ANDERSON — Using a patchwork offense that included only two of the 11 original starters, the Anderson University football team fell to 1-8 with a 37-6 loss to the Rose-Hulman Engineers.
“There’s just no continuity,” said head coach Jeff Judge, who had 10 freshmen in the starting lineup of 22 players. “I feel bad for these kids because they’re going to be good players, but they’re just not ready yet. We’re forced into a situation where we’re asking them to do too much.”
The Engineers (6-4, 4-3 HCAC) rode the arm of senior quarterback Derek Eitel, who completed 20 of his 29 passes for 312 yards and four touchdowns in his final college game.
“He’s a great player,” said Judge. “We’ve struggled in the secondary, I don’t think that’s a secret. They’ve got good receivers, they figure out how to get you into one-on-one matchups and they win.”
“They really attacked our secondary vertically,” said senior safety Chance Benbow, one of six Ravens who played their final game at Macholtz Stadium. “We were in a zone, and they were able to make some plays through it.”
Anderson opened the game with a commitment to running the ball. A new formation that featured receivers split wide to each side of the field, two wingbacks tight to the offensive line and a single back in the backfield, gave AU some early success.
“When your top five wide receivers are out for the game, you have to try something unorthodox,” said Judge. “We put in a new offensive set to try and catch them off guard. It worked for awhile. But when we got down in the red zone, we couldn’t do much with it.”
“It just a matter of executing,” said senior guard Shawn Wedmore. “Our motion seemed to throw them off a little bit. We did a lot of misdirection, too, and it seemed like they had a hard time finding the ball.”
On its second drive, already trailing 7-0, AU used a 45-yard kickoff return to help drive to the Rose-Hulman 14. When the drive stalled, a bad snap on the field goal cost AU a chance at points. They would not cross the Rose-Hulman 50-yard line again until the end of the third quarter.
The Engineers, meanwhile, scored on their first three drives to grab a 17-0 lead early in the second quarter. With 2:29 left in the half, Rose-Hulman got a 37-yard touchdown catch from tight end Ben Hopf to put it up 24-0, but the back-breaker came a few minutes later.
On a third-and-23 with eight seconds left in the second quarter, Eitel found Thomas Reives in the back of the end zone on a Hail Mary pass to give the Engineers a 31-0 halftime lead as time expired.
“It was a weird play,” Benbow said of Reives’ touchdown. “He had a better angle on the ball. He was behind our guys. So he was able to go up with a running start, and he came down with it.”
Rose-Hulman added two field goals in the third quarter for their final points of the game. AU didn’t get on the scoreboard until the final play of the game, when quarterback Jacob Walker found Nic Jackson in the end zone for an 18-yard touchdown reception.
The Ravens ended the game with 204 total yards on offense — 99 of them coming on the final drive.
Jackson was the leading rusher (eight carries, 54 yards) and receiever (four catches, 71 yards) for the Ravens. Walker ended the game going 13-for-32 for 147 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.
Among the injured players for the Ravens were safety Luke Hurst (staph infection), wide receiver Tyler Akers (injured leg during pregame warmup) and linebacker Ryan Hildenbrand (flu), who did play sparingly but did not start.
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Discussion
Engineers design fool-proof plan against AU
Ravens fall to 1-8 with 37-6 loss at Macholtz Stadium
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