Its official. There has been no player with more yards in the history of the North Coast Athletic Conference than Liam Thompson. Saturday Wabash hosted the College of Wooster and came away with a 45-35 win. The day belonged to the senior signal caller. Thompson ended the day 21-29 through the air for 289 yards and four touchdowns while adding 15 rushes for 208 yards and two more TD’s. All together the Little Giant offense tallied 645 yards.
In his career with the Little Giants Thompson has accumulated 11,235 total yards and is now closing in on the all-time Wabash record for career yards of 12,054 which is held by Jake Knott (1999-2002). Thompson noted after the game how this accolade wasn’t just about him.
“This is a real testament to all the guys that I’ve had the pleasure of playing with over my career,” he said. “There’s been a lot of guys that have stuck it our here with me and it’s been a privilege to play with each and every one of them. When you play quarterback as long as I have, you know the offense is going to run through you and we’ve always had a great offense. It’s been a real balanced with us being able to run and throw real efficiently. Everyone has always contributed and it’s been a great one to be a part of.”
Early on in the game it looked like the Little Giants were going to dominate Wooster. Penn Stoller scored the games first touchdown on a seven yard pass from Thompson with 8:43 in the opening quarter. After the Little Giant defense got a stop, Wabash needed just one play to score and it was a beauty. Thompson found a wide open Derek Allen Jr. streaking down the right sideline for a 90 yard score. To cap off a dominant first quarter, Connor Thompson laid out and scored a 21 yard touchdown to put Wabash up 21-0 after the first 15 minutes.
Allen scored his second touchdown of the game to make it 28-0 Wabash on a 16-yard score with 9:38 mark of quarter two. The long mistake Thompson made in the game resulted in the first points for Wooster. They took an interception back to the Wabash 10 and scored on their first play. The final score of the half for the Little Giants came on a big 59 yard run by Thompson with 5:11 to go in the first half.
Little Giants coach Don Morel gave yet another compliment to his senior signal caller for his record breaking day.
“The numbers that Liam has been able to put up not only today but throughout the course of his entire career speak for themselves,” Morel said. “Today he dominated the game with both his legs and his arm. We’ve been really fortunate here at Wabash College to watch a player like him run around the last four seasons.”
Leading 35-14 at halftime, things did get a little tense inside Little Giants Stadium in the second half. Wabash’s offense stalled out in the third quarter and Wooster’s didn’t. Chanden Lee led the Scots on a nine-play 66 yard drive that was capped off with a 4th & goal QB sneak TD from the one yard line. Then with 55 seconds left in the quarter Tate Journell made it a 35-28 game with a 22 yard TD catch. Wabash did respond and get a 28 yard field goal from Brody Rucker. Their next drive Thompson continued his historic day with a 35 yard TD run to put the nail in the coffin with 4:15 left in the game.
“We’re glad that we won, but we took our foot off the gas and lost focus in that second half,” Morel said. “We made some dumb mistakes and I think sometimes we get ahead and just fall asleep and become content. We’ll take another conference at the end of the day though. Defensively we are improved from last year, just our problem so far is we’re making big one-play mistakes. If we get that out of our system we’ll be fine.”
Another standout on the day for Wabash was Allen Jr. who caught 11 passes for 185 yards and those two scores. The connection between him and Thompson is something that’s special to watch not only on the field but on the Wabash sideline after they come off the field.
“I love playing with Derek because he pushes me every single day and I push him,” Thompson said. “We expect greatness out of each other and playing with him is amazing.”
Wabash with the win improves to 4-1 (3-0 NCAC) on the season Their next two games will be on the road at Denison (3-3, 2-2 NCAC) and at Kenyon (1-5, 1-3 NCAC). Wabash returns home on Oct. 28 when they host Wittenberg.
