After a finishing loss to the 2022 season against the Mount Union Purple Raiders, the Baldwin Wallace Yellow Jacket football team is confident that is finally the year they return to the playoffs.
“Obviously, the way the season ended last year, it was really, really tough, but the guys really bonded together, and we worked really hard all offseason,” offensive coordinator Mike Orts said.
With a grand total of 26 seniors, the Yellow Jackets bring a lot of players returning to the gridiron and ready to go on a revenge tour beginning Saturday, with their first game against Mount St. Joseph at the George Finnie Stadium at 1:30 p.m.
Orts said that the team has high hopes for the 2023 season.
Orts said that he’s “pretty excited with the amount of work [they] put in,” and how “it’s gonna pay off this fall”. The 2023 Baldwin Wallace schedule consists of the nine OAC schools and MSJ, who BW also faced off against last year. Like BW’s other two losses, it went down to the final minute, where they lost 31-28 on the road.
“You gotta take it one game at a time, those three losses we had last year, it’s hard not to get excited about those games,” Orts said. “We’re just gonna try to take it game by game at this point.”
Fortunately for the Jackets, the match against MSJ takes place at home this year along with five other games, giving them six home games for this campaign.
The MSJ Lions went 10-0 last year, easily winning their conference, but losing in the first round of the Division III playoffs to Alma.
Head coach Jim Hilvert has a 15-5 record in the last two seasons, with all those losses coming to either John Carroll, Mount Union, and MSJ.
While they lost their two best players on secondary in Anthony Kendall and Robbie Williamson along with quarterback Reese Wamer, the Jackets are still poised to get something cooking this season. Joey Marousek, who split starting time with Wamer last year, will lead the Brown and Gold Brigade with weapons like Victor Ford Jr., Rocco DelVerme, Vinny Lomeo, Darius Stokes and Mikel Love among others.
When asked on how they can beat MU, Orts said “[they] have enough talent… [to be on] the same playing field with those guys”. Of course, it won’t be easy this year as BW has not beaten MU since 1994 in Alliance. That game will take place on the final week of the season on Nov. 11 at Kehres Stadium, home of the Purple Raiders.
