Despite a hard-fought comeback effort, the Hillsdale College football team fell to the Northern Michigan Wildcats 32-24 on Saturday evening for the first time since 2006.
The Chargers fell behind 16-0 in the second quarter before scoring 24 points in a span of 6:37 between the end of the second quarter and the beginning of the third quarter to take a 24-22 lead. But the Chargers couldn’t tack on any more points throughout the rest of the game.
“We have to start better. Two of three games we’ve fizzled out of the blocks,” head coach Keith Otterbein said. “We’ve got to get to game speed in all phases faster so we don’t dig a hole. It’s partially the speed of the game that happens, partially execution, but we’ve got to trust ourselves and jump right in.”
Trailing 29-24 with 10:34 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Chargers had a chance to drive for the go-ahead touchdown after sophomore linebacker Jay Rose recovered a Northern Michigan fumble at the Wildcats’ 41-yard line. The Chargers marched down the field, but on third-and-goal from the 3-yard line Northern Michigan’s Darryl Williams picked off Hillsdale senior quarterback CJ Mifsud in the end zone.
“We had a good situation and we liked the call, but we didn’t execute it the way we wanted,” Otterbein said. “It wasn’t exactly the defense we called the play for but that doesn’t happen all the time anyway.”
After the Wildcats drove down the field and kicked a field goal to take a 32-24 lead, the Chargers had one final chance to force overtime, but the Wildcats’ Brandon Auguste sealed the win for Northern Michigan with an interception with 15 seconds left after the Chargers had driven the ball down the field to the 20-yard line.
Despite the loss, Otterbein was pleased with the way his team fought back.
“We played hard and we got back into the game,” he said. “We could have just cashed it in and we didn’t do that. Our kids have too much character to do that.”
The Chargers recognize they need to start games faster.
“We came out a little bit flat which we can’t afford to do going forward,” senior left guard Justice Karmie said. “We need to do a better job of getting to the fourth quarter consistently with the lead.”
The loss made the already long bus ride home seem even longer.
“That’s a tough long bus ride after a loss,” Mifsud said. “I think most guys just tried to get some rest on the way back.”
Hillsdale now holds a 1-2 record in the GLIAC this season.
“We didn’t get done what we needed to get done so everybody takes it very seriously,” Karmie said. “It’s not a pouting attitude, we just need to be better, we need to get it done, and we need to feel the weight of that loss motivate us for next week.”
The Chargers will look to erase Saturday’s loss from their memory on Saturday night when they host the University of Indianapolis Greyhounds at 7 p.m. at Frank “Muddy” Waters stadium.
Indianapolis is a non-conference opponent, but the Chargers will approach the game the same way they would any other.
“There’s 11 chances to play football,” Otterbein said. “We’ve got a long-standing rivalry with these guys and we’ve had some great games.”
Otterbein coached with Greyhounds head coach Bob Bartolomeo at Ball State from the fall of 1995 to the fall of 2001, and before that the two coaches clashed when Otterbein coached at Ferris State and Bartolomeo coached at Butler.
“I’ve known him for a long time,” Otterbein said. “He’s a truly great guy and a great friend. I respect the heck out of him as a person and respect the heck out of him as a football coach but you put that aside when it comes to playing somebody like that.”
Because of the history Otterbein and Bartolomeo have, their programs share similarities.
“There’s a lot of familiarity and similarity to the way that we run our programs and the important parts of our programs, just based on the philosophy of the two head coaches that have spent a lot of time together,” Otterbein said.
The Chargers know what they need to do to pick up the victory.
“For us to win, we will need to execute our game plan and do the little things right,” Mifsud said.
