When all was said and done, it was a good way to go out.
After falling behind early, the Yeoman football team overcame four different deficits, a slew of penalties and some drizzly, miserable weather en route to a 30-22 victory over North Coast Athletic Conference rival Denison University in the season’s final game last Saturday.
“They say the last game’s the one you remember,” defensive end Steve Barlow, one of the team’s three seniors, said. “This is what I’m going to look back to the rest of my life.”
The win over the Big Red earned Oberlin a 3-7 overall record, its best since 1989, when the Yeomen were 4-6. Oberlin also finished in a tie with Ohio Wesleyan University for sixth in the NCAC with a 3-4 conference mark, the best since going 3-3 in 1984, the conference’s first year of play.
After a slow start, senior quarterback Chris Moffatt had one of the best games of his career on Saturday while running an option offense. He completed 17 of 30 pass attempts to compile 293 yards and three touchdowns through the air. Moffatt also got it done on the ground as the team’s leading rusher, gaining 64 yards (75 without sacks).
“I’d never run the option before, so it was nice to go out with something different,” he said.
The game opened with a truly ugly first half — it seemed neither team wanted to win for the first 25 minutes. Of Moffatt’s first seven pass attempts, six fell incomplete and one was intercepted. Oberlin went for the home run on the game’s first play, with Moffatt looking deep for sophomore wide receiver Scott Barker, but the ball was underthrown.
“The first half was just poor execution,” Moffatt said.
Punting was a particular difficulty for both teams, with bad snaps on each side. One bad snap could have cost Oberlin greatly as it sailed over junior punter Joseph Lourigan’s head. But Lourigan raced back to recover the ball, made a terrific play to avoid an oncoming rusher and got the kick off, even netting 12 yards. (Lourigan would later run for a first down after a bad long snap, but the play was called back due to a holding penalty.)
Denison, though, would put the game’s first points on the board late in the first quarter, on another bad snap. Denison had gotten a great punt off to pin the Yeomen at their own four. Oberlin was unable to gain any breathing room and on fourth down, the long snap waffled through the end zone and out for an automatic safety, giving the Big Red a 2-0 lead.
“They both snap the ball well,” head coach Jeff Ramsey said of Oberlin’s pair of long-snappers. “They just seem to go on spurts of not snapping it well. Thank goodness we were able to not dig ourselves a hole too deep.”

The level of play finally picked up toward the end of the half, as Denison was able to sustain a touchdown drive starting from its own 42 with just over five minutes to play. With their lead now 8-0, the Big Red opted to go for two. They ended up getting two chances as the Yeomen were flagged for pass interference on the first attempt, but the Yeomen came up with the stop on the second. The Big Red were also aided on the drive by an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against Oberlin, another of 14 penalties — many of them questionable — called against the Yeomen in the game. Six of those 14 were pass interference calls. Denison, on the other hand, was only flagged five times.
“At times I felt like we were playing against 13 or 14 guys out there,” Ramsey said of the lopsided penalty situation.
But the Yeomen didn’t let that stop them.
“Oberlin teams in the past have kind of folded in a situation like that,” Barlow said, “but we rose to the occasion and said, ‘we’re not going to let the refs beat us.’”
Sophomore Travis Oman’s 22-yard kickoff return gave the Yeoman the ball at their own 41 with 1:17 left to work with. In a situation where they have frequently opted to run out the clock, the Yeomen instead looked to points on the board. A holding penalty almost cost them their chance, but huge runs of 14 and 10 yards by Oman and Moffatt got them a first down at the Big Red 42 with just 18 seconds left to play.
One play later, Moffatt hit Barker coming across the middle and Barker ran it to the far corner of the end zone for the touchdown.
“I knew where Barker was going and I knew where the safety was going,” Moffatt said. “When I saw the linebackers drop I was drooling.”
The beautifully executed play got the team and the fans fired up, but their spirits were dampened some as Barker was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty when he flipped the ball to the official after the score. The penalty backed up the extra point try 15 yards.
“You got me,” Ramsey said when asked about the reasoning behind the penalty.
Willever, though, kicked it straight down the middle and got the benefit of a bounce — the ball hit the crossbar and went through to cut the lead to 8-7 at the end of the half.

