GAMBIER, Ohio – The Kenyon College football team got off to a great start in Saturday's Homecoming game against the No. 14-ranked Wittenberg University Tigers. Their momentum, however, was snapped by a couple of turnovers and the host Lords faded in the second half, falling 48-11.

Kenyon took the opening kickoff and marched down the field against the Tigers. Starting from their own 24, the Lords consistently completed short, quick passes with a high degree of success. The drive covered 10 plays and 76 yards. It included passes of 15 yards or less from sophomore quarterback Thomas Merkle to receivers Ian Robertson, Ian Bell, Brandon Byrd and Justin Bosch. The drive ended on a 26-yard scoring strike from Merkle to Robertson. Josh Abrams then ran in the two-point conversion and the Lords owned an early 8-0 lead.

Wittenberg (3-0, 2-0 NCAC) went three-and-out on its first possession, so the Lords were looking to add on to their lead. The Tigers had other plans. When Merkle went back to pass on second down, defensive lineman Chandler Ferko had a clean run at him. Merkle tried to get rid of the ball quickly, but Ferko got his arms up made the interception, taking the ball down to the Kenyon eight-yard line. One play later, quarterback Jake Kennedy dashed into the end zone, cutting Kenyon's lead down to one point.

Kenyon (0-4, 0-3 NCAC) moved the ball on its next two possessions, but stalled both times near midfield. In between those two possessions, Wittenberg got another Kennedy touchdown run. This time from nine yards out to give the Tigers a 14-8 lead.

In the second quarter, the Lords continued to hang with the Tigers. After Wittenberg scored again, this time on an eight-yard run from DeShawn Sarley, Kenyon answered with a 16-play, 67-yard drive that ended with a 35-yard Ryan Cooper field goal.

Now trailing 21-11, Kenyon was hoping to carry a good vibe into halftime. Again, however, the Tigers burst the Lords' bubble. They put together a six-play 67-yard drive in one minute and scored another touchdown with just two seconds left on the first-half play clock.

The Tigers' 28-11 lead at halftime grew to 38-11 after three quarters of play and then to 48-11 in the fourth. Kenyon had 207 total yards of offense in the first half and that included 201 yards through the air. In the second half, the Lords threw for just 40 yards and only managed 20 yards of total offense due to three Wittenberg sacks and three other Kenyon plays that went for negative yardage. For the game, Kenyon was held to -14 rushing yards on 20 attempts.

In the air, Merkle finished 33-of-55 for 241 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions. Robertson collected a dozen of those passes and turned them into 107 yards and the first-quarter touchdown. Bell had eight catches for 57 yards and Byrd had six grabs for 37 yards.

Kennedy was 16-of-29 for 249 yards and two touchdowns for the Tigers. Back-up quarterback Ryan Fallon threw one pass and it went for a 25-yard touchdown to Tyler Everidge, who wound up with two catches for 70 total yards. Jeff Tiffner led all Wittenberg receivers with eight catches, 99 yards and two touchdown catches. On the ground, Sarley racked up 82 rushing yards on 12 carries as the Tigers posted 477 yards of total offense.

Although the Tigers offense was tough to stop, Kenyon senior safety Curt Williams did his part, amassing a game-high 22 tackles to go along with three pass break-ups.

Kenyon is on a bye next weekend and will return to competition October 7 to host Ohio Wesleyan University.