Records shattered in win against Lake Erie

Home Sports Records shattered in win against Lake Erie

Six total touchdowns in the fourth quarter alone. Two Hillsdale touchdowns in the final two minutes to secure the win. If you blinked, you could’ve missed it.

The Hillsdale College Chargers matched the Lake Erie Storm blow for blow and emerged victorious, 48-41.

In the process, the team broke two school records, and tied another.

“We had a lot of opportunities to hang our heads and we never did,” head coach Keith Otterbien said. “We just kept battling and we kept competing.”

It was a back and forth contest between the two teams, featuring six lead changes and five ties. Hillsdale’s chances looked bleak when Lake Erie found the end zone to go ahead 41-34 with just 5:15 left on the clock, but coolheaded quarterback Mark LaPrairie led the Chargers on a game-tying drive that was capped with a LaPrairie 3-yard touchdown run with just under two minutes remaining.

“There wasn’t a whole lot of time for me to collect my thoughts,” LaPrairie said about the fast-paced fourth quarter. “It was all just bang-bang.”

Following LaPrairie’s game-tying scamper, the Chargers defense came up with a huge play to give the ball back to the offense.

On the first play of Lake Erie’s following drive, redshirt freshman Zach Hill forced a fumble that linebacker Kyle Johnson recovered.

“Great strip by Zach,” coach Otterbein said. “We [got] the ball and now all of a sudden the whole thing [was] totally different right at the end.”

Hillsdale avoided making a game-changing error at the end.

“We didn’t make those mistakes,” starting center Justice Karmie added. “They made a few mistakes at the end of the game that I think were part of being nervous about being a really close game.”

The Chargers offense got the ball back at the 28 yard line, and a composed LaPrairie led the Chargers down to the goal line, where redshirt sophomore tailback Bennett Lewis punched it in from three yards out to give Hillsdale the 48-41 victory and improve their record to 1-1.

Lewis tallied a whopping 183 yards and two touchdowns on the day, but two other Chargers stole the spotlight with record-setting performances.

LaPrairie tied the school record with 426 yards through the air in a single game, his favorite target being redshirt junior wide receiver John Haley.

Haley set the single-game school record with 268 receiving yards.

LaPrairie had no idea during the game that his second collegiate start would go in the record books.

“I was not aware at all,” he said. “I knew I had a couple long touchdowns so I [thought] these have got to be adding up pretty quick but I had no idea it was that many.”

Haley was on the scoring end of both of LaPrairie’s long touchdown throws, catching a 35-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter in addition to a 78-yard touchdown in the third quarter. Those two catches alone accounted for 113 of his 268 yards on the day.

“John was making some big plays,” Karmie said. “But you don’t realize the magnitude of what the stats are going to look like until afterwards.”

Lake Erie crowded the line of scrimmage for much of the game, allowing Haley to take advantage of his one-on-one matchup.

“It was a challenging day to call the game for our offense just because [Lake Erie] had a bunch of guys around the line of scrimmage. So by crowding that you take the one-on-one matchup which all day long was John Haley,” coach Otterbein said. “Mark did a nice job of getting him the football. John did a nice job with his double moves.”

The Chargers offense also set the school mark for total offense in a single game, with 611 total yards.

“The record that was set on Saturday that really means a lot to me is the total offense,” LaPrairie said. “But really most importantly, I’m just happy that we won the game and that our offense is gelling.”

The Chargers are now preparing for their home opener against Northern Michigan at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

“Northern is a tough physical team. They run a very similar wide-open offense,” coach Otterbein said. “Schematically they’re a little different [on] defense. They’re a 3-4 front where we’ve been running against 4-3 fronts, so we’ve got to have the ability to shift our formations and play selections and personnel groupings to take advantage.”

While Northern Michigan will provide a tough challenge for the Chargers, the players are looking forward to finally playing some football in front of their home fans.

“It’s going to be really fun to get back on campus and play a game, and not have to pack your bag and get on the bus and stay in a hotel,” LaPrairie said. “I’m really looking forward to it.”

“It’ll be cool to be back in front of our home crowd,” Karmie added. “As I’ve been here the students have gotten more and more involved and I think it’ll keep getting better.”

The Chargers will be looking to take advantage of playing at Muddy Waters Stadium as they seek to push their record above the .500 mark.