Defiance Falls to MSJ

CINCINNATI, OHIO – The Defiance College football team dropped a tough Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference contest, 56-10, on Saturday afternoon at Mount St. Joseph University.

After MSJ started the contest with a missed field goal on their opening drive, the Yellow Jackets marched the ball 69 yards in eight plays, 60 of them on a long pass from the freshman connection of Logan Mico (Grosse Point, Mich./Grosse Point South) to Carl Stokes (Merrillville, Ind./East Chicago Central). The drive ended with a 25-yard field goal from freshman Mitch Wroblewski (Brownsville, Wisc./Lomira) to give DC the early 3-0 lead. The Lions responded with a quick 79 yard drive, wrapped up by a 39-yard touchdown pass to take a 7-3 lead with 8:20 left in the first.

After a Yellow Jacket three-and-out, the Lions were in Defiance territory when senior Kolton Davis (Toledo/Bowsher) picked off MSJ QB Chaiten Tomlin. The teams exchanged punts before Cody Drumm-Turner (Homer, Mich.) grabbed another interception in the MSJ end zone, Tomlin's second of the quarter. On the first play of the ensuing drive, however Corey Bennett (Tampa, Fla./Blake) fumbled it away to the Lions, who scored on the first play of offense to take a 14-3 lead with under a minute left in the opening quarter.

The Mount St. Joseph defense remained tough, as Mico's passed was picked off by Troy Speakman and returned 48 yards to paydirt to give the Lions a 21-3 lead. Two drives later, the Yellow Jackets entered MSJ territory before Mico had a pass picked by Gavin Edmondson and returned 58 yards for another touchdown to give the Lions a commanding 28-3 edge that they took into the locker room.

The offense picked things up for the Lions to start the third quarter, as they went 57 yards on five plays and finished with a seven-yard scoring strike to take a 35-3 lead just two minutes into the third. Things went from bad to worse when the Yellow Jackets fumbled the ensuing kickoff, giving the Lions great field position to score and take a 42-3 lead. MSJ added the next two scores to take a 56-3 advantage early in the fourth quarter. The Yellow Jackets added a touchdown on a 29-yard pass from Mico to Stokes to cut the MSJ lead to 56-10 with 8:14 to play, which ultimately became the final tally.

DC signal-caller Logan Mico finished the afternoon completing 15-of-29 passes for 210 yards with a score, while his favorite target became fellow freshman Carl Stokes, who caught six passes for 128 yards. Junior running back Corey Bennett ran the ball 17 times for 117 yards in the loss. Markell Moncrief (Detroit, Mich./Southfield Lathrup) led the Defiance defense with 10 tackles, while Jalin Nealy (Pontiac, Mich./West Bloomfield) added seven with two of them for loss.

Defiance will wrap up the 2017 season on Saturday, Nov. 11 when the host their arch-rival Bluffton University Beavers. The Yellow Jackets will look to retain The Hammer with a 1:30 p.m. kickoff at Justin F. Coressel Stadium.