comets forced a Muskie punt deep in their own territory. On the punt,
Dominic Perella jumped in front of the kick for the block and recovered the loose ball before carrying it into the end zone to put Capital in front 20-19. Capital then connected on the two-point conversion to go up 22-19 as Love passed to
Wesley Armstead.
Capital then added to their lead on their next possession as they would score on a fourth down play that saw Love connect with
Trent Renz from four yards out. Graham connected on the PAT, making it a 10-point game with 2:06 left.
As Muskingum tried to find a way back into the game, they would score again, bringing it to 29-25, but on the ensuing onside kick attempt by Muskingum,
Preston Hannika stepped into the ball and returned it 60 yards for an important insurance score. Graham knocked in the PAT to put the Comets back up 36-25.
On the following kickoff, the Comets iced the game as
Lindsley Emile forced a fumble on the return and
Diamonte Salley recovered it to give Capital the ball and time to run down the clock for the final score of 36-25.
THE NUMBERS
Tyler Love passed for 170 yards and three scores on 16 completions. He added 19 yards on the ground as well.
Preston Hannika and
Finn Devine led the way with five catches each with Hannika recording 40 yards and a touchdown while Devine recorded 25 yards.
Xavier Rodriguez tallied two catches for 42 yards, while
Dareal King,
Trent Renz, Jojo Ahon and
Wesley Armstead all recorded one catch each. King and Renz both scored TDs on their catches.
On the ground,
Zion Solomon and
Xavier Rodriguez each recorded 61 yards of rushing. Ahon rushed the ball three times and
Cobi Stevens carried it twice as well.
On defense,
Marcus Young Jr. and
AJ Conti led the way with seven tackles each.
Bailey Johnson and
Olaoluwa Obayemi each made six stops, followed by
AJ Adams who had five stops.
Capital was strong getting to the Muskies behind the line as the Comets recorded five sacks and 16 TFLs. Adams led the way with two sacks, while Conti, Johnson and
Declan McAdams had one sack each. McAdams recorded 2.5 TFLs total to lead that category.
Capital forced two fumbles with Adams and
Lindsley Emile each forcing one while Adams and
Diamonte Salley each had a fumble recovery.
Special teams came up big on the day as the Comets blocked a PAT and two punts with McAdams,
Markus Mealy and
Dominic Perella all recording a block. Perella's block resulted in his touchdown on the recovery in the end zone.
Also on special teams,
Ethan Graham was a perfect 4-for-4 on PATs, the Comets converted a two-point conversion and
Preston Hannika returned an onside kickoff 60 yards for a touchdown.
UP NEXT
Capital will return back home as they welcome Mount Union to Bernlohr Stadium on October 17th. Kickoff is set for 1:30 p.m.
