Franklin College’s defense had been the team’s backbone coming into its Saturday matchup with Rose-Hulman, but that defense wasn’t enough to stop the top offense in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference in a 38-14 defeat.
Coach Alan Hensell knew the Grizzlies (5-4, 3-3 HCAC) couldn’t let Rose-Hulman, which came in scoring 41.8 points per game, go up early.
“They have done a very good job early in games starting off fast,” Hensell said. “Our strategy was we were going to have to make plays in the passing game. We made a couple; we just didn’t make enough.”
Franklin won the coin flip and came out strong, going to the pass game often. Kai Ross found Dylan McKinney for 34 yards and then connected with Jarrett Gibson, who he danced to gain a few more yards and put the Grizzlies on the Rose-Hulman 2. Ross punched it in off the fake to put Franklin up early.
The Engineers (7-2, 6-0) got all the way to Franklin’s 11 before being stopped by Aaron Black, who interrupted a potential touchdown. Jonathan Oliger hit a field goal to close the Grizzlies’ lead to 7-3 with 5:11 left in the first quarter.
Following a Franklin punt, Engineers quarterback Andrew Dion threw passes to Jailen Hobbs for 13 yards and Daniel Huery for 22 before finding Noah Thomas wide open for a 16-yard touchdown pass putting Rose-Hulman up 10-7.
Rose-Hulman’s offense put the hurt on the Grizzlies to close the first half, putting up two scores in the final 7:09. Dion threw to Thomas for an 11-yard touchdown and Shane Welshans added a 1-yard TD run. With a minute and change left, the Grizzly Cubs tried to put a dent in the Engineers’ 24-7 lead but came up short.
Coming out of the half the Engineers looked to be on track to put another touchdown on the board, but their train came to a stop with Franklin’s Evan Stambaugh picking off Dion. The offense wasn’t able to capitalize off of Stambaugh’s interception, however, punting after just one set of downs.
Dion then found Adam Tice-Saliu, who burst up the sideline for a 76-yard touchdown that put Franklin in an even deeper 31-7 hole with 11:14 left in the third quarter.
Rose-Hulman’s scoring barrage didn’t end there, with Jailen Hobbs adding a back-breaking 59-yard punt return for a touchdown.
“They had the punt return, they had a big kick return early in the game, they hit some long passes, you know they have a very experienced fifth-year quarterback that does a really good job,” Hensell said. “(Dion) is a tough guy to rattle, and they do a great job protecting him.”
Franklin’s offense finally refound their footing in the passing game with Ross capping off the Grizzlies’ best drive of the game with a 26-yard touchdown pass to Elijah Corwin with 11:14 left.
Ross finished the game with 245 yards passing yards, with Gibson accounting for 114 of those on nine catches.
The Grizzlies will play their final game of the season at Hanover this week in the Victory Bell game. Hensell knows the team must put Saturday’s loss behind them.
“I think for us right now, we take it week by week and we’re going to turn our focus tomorrow to Hanover,” Hensell said.
