The Hillsdale College football team simply wasn’t good enough against No. 19 Ferris State on Saturday afternoon.
The Bulldogs overwhelmed the Chargers 41-20 at Frank “Muddy” Waters Stadium, rushing for 260 yards while holding the Chargers to just 26 yards rushing.
Ferris State improved to 8-2 with its first win at Frank “Muddy” Waters Stadium since 2003. The Chargers fell to 4-5 on the season.
“Especially with our offense, you’ve got to establish the run game,” head coach Keith Otterbein said. “We’ve got to play better in all phases but I give them a lot of credit. They’re a good football team.”
Sophomore tailback Joe Reverman, who rushed for 168 yards and 3 touchdowns a week ago, finished with 21 yards rushing on 9 carries. Earlier in the week, Otterbein said Ferris State’s defensive line was the team’s strength, calling the players on the Bulldogs’ defensive line “manimals.”
They lived up to that name on Saturday, shutting down Hillsdale’s usually-potent ground game and blocking a field goal.
“They’re just very fundamentally sound on defense. We knew that coming in, so we just had to make plays and stay off third-and-longs, and we just didn’t do that,” said sophomore quarterback Chance Stewart, who completed 27 of his 42 passes for 338 yards and 3 touchdowns. “When it’s third-and-8 and more, their defensive linemen can just gear off and come get it.”
Defensively, the Chargers struggled to make one-on-one tackles in the open field which led to 3 of Ferris State’s 6 touchdowns. The Bulldogs gained 451 yards total.
“If the first guy makes a tackle you’re going to be OK,” Otterbein said. “But they’ve got good players and they make you miss in space.”
On the first drive of the game, Ferris State opened the scoring. With 9:41 left in the first quarter, Bulldogs running back Jahaan Brown capped off a 65-yard drive with a 4-yard touchdown.
The Chargers drove into the red zone on their ensuing possession, but senior kicker Steven Mette’s 33-yard field goal attempt was blocked. The Bulldogs added another touchdown on a 43-yard pass to wide receiver Malik Taylor and led 14-0 at the end of the first quarter.
On the first play of the second quarter, Stewart completed a 61-yard touchdown pass to sophomore wide receiver Trey Brock to cut Hillsdale’s deficit in half.
With 7:37 remaining in the second quarter, Ferris State added another touchdown on an impressive 65-yard rush by Brown. The Bulldogs took a 20-7 lead into halftime. In the first half, the Chargers gained just 20 yards on the ground while the Bulldogs gained 164 yards rushing.
The Chargers went 3-and-out on their opening possession of the second half. Ferris State tacked on another touchdown with 9:36 remaining in the third quarter on a 1-yard touchdown rush by quarterback Reggie Bell.
The Bulldogs extended their lead to 34-7 on a 25-yard touchdown rush by Bell with 13:26 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Hillsdale got a touchdown back with 10:16 remaining in the fourth quarter. Stewart lofted a ball down the left sideline to Brock who made the over-the-shoulder catch and raced into the end zone for the 54-yard touchdown.
The Bulldogs added another touchdown with 5:30 left in the fourth quarter to put the game away. Wide receiver Kenny Feyh hauled in a 17-yard touchdown from backup quarterback Trevor Bermingham.
Brock added his third touchdown of the game with 1:08 remaining in the fourth quarter on a 9-yard pass from Stewart. Brock reached around a defender to make the catch.
“That ball was underthrown and he just grabbed it right out of the air,” Stewart said. “Trey is one of those receivers that you’re lucky to have and he just goes out and makes plays.”
Brock finished with 160 yards receiving, his Hillsdale-record eighth game of the season with 100 or more yards receiving.
“He surprises people with how fast he is,” Otterbein said. “They did some stuff in double-coverage to try to take him away but you can’t live all day in that.”
The Chargers will wrap up the 2016 season next Saturday against the Lake Erie Storm at Frank “Muddy” Waters Stadium. Kickoff is at 12 p.m.
“I told them after the game this is our last week together. Team 124 has one more week together,” Otterbein said. “We want to send this group of seniors off with a W so they can feel good about that, so our guys are going to be ready to play and we’re going to go line up and play for 60 minutes.”
