Carnegie Mellon's offense was determined to run the football. Grove City's defense was just as determined to stop it.

In a battle of wills, Carnegie Mellon prevailed with a 16-6 victory yesterday at Gesling Stadium.

"We're pretty head strong," Carnegie Mellon coach Rich Lackner said of the Tartans (2-0), who rely on their wing-T attack to grind out yards and control the tempo of the game. "We think that [running] is our forte."

It took Carnegie Mellon quite a while to establish its ground game against a stubborn Grove City (0-2), which stacked the line with strong-armed tacklers who most often were in the right place at the right time.

"We need a little bit of patience," Lackner said. "If our heads were swollen before the game, they aren't swollen after the game."

Lackner was asked if he thought the Tartans, ranked 25th in NCAA Division III by D3football.com, did have big heads.

"You never know, but I don't think so," he said. "We guard against that kind of thing. We talk about it. The kids know everybody's going to circle the Carnegie Mellon game. Everybody knows we're a good football team. They know we're going to have a bull's-eye on us."

Carnegie Mellon went up, 2-0, on a blocked punt that went out of the end zone in the third minute of the game, but Grove City made it 6-2 midway through the first quarter on Matt Weil's 1-yard run. The Tartans didn't register a first down until their fifth possession early in the second quarter and punted six times in the first half.

The second half belonged to the Tartans, who scored on Travis Sivek's 1-yard run and David Babcock's 13-yard scamper around end. Fullback Ryan Phillips replaced Sivek, who had some bumps and bruises, in the fourth quarter and rushed for a game-high 69 yards on nine carries.

Carnegie Mellon ran for 210 yards on 54 carries, less than half the yardage it piled up in a 33-10 victory against Rochester in the opening game.

"We expect to run the football," said Lackner, whose quarterback, Doug Facemeyer, attempted one pass in the second half and was 2 of 6 for 4 yards in the game. "We're not going to change what we do best."