Marietta football visits Thiel Saturday for 2008 season opener
Marietta (0-0, 0-0 OAC) at Thiel (0-0, 0-0 PAC)
1:30 p.m. • Saturday, Sept. 6 • Alumni Stadium

Sept. 3, 2008
MARIETTA, Ohio — The 2008 Marietta College football season begins Saturday (Sept. 6), when the Pioneers make the trek to Greenville, Pa., to take on Thiel College. Kickoff with the Tomcats is slated for 1:30 p.m. at Alumni Stadium. The Pioneers will attempt to win their season opener for the eighth time in nine years and give Jeff Filkovski a win in his first game as a collegiate head coach. [Complete Game Notes (.pdf)]

Here is a look at both teams:

Thiel College: Led by eighth-year head coach Jack Leipheimer, the 2008 Thiel College football team looks to bounce back from its first sub-.500 record in four years. Junior Willie Bova, who started six games for the Tomcats a season ago, returns under center in 2008 after throwing for 902 yards and three touchdowns. Senior Tim Van Horn and junior Brendan Taylor are expected to lead the receiving corps. Senior Dan Hess, who is already ranked among Thiel's top runners of all-time, will be the work horse out of the backfield. He rushed for 867 yards and 11 TDs in 2007. Senior Jeremiah Wagner returns at fullback, while junior Dan Mackall is back at tight end in 2008. Junior guard J.R. Kenna and senior tackle Ryan Jordan will anchor the right side of the line. Five others will be battling for the remaining three spots on the line.

Senior Sam Swartzfager will lead the defense at outside linebacker after pacing the team with 84 hits last fall. Junior Mike Clemens, who added 41 stops, is the favorite to start at middle linebacker. Senior safety Matt Joy will anchor the defensive backfield in 2008. He had 37 stops and one interception in 2007. Senior Tom Butera returns at left corner, while Bryan Villegas and Joe Stenger will split time at right corner. Senior Matt Turek is the lone starter back on the defensive line. Garret Anderson will begin the season as the team's kicker.

Marietta College: The 2008 Marietta College football team will once again go to battle each week against some of the toughest Division III foes in the country. This fall, first-year Head Coach Jeff Filkovski will be leading the Pioneers' plan of attack and his experience as both a player and coach has Marietta primed for a successful fight. Filkovski, who quarterbacked Allegheny College to the 1990 national title as a senior, spent time as an assistant with the Cologne Centurions of NFL Europe and earned the OAC's 2007 co-Assistant Coach of the Year while with Heidelberg College. Filkovski enters the season with an array of returning weapons and is expecting some key newcomers to help provide an immediate impact on Marietta's game plan.

The Pioneers will welcome 70 players back from last year's squad, which played arguably the toughest schedule in the nation. 14 seniors and 20 lettermen, will make up the core of the returnees. Junior Dexter Hughes, who won the starting job in camp a year ago, will look to become more of a consistent passer in 2008. The lanky right-hander completed 128-of-256 (.500) passes while throwing for 1,604 yards and 12 touchdowns. Senior Garrett Banks and junior Lamar Hunter have seen action at tailback over their careers and should share the load this season. Banks is the leading returnee, having rushed for 152 yards in 2007. Hunter collected 143 yards and a team-high three scores on the ground. Banks is the Pioneers' top returning pass catcher; he pulled in 17 receptions for 261 yards and four touchdowns as a junior. Sophomore Cory Kriechbaum, who caught eight passes for 102 yards, as well as sophomore Marty Mueller, who had 11 receptions for 110 yards, will lead a young group of receivers. Sophomore Zach Lashaway started all seven of the games he played at tight end last year. Junior George Frisch started the last nine games at left tackle and will be asked to anchor the line again in 2008. Seniors Tom Daniel, Jesse Daubert and Justin Kidder all saw time on the line a year ago. They, in addition to senior Will Ritter, junior Chris Carter and sophomore Antony Santilli, will battle during camp for various roles on the line.

Junior tackle Andrew Doerr is the lone starter back from Marietta's defensive line in 2007. He finished with 34 tackles as a sophomore. Senior David Loyer and junior Adam Tate also saw valuable time on the defensive line and should be ready for more of a load in 2008. Tate had 20 hits, including 1.5 sacks, while Loyer finished off 13 hits and had three sacks last season. All-OAC honorable mention selection linebacker Grant Cowell finished runner-up in total tackles with 86. In addition, seniors Joe Deppen and Jamie Schumacher both have experience in the middle of the defense. Senior safety JR Gibson is the only full-time starter back in the secondary this fall. He finished seventh on the team with 39 tackles as a junior. In addition, senior Clinton Thompson, who had 48 stops, gained starting experience in 2007. Junior Rob Williamson will look use his limited action to make a bigger impact in 2008. Junior Corey Lemke will handle the kicking duties, while sophomore Nick Perko is the leading candidate to take as the punter this fall.

Week 1 Game Notes

THE RECORDS: Saturday marks the first game of the 2008 season for both teams. Marietta College went 3-7 overall and 3-6 in the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) in 2007. Thiel College was also 3-7 overall and 1-5 in the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) last fall.

GAME TIME: 1:30 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 6, Alumni Stadium in Greenville, Pa.

THE COACHES: Marietta's Jeff Filkovski is in his first season as the leader of the Pioneers. Filkovski was named the 2007 OAC Assistant Coach of the Year while the offensive coordinator at Heidelberg College. He is the former signal caller for the Cologne Centurions of NFL Europe. Filkovski, who earned his bachelor's degree from Allegheny College in 1991, led the Gators to a national championship in 1990. Thiel's Jack Leipheimer begins his eighth year as the Tomcats' head football coach. The 1974 graduate of Thiel has a career record of 34-38 (.473).

