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The Tribune-Star, Terre Haute, Ind.
Engineers hold off Grizzlies on Rose-Hulman homecoming
- Story byThe Tribune-Star, Terre Haute, Ind.
- Engineers hold off Grizzlies on Rose-Hulman homecoming
When the Rose-Hulman football team went to the Cook Stadium locker room at halftime Saturday with a 28-6 lead over Franklin, it looked like their Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference game — and homecoming game — was firmly under control.
And coach Jeff Sokol of the Engineers was in a good enough mood to quip, "Looks can be deceiving," after the game, an indication that the Engineers had indeed held on for the win — by a 42-34 score — even though the phrase "under control" wasn't as appropriate by then.
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"Playing any Mike Leonard-coached team, you know they'll be doing everything they can to score points," Sokol said, and the Grizzlies found some ways to do that in the second half.
Most of those ways involved passing. The visitors gained 466 yards through the air and had 594 yards of total offense.
But Franklin never got closer than that eight-point margin, and the Engineers are one of the undefeated teams after the first week of conference play.
"In all phases, we played well enough to win," Sokol pointed out. "We would have liked to maintain that lead we had, but all that matters is the team that has the most points at the end. We'll take what we get."
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Rose led for all but 82 seconds of the game. Although the Grizzlies completed a 43-yard flea-flicker pass on the first play of the game, the fourth play of the game was a pass picked off by linebacker Rudy Griffing — his first of two for the game — and returned 78 yards for a touchdown.
The first time Rose-Hulman had the ball on offense it had a touchdown drive, Brock Zanetell throwing a touchdown pass to Joseph Culotta for the touchdown, but this time Franklin answered by completing two long passes in a 75-yard march. Engineer defensive back Tristan Strongheart — on his way to a productive day himself — blocked the extra-point attempt and it was a 14-6 game with 4:39 left in the first quarter.
That play seemed to discourage the Franklin kicking game for the remainder of the contest; after a 1-yard touchdown run by Zanetell made it 21-6, the Grizzlies twice drove deep into Engineer territory before being stopped on downs — no field-goal attempts or extra-point kicks in sight — and Rose added a touchdown pass from Zanetell to Avery Cody 57 seconds before intermission.
For good measure, the Engineers took advantage of Griffing's second pick to drive 59 yards, scoring on a 2-yard run by Alexander Marsteller, and had a 35-6 lead just past the midpoint of the third quarter. But the Grizzlies weren't discouraged.
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Franklin drove for two touchdowns, sandwiched around a three-and-out for the Engineers, and were within 35-18. The Engineers drove 67 yards to another Marsteller touchdown run and led 42-18 with 12:04 left in the game.
Again the Grizzlies scored twice in a row, making the score 42-34 with 7:08 left, and they got the ball again with 2:20 left. But this time Franklin never got out of its own territory, and Anthony Mauro iced the contest with Rose-Hulman's third interception of the day.
"I feel great," Sokol said about his team's early start. "We've made some real improvement and we're staying very positive, doing what we need to do."
Zanetell passed for 211 yards, completing 20 of 27 without an interception, and ran for 45 for Rose-Hulman, while workhorse Marsteller had 116 yards on 30 carries and Cody and Culotta combined for 145 receiving yards.
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Franklin quarterback Marshall Kmiecik passed for 423 yards and had 58 yards on the ground for the visitors.
Franklin 6 0 12 16 — 34Rose-Hulman 14 14 7 7 — 42RH — Rudy Griffing 78 interception return (Cohen Peters kick), 13:38 1st
RH — Joseph Culotta 11 pass from Brock Zanetell (Peters kick), 6:34 1st
F — Owen Wright 31 pass from Marshall Kmiecik (kick blocked), 4:39 1st
RH — Zanetell 1 run (Peters kick), 13:59 2nd
RH — Avery Cody 8 pass from Zanetell (Peters kick), 0:57 2nd
RH — Alexander Marsteller 2 run (Peters kick), 7:06 3rd
F — Wright 31 pass from Kmiecik (pass failed), 5:37 3rd
F — Kmiecik 8 run (pass failed), 5:37 3rd
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RH — Marsteller 12 run (Peters kick), 12:04 4th
F — Jake Thrash 25 pass from Kmiecik (Noah Lien pass from Kmiecik), 10:32 4th
F — Isaiah Miller 13 pass from Kmiecik (Miller pass from Kmiecik), 7:08 4th
F RHFirst downs 30 23
Rushes-yards 23-128 44-179
Passing yards 466 211
Comp-Att-Int 25-51-3 20-27-0
Return yards 1 89
Fumbles-lost 0-0 0-0
Punts-avg 1-42.0 5-41.0
Penalties-yards 5-57 12-112
Time of possession 26:22 33:38
Individual statisticsRushing — Franklin: Kmiecik 11-58, Levi Johnson 5-34. RH: Marsteller 30-116, Zanetell 11-45.
Passing — Franklin: Kmiecik 25-50-3, 423. RH: Zanetell 20-27-0, 211.
Receiving — Franklin: Miller 8-120, Wright 5-133, Lien 4-81, Brayden Wilkens 3-67. RH: Culotta 6-61, Marsteller 6-30, Cody 5-84.
Next — Rose-Hulman (3-1, 1-0 HCAC) hosts Anderson next Saturday. Franklin (1-3, 0-1) hosts Mount St. Joseph that day.
