Published: September 20, 2008 10:57 pm            

Rose coach not pleased with team after loss to Greenville

TERRE HAUTE — Scoreless in its previous two games, Greenville College unleashed a potent offensive attack to hand Rose-Hulman’s football team its first loss of the season, a 25-15 decision Saturday afternoon at Cook Stadium.

While Rose coach Steve Englehart did not seem pleased with his team’s defense, he sounded even more disappointed by the performance of its offense.

“We were terrible,” he said. “Our offense was absolutely terrible. It was disappointing. We had two scoring opportunities there in the first half and we didn’t come away with scores. We didn’t execute. We ran the ball pretty well for a stint, coming back from the [thunder] break [early in the fourth quarter]. We had a nice, long drive and it was mostly running the ball. Other than that drive right there, we didn’t run the ball very well.”

The Engineers’ offensive woes began on their first drive with a missed field goal and continued on their second drive with an interception by Greenville cornerback Edgar Townsend.

Late in the first period, the visiting Panthers jumped ahead in an unexpected manner when Dominic Kegel took the snap from the shotgun formation and sprinted left on a quarterback keeper for a 61-yard touchdown.

“First of all, we didn’t have a chance to tackle him because we weren’t even around,” Englehart pointed out in disgust. “Their quarterback made a good read and we weren’t in position to make the tackle. So whoever was supposed to be on quarterback in that defensive call that we had wasn’t on the quarterback.”

A botched snap on the extra point forced holder Nate Metzger to run in the 2-point conversion for an 8-0 Greenville lead.

Rose-Hulman answered midway through the second period with an eight-play, 65-yard drive that culminated with a 4-yard TD run by Calvin Bueltel, who busted through a hole on the right side and crossed the goal line standing up.

This time, the home team made a 2-point conversion out of a kicking formation. But this was by design as holder J.D. Hill took the snap and immediately ran it into the end zone to tie the score at 8-8.

But two touchdowns — a 9-yard run by Ketrone Blanks and a 63-yard bomb from Kegel to tight end Zach Friedrich — followed by two extra points put Greenville on top 22-8 by halftime.

“Our defensive back just didn’t make a play on the ball,” Englehart said, describing what went wrong on the long TD aerial. “He just ran into the back of the receiver and the receiver caught the ball. It looked like when the ball was up in the air that our DB would have had time to make a play — to either knock the ball down or intercept it.”

On the final play of the half, Greenville safety J.J. Willis picked off a Derek Eitel pass in the end zone to snuff out a Rose threat.

The third period started promisingly for the Engineers. Freshman outside linebacker Brad D’Agnillo tipped a lateral by Kegel, recovered the loose ball and advanced it to the Greenville 16-yard line.

On the very next play, Rose-Hulman running back Bryan Wong broke free for a 16-yard TD scamper and freshman Nick Schneider added the extra point to pull their team within 22-15 with 7:40 left in the third frame.

After the teams traded punts, the Panthers regained possession of the ball going into the fourth quarter. But another stalled drive forced another punt, giving Rose the ball at its 1. After Wong gained 6 yards on a run, officials heard thunder and signaled for a delay in the game.

Thirty-four minutes later, action resumed and the Engineers marched upfield — the drive that Englehart mentioned earlier — to the Greenville 34. But two negative rushing plays sandwiched around an incomplete pass resulted in a fourth-down quick kick that traveled only 16 yards to the Panthers’ 20.

Greenville quickly moved the ball into Rose-Hulman territory, resulting in a 21-yard field goal by Reid Ackerman with 1:42 showing on the scoreboard.

A third Eitel interception — this one by linebacker Grant Jarzynka with 1:09 remaining — sealed the outcome.

Greenville (1-2) will return home to face Blackburn next Saturday afternoon.

Rose (2-1) will play its Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference opener next Saturday evening at perennial HCAC powerhouse Mount St. Joseph.

“We’ll be ready,” Englehart promised. “We can learn a lot from losses and we will learn a lot from this loss.”



Greenville 25,

Rose-Hulman 15

Greenville College 8 14 0 3 — 25

Rose-Hulman 0 8 7 0 — 15

GC — Kegel 61 run (Metzger run), 1:42 1Q

RH — Bueltel 4 run (Hill run), 9:26 2Q

GC — Blanks 4 run (Ackerman run), 2:52 2Q

GC — Friedrich 63 pass from Kegel (Ackerman kick), 0:33 2Q

RH — Wong 16 run (Schneider kick), 7:40 3Q

GC — FG Ackerman 21, 1:42 4Q



GC RH

First downs 18 15

Rushes-yards 51-247 39-125

Passing yds. 140 117

Comp-Att-Int 8-16-0 9-25-3

Return yards 14 11

Penalties-yards 4-41 1-10

Punts-avg. 5-32.4 5-35.8

Fumbles-lost 4-1 2-0

Individual statistics

Rushing — Greenville, Kegel 26-126, Camarillo 8-44, Brown 4-22, Kennedy 3-17, Mitchell 2-15, Cunningham 1-14, Blanks 5-10, team 2-(-1). Rose, Bueltel 17-77, Wong 10-40, Hill 1-23, Eason 3-9, Thornton 2-1, Schrock 1-(-1), team 1-(-10), Eitel 4-(-14).

Passing — Greenville, Kegel 8-16-0 140. Rose, Eitel 9-25-3 117.

Receiving — Greenville, Friedrich 3-85, Gee 2-15, Fred 1-33, Blanks 1-6, Camarillo 1-1. Rose, Richter 4-34, Schrock 2-41, Somerall 2-16, Eason 1-26.

Tackles leaders — Greenville, Willis 7-3-10, Young 4-3-7, Jarzynka 4-2-6, Bey 2-4-6. Rose, Eaton 9-4-13, Spreen 9-1-10, Stevens 6-1-7, LaCross 6-1-7, D’Agnillo 4-2-6.

        

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