FAMILIAR FACES: Marietta coach Jeff Filkovski and Thiel coach Jack Leipheimer are quite familiar with each other, dating back to their time together at Allegheny College. Leipheimer was the defensive coordinator when Filkovski quarterbacked the Gators to the 1990 national championship. In addition, Filkovski, as well as defensive coordinator Denny Dorrel, coached against Thiel while they were on staff at Thomas More (Ky.).

ALL-TIME SERIES: Saturday is the sixth time that the two teams will meet on the gridiron but the first time since 1995. The series began in 1921 with Marietta, who holds a 4-1 advantage, winning 22-0. Thiel's lone victory came by the score of 13-6 in 1923. Marietta won 7-0 in 1924 and then 20-16 in 1994 and 36-0 in 1995.

LAST MEETING: The Pioneers shutout the Tomcats 36-0 on Sept. 2, 1995 in Greenville, Pa. Marietta out-gained Thiel 366 to 66 and was led by a 105-yard rushing and 46-yard receiving effort from 2007 Marietta Athletics Hall of Fame inductee Curt Wiekart. In addition, the Pioneers' defense recorded a pair of second-half safeties in the victory.

SEASON OPENERS: The Pioneers have pulled out victories in 12 of the last 14 season openers but had a seven game win streak snapped last year with a loss at No. 3 Saint John's (Minn.) University. Marietta's only other loss in the span came against Waynesburg (Pa.) in 1999. Marietta has opened on the road the last three seasons.

RADIO COVERAGE: Marietta College is scheduled to have WMRT-FM 88.3, its student radio station, broadcast the game for Pioneer fans. The students will take the air with a short pregame at 1:20 p.m.

LISTEN ONLINE: Marietta College is proud to once again offer its fans on the World Wide Web the opportunity to listen to all 10 Pioneer football games through a partnership with Stretch Internet. All you need is QuickTime. For more information visit Marietta's athletic web site: http://pioneers.marietta.edu. Archives are also available to listen to or to purchase.

ESCORES: Marietta fans can once again receive scores, schedule updates and alerts directly on their cell phone or email by signing up for eScores at http://escores.stretchinternet.com.

STAY UP TO DATE: Visit http://pioneers.marietta.edu to stay up to date with all of the Marietta College athletics news.

KICKING OFF 114TH SEASON: Saturday's game will mark the start of the 114th season of football at Marietta, dating back to 1892. The Pioneers did not field a team from 1943-1945 because of World War II. Marietta enters with a 402-514-36 record.

NATIONAL REPRESENTATION: Marietta's roster currently features 89 total student-athletesÑ53 from Ohio, 12 from Pennsylvania, nine from Florida, eight from West Virginia, two from Texas and one from Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Michigan and Massachusetts.

GETTING OFF TO A QUICK START: Marietta will look to get off to a fast start out of the locker room after struggling in the first half in 2007. The Pioneers were outscored 72-30 in the first quarter and 110-38 in the second quarter last year. On the other hand, Marietta outscored its opponents 59-54 in the final frame.

CONTROLLING THE CLOCK: Marietta will look to do a better job controlling the clock in 2008. Last year, the Pioneers trailed in time of possession in eight of 10 games, and opponents held the ball for an average of 3:38 more than Marietta.

TURNOVERS: Marietta needs to improve its turnover margin. In 2007, the Pioneers ranked 10th in the OAC and 222nd in NCAA Division III with a -17 turnover margin.

COACHING DEBUT: Coach Filkovski is making his head coaching debut with the Pioneers on Saturday. Looking back over the history of Marietta football, Pioneer coaches have gone 12-13-2 in their debut with Marietta. The Pioneers have won two straight when a coach makes his debut.

CAPTAINS ANNOUNCED: Marietta College will have three captains during the 2008 season: senior running back Garrett Banks, senior linebacker Grant Cowell and senior linebacker Joe Deppen.

THIS WEEK IN THE OAC: Nine of the 10 OAC Schools will kickoff the season on Saturday. In addition to Marietta traveling to Thiel, Baldwin-Wallace visits Franklin (Ind.), John Carroll heads to Thomas More (Ky.) and Wilmington visits Mount St. Joseph at 1:30 p.m. Capital will also host Adrian (Mich.), while Heidelberg welcomes Westminster (Pa.), Mount Union plays host to St. John Fisher and Otterbein welcomes Bethany (W.Va.) at 1:30 p.m. At 7 p.m., Muskingum will play host to Defiance at 7 p.m. Ohio Northern is the lone school not to open this week. The Polar Bears will visit North Central (Iowa) on Sept. 13 at 2 p.m.

NEXT GAME: On Sept. 20, Marietta will open OAC play at Wilmington. Kickoff is slated for 6 p.m. Thiel, meanwhile, visits Albion (Mich.) on Sept. 13 at 1 p.m.

HOME OPENER: Marietta's home opener will take place in week four when Baldwin-Wallace visits Don Drumm Stadium for a 7 p.m. kickoff. It will be the fourth annual River City Bowl and Alumni Weekend. A full evening of activities are planned for all of those in attendance. In addition, the game will be broadcast locally by WTAP-TV. WTAP will carry the game live on its My 5 station (Channel 5), as well as on its web channel, http://www.wtap.com. The game will re-air that night on Fox Parkersburg (Channel 14) at 11:30 p.m. and then again on Sunday (Sept. 28) at 10 a.m.

SCHEDULE CARDS: Free Fall Schedule Cards are now available. Stop by the athletics office to pick one up today.

MEDIA GUIDES NOW ON SALE: Pioneer fans can now purchase 2008 fall sport media guides. They will be made available at all home contests and in the athletics office.