Senior Will Whims and Sophomore Gavin Chenevey. Courtesy | ANTONIO LLAMAS
After suffering an overtime loss on Homecoming to the Walsh University Cavaliers, the football team rebounded on the road, earning its second win of the year by defeating the Lake Erie College Storm last Saturday 28-10.
Despite trailing 10-7 at halftime, the Chargers responded with arguably their best half of football yet, scoring 21 points and not allowing a single Lake Erie score, while also forcing three turnovers. The Chargers now hold a season record of 2-5.
“Lake Erie has an explosive offense, and shutting them out after the first two drives shows our resilience as a defense,” senior defensive back Matt Soderdahl said. “After a few missed assignments to start the game, we were able to make adjustments that put us in the right spots to make the plays we needed. Our defense has been depending on a lot of young guys because of injury, and they have stepped up into their roles tremendously.”
Soderdahl had a career day, hauling in two of the Chargers’ three interceptions, the second of which sealed the win for Hillsdale in the fourth quarter. Soderdahl now has three interceptions in his career as a Charger.
“This was my first game in my career getting two interceptions, so I was very excited to be able to make those plays,” Soderdahl said. “This offseason we made it a focus of ours to create more turnovers, and it’s very rewarding to have that pay off.”
Following the trend of firsts for the Hillsdale defense was senior linebacker Jake Maloney, who led Hillsdale in tackles for the first time this season, contributing a total of six in his first game this year. Also contributing to the Charger defensive effort were senior defensive backs Will Whims and Vince Francescone, who had five and six tackles, respectively. Francescone also had his first career forced fumble.
Offensively, the Chargers continued to improve throughout the game. Sophomore quarterback Colin McKernan finished with 96 total passing yards and completed 50 percent of his passes, including a 24-yard throw to sophomore wide receiver Shea Ruddy. This brought Ruddy’s total to six touchdowns on the season, which puts him second in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference through their seven total games to date.
“It was a slow start for sure against Lake Erie,” McKernan said. “But a win’s a win. We’re confident that what we pieced together in the second half will translate into next week and the rest of the season.”
Hillsdale found the majority of its offense through the run game. Redshirt freshman running back Zach Tetler carried the run game with 84 total rushing yards and three touchdowns, which gave him a new career high in both statistics.
“It felt great to get a solid team win after the loss on homecoming,” Tetler said. “It’s definitely nice to get another win and gain some momentum. We just need to establish the run game early. We ran for over 150 yards in the second half, which is great, but we need to get that going in the first half too.”
Senior wide receiver Logan VanEnkevort was another heavy contributor to the Chargers’ running game, finishing with 68 yards on 19 attempts, which gave him 1,040 career rushing yards in a Hillsdale uniform.
This Saturday, Hillsdale will face the Kentucky Wesleyan Panthers in Owensboro, Kentucky at 1p.m, before coming home to face the Thomas More Saints the following Saturday.
“We know our potential as a team, and this game gave us a lot of confidence in our abilities,” Soderdahl said. “Going forward we are looking to build on this momentum.”