Last weekend the Allegheny football team played Oberlin College for the Bicenntenial Homecoming game, ending with a 37-9 loss.

“We had the yardage and our kicking game was good,” Coach Mark Matlak said. “In the second half our defense and offense execution had too many breakdowns.”

Ben Ziolkowski, ’17, said the team played well the first half but the game changed for them throughout the second half.

“Oberlin had some big plays and good players and the second half got away from us a little bit,” Ziolkowski said.

Keith Shawley, ’17, said Oberlin came in and was physical and ran plays Allegheny was not expecting.

Following the Wooster game on Oct. 11, the team was looking to improve and fix mistakes at the Oberlin game.

“We get more competitive with each game,” Ziolkowski said. “We are stringing good plays and quarters together, which was shown at the Hiram game.”
Matlak said he challenges the team to fix what they do wrong in games for the next week.

“We try to stay consistent in preparation,” Matlak said. “Some teams do not do well then drastically change their approach, but that’s not our style. I have a good feeling about what we are doing and we are making corrections.”

This season the team has worked to improve each game and won against Hiram. However, there is still negativity towards the team from other students.

“The negativity provides motivation for the team,” Ziolkowski said. “I believe that the football players are some of the hardest working kids on campus, between year round practices and balancing academics.”

However not everyone on the team feels the same way.

“The negativity from fellow students gets in the heads of some of the players and makes the team flustered,” Shawley said.

Even with negativity from around campus, the team is working on bettering themselves and playing each week to the best of their ability.

“The goal is always to win conference championships,” Matlak said. “Even with a 1-5 team that is the goal. We have to work to rise to that level of expectation by winning a game, then winning a season.”

Matlak said he has seen improvement from last year in each game.

“I am seeing progress and having the team play two or three quarters instead of just one is a huge improvement,” Matlak said.

Shawley said he is looking to improve as a team and play the entire game rather than just having a good half like the past few games.

“Hopefully we have four great quarters and win at home in front of our fans this week,” Ziolkowski said.

The football team will face DePauw University on Sat. Oct. 25, at 1 p.m. at Frank B. Fuhrer Field.