By Dennis Clark
TERRE HAUTE — Rose-Hulman’s football team is looking to build upon last week’s much-needed victory when they host Defiance College in a Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference game at 1:30 p.m. today at Cook Stadium.
The Engineers snapped a three-game overall losing skid last week, and at the same time a two-game HCAC slide. It wasn’t easy by any definition, Rose prevailing over Hanover 41-38 at home last Saturday.
Rose enters today’s contest, also Community Day, with a 3-3 overall record, 1-2 in the HCAC. Meanwhile, Defiance is 1-4, 0-2.
Rose senior quarterback Derek Eitel, a former Marshall (Ill.) High School standout, is poised to become the school’s all-time career leader in passing yardage. Eitel needs just 27 passing yards to surpass Justin Duff (Class of 89).
Entering today’s game, Eitel has passed for 6,292 yards and 40 touchdowns, both rank second all-time behind Duff.
Speedy freshman running back Kyle Kovach has emerged as a strong replacement for injured senior standout Calvin Bueltel — lost for the season with a torn ACL in the third week.
Kovach rushed for 153 yards and two touchdowns against Hanover, and is currently ranked second in the HCAC with 558 yards. Kovach also returned a kickoff 76 yards for a touchdown. For his efforts, he was named HCAC Player of the Week earlier this week.
On defense, junior Scott Eaton leads the HCAC with 76 tackles and 12.7 tackles per game. Eaton had 17 tackles last week vs. Hanover, the most by a Rose-Hulman player since Tim Wilson who had 17 back in the 2005 season.
As a team, Rose ranks first in the HCAC in passing defense (162.8 yards), second in total defense (319.5 yards), second in scoring offense (37.2 points), third in rush offense (162.3 yards) and third in total offense (419.3 yards).
Defiance enters the game riding a four game losing streak, their chief problem being a lack of scoring offense.
The Yellow Jackets ranked eighth in the HCAC, scoring at just a 14.2 points per game clip. But on defense, Defiance is respectable, ranking second in rush defense (131 yards) and third in total defense (367.8 yards).
Defiance leads the HCAC in turnover margin (plus 2), net punting (36.2 yards, fourth-down conversion defense (33.3 percent) and red zone defense (allowing points just 75 percent of the time).
Individually for Defiance, Dustin Supan tops the HCAC in interceptions with three while Kyle Longsdorf leads with 8.5 tackles-for-loss.
The only common opponent for the two teams is Manchester. Rose dropped a 20-17 contest at Manchester on Oct. 3, while Defiance lost a home game to Manchester 20-19 on Oct. 10.
Following today’s game, Rose has just three games remaining on its schedule, only one of those being a home game, Oct. 31 against Franklin.
DEFIANCE AT ROSE-HULMAN
The matchup — Rose-Hulman (3-3, 1-2) will host Defiance College (1-4, 0-2) in a Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference game on Community Day.
Kickoff — 1:30 p.m.
Site — Cook Stadium
Broadcast — Live in-game statistics at www.rose-hulman.edu/sports
Coaches — Steve Englehart is 23-12 in his fourth season at Rose-Hulman. Robert Taylor is 28-37 in his seventh season at Defiance.
Last season — Rose won 28-21.
Last week — Rose defeated Hanover 41-38, Defiance lost 20-19 at Manchester.
Series — Defiance leads 2-1.
— Dennis Clark
