Despite a rare case of losing time-of-possession, Charger football came out on top 27-10 last Saturday, Sept. 15.
“They held onto the ball really well,” junior wide receiver Andrew Mott said. “We haven’t lost time-of-possession in two years.”
Both teams scored on their opening drives. But the Chargers were able to put another seven points on the board before the quarter ended, bringing the score to 14-7.
Senior quarterback Anthony Mifsud connected with senior H-back Cam White for both touchdown passes. Mifsud passed for 216 yards and three touchdowns, while White had five receptions for 67 yards.
The second quarter was low scoring with only a field goal from the Pioneers.
Head coach Keith Otterbein said the Pioneers ran a challenging offense but that the Charger defense did a good job adjusting.
“They make you be very assignment-sound,” he said. “When you face this type of offense, it’s all about getting up to speed. Once we finally got it we played pretty well.”
Sophomore defensive end Ian Sheldon said the defense was able to stop the Pioneer offense more effectively in the second half.
“We started to figure out their blocking schemes and adjusted our defense to that,” he said. “We manipulated their weaknesses.”
The Charger defense shut out the Pioneers in the second half. Junior Brett Pasche spearheaded the effort, leading the defense with 14 tackles and one sack. Sheldon also contributed a sack as well as five tackles.
The Hillsdale offense also kicked into gear in the second half, increasing their lead by two more touchdowns.
Mifsud connected with Mott in the third quarter for the Chargers’ third touchdown of the evening. Mott had six receptions for 80 yards in the game.
“We always make adjustments at halftime,” Mott said. “They see stuff in the press box, little tweaks we need to make.”
To open the fourth quarter, senior running back Joe Glendening had a 22-yard run for a touchdown. That touchdown puts him in second place for Hillsdale’s career touchdown record with 51. Glendening also sits at second for the all-time career rushing record.
“We have a heck of a running game with Joe,” Mott said. “That’s the bread and butter of our offense. Our running gets us in position to make play-action passes.”
With a 17-point lead, the Chargers regained possession of the ball and ran down the clock to clinch the victory 27-10.
Otterbein said that with a little bit of improvement, Malone will be a good fit in the GLIAC.
“I think they’ve got some growing to do,” he said. “The one thing they’ve got is that they really played hard and had difficult schemes on both sides of the ball.”
Hillsdale will face Notre Dame College, another new addition to the GLIAC, on Saturday in an away game.
