TERRE HAUTE —
Jeff Sokol’s debut as the Rose-Hulman football coach did not go exactly the way he wanted on a hot, humid Saturday evening at Cook Stadium.
But in the second half of the Engineers’ 23-13 loss to DePauw University, he started to see bright spots that give him hope for the rest of the season.
Rose fell behind 14-0 at halftime, thanks to a 38-yard interception return for a touchdown by DePauw safety Robby Schuler in the first quarter and a 38-yard punt return for a TD by Taylor Wagner in the second quarter.
Meanwhile, the Engineers’ shotgun, no-huddle offense put up only 80 yards in the first half.
“We’re a big momentum offense,” Sokol explained afterward. “We struggled early on to get momentum and move the chains… [DePauw] did a couple things we weren’t prepared for. We knew they’d be a little bigger, faster and stronger.”
On the bright side for Rose-Hulman, DePauw’s offense did not score in the first half.
“It doesn’t matter how you put the points on the board,” DePauw coach Robby Long emphasized. “All three phases of the game have to contribute. You hope your special teams can contribute and you hope your defense can score. We talk about it every day when we’re [practicing] those units.
“Because the offense is the unit that is expected to score, it doesn’t mean we can always put it on their shoulders. There are going to be times when there is adversity.”
On the first possession of the second half, the Tigers from Greencastle appeared ready to punch in their first offensive touchdown of the season. Starting from their own 31-yard line, they used 10 plays to march to the Rose 1. But on the 11th play, Rose-Hulman safety Jordan Martin forced a fumble by Armani Cato and Rose’s Brad D’Agnillo pounced on it at the 1.
After that, the Engineers’ offense started to show life. Junior quarterback Mitch Snyder of Casey, Ill., directed a 12-play, 99-yard drive that culminated with his 15-yard TD toss to speedy freshman Dominic Sena. Probably the highlight of the drive, besides the score, was Snyder’s 35-yard aerial to senior Jordan Nielson, who battled a defender tooth-and-nail for the reception near the right sideline.
The 6-foot-1, 175-pound Nielson continued making an impact throughout the second half, finishing with a team-high seven receptions for 117 yards. Interestingly, Nielson caught only seven passes all of last season and had 10 receptions for his entire collegiate career before Saturday.
“He’s a great kid,” Sokol mentioned. “He works really hard. He gets absolutely the most out of his ability. I’m glad he had such a nice day today.”
Near the end of the third period, Eric Malm booted a 29-yard field goal to increase DePauw’s lead to 17-6.
Early in the fourth frame, the visitors finally tallied their first offensive touchdown of the game on a 14-yard quarterback sneak by Ethan Schweir. Although the extra-point kick failed, they padded their cushion to 23-6.
With 8:29 left in the contest, Nielson hauled in a 7-yard TD strike from Snyder. Nick Schneider’s PAT pulled the Engineers within 23-13, but that was the last point they were able to manufacture.
“I was a little disappointed,” Long admitted from the DePauw perspective. “I felt like the scores we gave up there at the end, we shouldn’t have. It was just guys making mistakes.
“You got to give credit to Rose-Hulman. They’re a good football team and they’re going to make plays. But as a defense, we wanted to put a shutout up there on the board and weren’t able to.”
Both teams will get a bye next weekend, with Rose-Hulman’s next action slated for Sept. 17 at Kalamazoo.
“It’ll give us a little time to recover,” Sokol said. “Yeah, we’ll learn a lot from this [DePauw] game. There were definitely mistakes made. We can definitely be better and we will be better.”
Tribune-Star correspondent Steve Fields contributed to this report.
Rose-Hulman
Related Photos
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Tribune-Star/Rachel Keyes Hungry eyes: Rose Hulman's quarter back Mitch Snyder looks down field for a receiver Saturday night.
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Tribune-Star/Rachel Keyes Airborne: Rose Hulman's Kyle Kovach jumps ahead of DePauw defenders Saturday night.
Discussion
Quick DePauw start dooms Sokol’s debut
Tigers top Engineers in opening game
- Rose-Hulman
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Rose-Hulman swimmers flying to nationals
Rose-Hulman swimmers John Craig Huster and Orion Martin have qualified for the Division III national meet in the 100 butterfly
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Despite four NCAA Division III titles, Rose-Hulman’s Liz Evans remains as driven as ever
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Balsbaugh’s late-season scoring giving Rose-Hulman a lift
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Rose-Hulman baseball team kicking off season in Florida
Jeff Jenkins is serious about his baseball.
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Rose-Hulman men clinch conference title
Rose-Hulman will host the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference men’s basketball tournament and claimed the league’s regular-season title with a 59-57 win at Hanover College on Saturday.
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No. 23 Rose-Hulman takes down No. 22 Transylvania on the road
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Rose-Hulman 18-2 after pulling away from Anderson
Rose-Hulman opened the second half on a 20-3 run to pull away and earn a convincing 71-40 men’s basketball victory at Anderson University on Wednesday night.
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Freshman paces Engineer women to HCAC win
The Rose-Hulman women’s basketball team improved to 10-10 for the season and 6-7 in Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference play with a 52-44 win over Anderson on Wednesday in Hulbert Arena.
