The College at Brockport decisively de­feated Oberlin to open the Yeomen’s sea­son for the second year in a row, this time with a final score of 44–7. The Yeomen are still looking for their first home victory at the Austin E. Knowlton Athletics Complex, which opened one year ago.

The Golden Eagles’ offense was dominant throughout the entire game as they racked up 452 yards to the Yeomen’s 161 while scor­ing on four of their first five possessions.

Many of those yards were due in part to the play of Brockport senior quarterback Wayne Bonsell, who completed 21 of 30 passes for 283 yards and two touchdowns. Junior running back Dan Andrews also had a tremendous day, rushing for 101 yards and three touchdowns on 22 carries.

Oberlin second-year Head Coach Jay An­derson thought Brockport outplayed the Yeomen.

“Brockport played better than us on Sat­urday,” Anderson said. “We had our hands full trying to get going offensively, and we struggled to tackle.”

The lone Yeomen scoring drive came late in the second quarter as senior quarterback Lucas Poggiali connected with junior wide receiver Justin Cruz on a seven-yard scoring strike to cut the Brockport lead to 28-7.

Cruz, who caught four passes for 44 yards and one touchdown in the game, believes that the offense needs to go back to the ba­sics in order to be successful.

“We just need to go back to our fundamen­tals,” Cruz said. “We have to trust the coaching a little bit more and the guys next to us.”

The Oberlin defense played much better in the latter part of the game, holding Brockport to just 16 total points in the second half. Junior linebacker Justin Bute and senior defensive back Gabe Edwards had eight tackles each to lead the Yeomen defenders.

Junior safety Larry Leggett was also a force to be reckoned with as he chipped in with six tackles on the day. Leggett said the Yeomen de­fense needs to improve its consistency.

“We did not make the plays that needed to be made,” Leggett said. “We need to do our job to the best of our ability.”

Oberlin opens up North Coast Athletic Con­ference play this weekend against rival Kenyon College. The Yeomen are not only trying to se­cure their first home victory in over a year, but also want to start conference play out on the right foot.

According to Coach Anderson, the Yeomen must execute on all sides of the ball to beat the Lords. As the Yeomen defensive coordinator in 2013, he knows the defense must step up as well for Oberlin to come away with the win.

“Defensively, we have to defend the run, fly to the football, make tackles and play with en­ergy,” Anderson said.

Oberlin defeated the Lords on the road last year 47–28 to open up their NCAC schedule, but it was just one of two wins they had for the sea­son. The Yeomen have not recorded a .500 sea­son since 2007, when they went 5–5.

This year, Oberlin is relying on veteran lead­ership to turn the tides.

“We have a really good core group of cap­tains and leaders on the team who set them­selves apart, whether they are upperclassmen or lowerclassmen,” Cruz said.

Kickoff against Kenyon is this Saturday at 6 p.m. at the Austin E. Knowlton Athletics Complex.