Denison came out firing in the second half though, with Stoll hitting a 44-yard pass on the second play and then a 19-yard touchdown strike two plays later to reclaim an eight-point lead.
Oberlin had an answer, though. On Oberlin’s first play after the ensuing kickoff, Moffatt hit Barker on a quick slant for 14 yards. After a short run and an incomplete pass, Oberlin faced third and seven and went deep. Barker got some separation from the coverage and Moffatt threw a perfectly placed pass right in front of him, giving Barker a clear run to the end zone.
“The second half [Moffatt] came out and played football,” Ramsey said. “It was probably the best half I’ve seen by a quarterback since I’ve been here.”
That score cut the deficit to 15-14 and Oberlin grabbed its first lead of the game two plays later. Stoll, under heavy Oberlin pressure, put the ball into the hands of Oberlin first-year linebacker Vance Murphy, who had no one in his way as he ran the ball down the sideline for the defensive touchdown.
Denison got a huge field position boost late in the third when a Big Red defender came in unseen and forced a Moffatt fumble. Denison recovered at the Oberlin 22. The Yeomen had them at third and 12, but Stoll scrambled 15 yards for a first down and a late hit out of bounds penalty put them on the five. Stoll made a touchdown pass on the next play and the Big Red took the lead again, 22-21.
Sophomore Vinnie Hachigian put the Yeomen right back in good position with a 38-yard kickoff return. Moffatt hit Barker across the middle for 23 yards and then kept it for 11. After he was nearly called for intentional grounding on a second down play, Moffatt hit sophomore running back Chris Jordan for 10 yards. On first and goal from the 10 Moffatt took it to the two. On second down he faked a handoff, then threw to wide-open first-year tight end Shawn Brunner.
This time Oberlin went for two, hoping for a seven-point lead, but Moffatt and Oman fumbled the handoff attempt.
Denison got within scoring range on the ensuing drive thanks to another pass interference penalty, but junior safety Mark Lengal made a great play to pick off a Stoll pass in the end zone.
Moffatt led the Yeomen downfield to the six, where Willever nailed a big insurance field goal to make it 30-22 Oberlin, and Oberlin held on.

Moffatt completed 14 of his last 19 passes for 261 of his yards. Barker finished with 176 yards on eight catches to go with his two touchdowns, bumping him up to finish tops in the conference in receiving yards with 714.
Denison did a good job of containing Oberlin’s running back pair of Oman and Jordan, but Jordan caught four passes for 46 yards and Oman averaged four-yard a rush on his eight carries. It also opened the door for Moffatt’s big rushing day with the option offense.
In addition to his crucial interception, Murphy led the team in tackles with nine and was named NCAC Defensive Player of the Week for his outing against Denison. Hachigian tallied seven and a half, including two sacks (one assisted). And senior Steve Barlow went out with a bang recording two big sacks for 17 yards and another tackle for a loss, as well as keeping steady pressure on Stoll.
“He made a couple of plays in the backfield that were just great,” Ramsey said. “He was a dominant force on the line of scrimmage.”
The team’s only other senior, Devin Heatley, saw action on special teams, which was particularly special because “nobody thought he would play football again after his knee injury,” which occurred during the 2000 season, Ramsey said.
Barlow, Heatley and Moffatt got to finish their careers with a win at home as part of the best Oberlin team in over a decade.
“The second half was something to be proud of,” Moffatt said. “It was a great way to go out. It was great to have my girlfriend and my mom there.”
Both Moffatt and Heatley are now four-year letter winners.

In addition to his success on the field, Barlow was recognized last week for his achievements off the field. Barlow was named to the Verizon Academic All-District Second Team by the College Sports Information Directors of America. Barlow is a politics major carrying a 3.55 GPA and he plans to attend law school next year.
“I was able to play football and get a great education — it’s the best of both worlds,” he said.

The Yeomen finished fourth in the conference in passing offense even with key receiver sophomore Zach Lewis injured for most of the season, and they were first in red zone efficiency, scoring on 31 tries in 38 visits. Steve Willever was far and away the best NCAC field goal kicker, converting on 11 of 14 chances for the highest total and the best percentage.
Jordan and Oman combined for 1199 yards rushing, and Moffatt threw for 1522 over the season. Lengal and junior Ben Franz had four interceptions apiece, Murphy led the team in tackles with 65.5 and Barlow led the team with six sacks for a total loss of 40 yards.
Despite their successes, there is still a feeling of disappointment throughout the team.
“Even though we went 3-7, we had a good time,” Barlow said. “But we should have been 5-5, maybe even 6-4. It was good but not as good as it could have been.
Oberlin lost three games this year by a touchdown or less. An area that the Yeomen will seek to improve next year is winning close games.
They should be in good position to do that. While the team will certainly miss the leadership of its seniors, the Yeomen are only losing three players and will return 24 starters (kickers included). Next year will be the first time in several years that Oberlin has had any significant number of seniors, and a strong 2005 class will be coming into its own as juniors. Oberlin still has many needs — a lack of depth in particular — that will have to be filled by a strong recruiting year, but the Yeomen can be expected to continue to improve.
Barlow, reflecting on his two years in the Oberlin football program, said, “When I got here, I knew I was coming to a program that was turning around, but hadn’t made that first step. I hope I can look back and say that I helped turn it around.”