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Rose men top Franklin
Rose-Hulman improved to 14-2 overall and kept its Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference lead at 8-1 with a 58-42 men's basketball victory at Franklin College on Wednesday night.
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Rose men run winning steak to 11 games
Anderson arrived in Terre Haute with a 7-6 record and a scoring average of 76.5 points per game.
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Anderson holds off rally by Rose women
Rose-Hulman rallied from an 11-point deficit to close within three points late, but Anderson University held on to earn a 64-57 victory in Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference women’s basketball Wednesday night inside O.C. Lewis Gymnasium.
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Rose-Hulman men ranked 26th in Division III
Rose-Hulman’s men’s basketball team is ranked 26th nationally in the d3hoops.com national weekly poll released on Thursday.
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Gerken hits game-winner to put Rose-Hulman at 9-1 on season
Making the game-winning shot, with what turned out to be seven-tenths of a second to go, was probably the easy part for Jon Gerken on Saturday afternoon in Hulbert Arena.
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Rose women struggle from field in loss to Hanover
In the Rose-Hulman women’s college basketball game, frigid shooting undermined good work the Engineers did in other aspects of the game against Hanover.
The Engineers came out on the wrong end, 55-43. -
Efficient Engineers stifle Millikin
The word that probably best describes the Rose-Hulman men’s basketball team is efficiency.
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Rose-Hulman women's basketball regains Clabber Girl Trophy
Rose-Hulman reclaimed the Clabber Girl Trophy for the first time since 2009 with an 80-74 women’s basketball victory over Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College on Tuesday night in Hulbert Arena.
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Balanced Rose tops Fontbonne
Senior forward Nate Gissentanner came off the bench to deliver 14 points for balanced Rose-Hulman in a 72-54 men’s basketball victory over Fontbonne University on Wednesday night in Hulbert Arena.
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Rose-Hulman men's basketball preview: Engineers looking to follow up last year’s success
It’s pretty safe to say that expectations for the Rose-Hulman men’s basketball team have not been this high since the late 1990s when the Engineers reached the NCAA Division III tournament three times within a four-year period.
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Rose-Hulman women's basketball preview: Engineers continuing to improve
The Rose-Hulman women’s basketball team didn’t dominate many opponents last season when it ended up with records of 9-18 overall and 6-12 in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference.
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Earlham tragedy leads to Rose football cancellation
Little did Rose-Hulman’s football players and coaches know, their 42-8 home victory over Anderson University last Saturday turned out to be their final game of the season.
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This weekend's Rose-Hulman vs. Earlham football game canceled
Due to Friday's tragic events involving three Earlham College students, the football game between Earlham and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology has been canceled.
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Anderson squeaks past Rose-Hulman
Anderson University scored in the 11th minute and held off a Rose-Hulman charge to earn a 1-0 men's soccer victory in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference semifinal match on Wednesday night at the Engineer Intramural Field.
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Rose swimmers near top because of vets, youth
Rose-Hulman swimming depth is at an all-time high, putting the Engineers at No. 15 in the NCAA Division III national rankings.
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A bigger taste?
On the night of Oct. 14, Rose-Hulman basketball fans were treated to something described by a couple of men’s players as “spectacular” and “epic” when they all jammed into Hulbert Arena for the insititute’s first “Midnight Madness” to tip off a season.
The memorable site wasn’t a 360-degree dunk or a no-look, behind-the-back pass.
It was Rose men’s coach Jim Shaw performing the “Bernie Dance,” based on the deceased character from the 1989 movie “Weekend At Bernie’s.”
“For a second, I thought he was having a seizure,” senior starting guard Austin Weatherford said with a straight face later. -
Rose women picked for 6th
The Rose-Hulman women’s basketball team has been picked to finish sixth in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference this season, according to a preseason poll of league coaches released Tuesday.
Hanover and Franklin were selected for first and second respectively, with just two poll points separating the two squads. -
Rose-Hulman no match for Franklin
Franklin showcased its No. 23 NCAA Division III ranking from d3football.com in a 56-0 victory over Rose-Hulman in Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference football Saturday.
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Rose blanks Woods 3-0 in women’s soccer
Rose-Hulman women’s soccer coach Amy Helliwell is riding a youth movement to what she hopes could produce a strong turnaround in this 2012 season.
It has so far.
Led by freshman Hayley Gilliam, a Zionsville native, the Engineers improved to 5-4-1 for the season with a dominant 3-0 victory against cross-county rival St. Mary-of-the-Woods College on Wednesday at Jim Rendel Field. -
METRO ROUNDUP: Engineers dominate HCAC honors
Rose-Hulman Institute student-athletes earned three Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Player of the Week awards, in results released by the league office on Monday.
West Vigo graduate John Burt was named HCAC Defensive Player of the Week and Eric Schaible the Special Teams Player of the Week in football, and B.J. Thompson earned Player of the Week honors in men’s soccer.
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Snyder throws for two early TDs in Rose-Hulman victory
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Rose’s record setter
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