TERRE HAUTE — Fans attending Rose-Hulman’s college football home opener at Cook Stadium might have been expecting an easy victory over North Park on Saturday night.
After all, the Engineers won handily 25-0 on the road in last season’s first-ever matchup between the schools. But Rose head coach Steve Englehart, his staff and players were not the least bit surprised at North Park’s vast improvement in just one season.
But thanks to a pair of looooooong touchdown pass hook-ups between sophomore quarterback Derek Eitel, a Marshall, Ill. native, and senior wide receiver Thomas Reives of 67 and 50 yards sandwiched around a 19-yard TD strike from Eitel to Nate Richter, Rose erased a 14-0 second half deficit to emerge victorious by a 21-14 score.
The heroics of Eitel and Reives will be the most documented — ergo, spectacular — game breakers for the Engineers, but their defense can also share in the victory with their own big plays, especially at crunch time.
“I’ve never been more proud,” exuded Englehart afterwards. “I knew it was going to be a tussle. That team we saw on film all week … we knew that they were so much more improved from last year. We knew they had two great running backs. It was going to be a big challenge for our defense. Our defense picked it up.”
“We faltered all first half [offensively]. Then we just came up with big plays. We didn’t get a lot of sustained drives.”
Eitel set a career-high with his 311 yards passing and three touchdowns.
“Oh yeah?,” Eitel remarked when told of his setting career-highs. “I didn’t know that. But I’m not to worried about it. We got to 3-1, that’s all I care. Sometimes we run the ball and we can win, this week we needed to throw [to win]. I’m just glad we had the opportunity.
“The guys on the edge [receivers] all did a good job. They stepped it up in the second half. Just a whole different team.”
Speaking on his long-distance connections with Reives, Eitel added, “He’s fast. I thought I overthrew him on the second one. But it’s hard to overthrow him.”
“I sprained my ankle last week and tweaked it again this week,” admitted Reives, who was unable to perform his usual punting chores due to the injury. “They taped it up, put a ankle brace on it … I can’t really move my ankle so I couldn’t punt. But it let me run down the field still.”
“[Reives is] fine … obviously,” chuckled Englehart.
Neither team generated much offense until the final one-minute, 50-seconds of a scoreless first half . Eitel was sacked four times before intermission and Rose’s only two scoring opportunities ended in a missed 33-yard field goal by Jeremy Sharp and stalling out on fourth down at the NP 23.
“[North Park’s defense] brought a lot of heat in the first half,” Eitel observed. “They were shooting gaps and they were fast. But we wore them down in the second half. That’s a tribute to our offseason program and how hard we go in camp.”
North Park’s first score was the result of quarterback Shelby Wood connecting with a horizontally-stretched-out-in-the-endzone Chris Durr on a 10-yard slant pattern to lead 7-0 at halftime.
The Vikings made it 14-0 as their bruising running back Kelvyn West finished off a 64-yard drive with a two-yard scoring rumble. West rushed for a game-high 124 yards on 33 carries.
But in just three plays — or 1-minute, 42-seconds to be more precise — Eitel connected with Reives on the 67-yard bomb to get within 14-7 with 9:33 left in the third quarter.
Still trailing 14-7 early in the fourth quarter, Eitel was intercepted by Lucas DeJong at the Rose 35. But the Rose defense “rose” to the occasion, stopping NP at the 16 on downs.
The Engineers proceeded to drive 84 yards in eight plays, tying the game on a 19-yard scoring pass from Eitel to Nate Richter, who broke a tackle at the 10-yard-line then scampered into the end zone with 9:29 remaining.
The Rose defense again “rose” to the occasion, as Alex Dimhoff delivered a punishing blow to NP’s Wood, popping the ball loose and was recovered by teammate Drew Sandahl at the NP 43.
Eitel was sacked for the fifth time, threw an incompletion, but came up big by hitting a wide open Reives with his second bomb from midfield. Suddenly, Rose led 21-14 with 7:01 left in the game.
North Park constructed one last drive in the game’s waning moments, driving to the Rose 27. But the Rose defense “rose” to the occasion yet again, stuffing West for a one-yard loss on fourth down with just over a minute remaining.
Soon after, Rose ground out a first down and Eitel — who was still holding onto that football while receiving congratulations after the game — kneeled down to run out the clock.
Rose returns to action next week, resuming Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference hostilities in its homecoming game vs. Hanover at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
Rose-Hulman 21, North Park 14
North Park 0 7 7 0 — 14
Rose-Hulman 00 7 14 — 21
NP — Chris Durr 10 pass from Shelby Wood (Kevin Hart kick), 1:50 2Q
NP — Kelvyn West 2 run (Hart kick), 11:15 3Q
R-H — Thomas Reives 67 pass from Derek Eitel (Jeremy Sharp kick), 9:33 3Q
R-H — Nate Richter 19 pass from Eitel (Sharp kick), 9:29 4Q
R-H — Reives 50 pass from Eitel (Sharp kick), 7:01 4Q
NP R-H
First downs 17 20
Rushes-yards 45-135 38-96
Passing yards 140 311
Com-Att-Int 16-32-0 17-37-1
Return yards 0 0
Punts-avg. 8-34.0 5-35.2
Fumbles-lost 1-1 3-0
Penalties-yards 4-35 7-44
Time of possession 32:00 28:00
Individual statistics
Rushing — North Park, West 33-124, Jacob Mueller 1-14, Wood 8-minus 1, B.J. Chandler 3-minus 2. Rose-Hulman, Bryan Wong 16 -57, Tim Schrock 10-52, Calvin Bueltel 2-0, Team 1-minus 1, Eitel 8-minus 6, Justin Meade 1-minus 6.
Passing — North Park, Wood 16-32-0 140. Rose-Hulman, Eitel 17-37-1 311.
Receiving — North Park, Durr 6-63, Sam Lialios 3-41, Mueller 3-1, Darius Jones 2-22, Kenny Peoples 1-13, Chandler 1-0. Rose-Hulman, Reives 4-147, Meade 4-77, Richter 4-48, Reed Eason 3-40, Schrock 1-0, Wong 1-minus 1.
Tackles — North Park, Kpe Cullotta 9, Paul Mutschler and Geoffrey Montgomery 7. Rose-Hulman, Austin Hastings 10, Drew Christy 9, Alex Dimhoff 8, Ben Wassell 7, Bill Guiney 6, Nick Laserner 6, Paul Spreen 6.
Next games — Rose-Hulman (3-1) plays host to Hanover in their homecoming game at 2 p.m. on Saturday. North Park (1-2) hosts North Central the same day.
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Discussion
Rose football wins home opener
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