Football starts spring season with loss at Rose-Hulman

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Kicking off its spring season away from home on Saturday afternoon, the Defiance College football team suffered a 52-6 loss to the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Fightin' Engineers in a Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference game at Cook Stadium.

On the opening drive of the contest, Rose-Hulman was moving before the Defiance defense produced a turnover when Brian Murat forced a fumble that was recovered by Ja'qway Janvier.

From there, the Fightin' Engineers built a 24-0 lead after one quarter and was up, 38-0, before the Yellow Jackets got on the scoreboard. After a 34-yard punt return by Terry Geiger, Daylon Lange found Amin Shaheed with a 13-yard touchdown pass to make it a 38-6 game at halftime.

RHIT, which was also playing its first game of the year, increased its advantage to 45-6 at the end of the third period and added another touchdown and extra point in the final quarter to conclude the scoring.

DC's defensive unit limited the hosts to just 3.7 yards per rush and came up with three turnovers. Defiance was guilty of only four penalties for 26 yards, compared to seven for 58 for Rose-Hulman. The Fightin' Engineers had 20 first downs to the Yellow Jackets' nine and converted 8-of-15 third downs and 2-of-2 fourth downs. DC was 4 of 17 on third downs and 1 of 6 when going for it on fourth down.

Defiance's Lange completed 15 passes for 133 yards. Geiger finished with four receptions for 54 yards while John Edwards caught six balls for 33 yards.

On defense for the Yellow Jackets, Janvier came up with an interception at the end of the first half while Derrell Walker also picked off a pass. DC's top tackler was Lucas with seven total (three solos and four assisted) while Thomas Coltrain contributed six (three solos and three assisted).

On special teams, Defiance freshman Mathew Bolanos punted six times for an average of 41.3 yards.

Next Saturday, the Jackets are scheduled to host HCAC opponent Hanover College in their home opener. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m. at Justin F. Coressel Stadium.