HANOVER, Ind. -- Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology scored the first 31 points and cruised to a 31-13 victory over Hanover College in Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference football action on Saturday afternoon.

Austin Swenson finished 22-35 through the air for 147 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Fightin' Engineer offense.  Alec Fisher hauled in two touchdown receptions, and Stanley Hogan III and Kevin Dufauchard contributed touchdown rushes to the performance.

The Rose-Hulman defense was a key to the game, forcing four Hanover interceptions to shutout the Panthers for the first three quarters.  Alec Thompson snagged two interceptions, and Kevin Nowak and Tyler Brutofsky had one interception each.  

The Fightin' Engineers also had four sacks on the day, with Kaelen Garner recording 2.5 and Matt Michalak adding 1.5.  Garner led the Rose-Hulman defense with nine total tackles with four tackles-for-loss and the 2.5 sacks.  Michalak added seven stops and three tackles-for-loss.

The Hanover offense was limited to 11-32 through the air with the four interceptions as Rose-Hulman was able to control much of the game defensively.  Adam Gutermuth was limited to 9-28 through the air for 127 yards and one touchdown for the Panthers.

Rose-Hulman took a 17-0 lead with three scores in the first quarter.  The first Fightin' Engineer drive covered 13 plays and 57 yards, capped by an 11-yard touchdown pass from Swenson to Fisher with 9:51 left in the opening quarter.

Rose-Hulman then had a 16-play, 68-yard march that was capped by a field goal.  Matt Murray successfully booted a 28-yard kick, pushing the lead to 10-0 with 4:24 left in the opening quarter.

The lead reached 17-0 with one more scoring drive in the opening quarter.  Nowak returned an interception to the 10-yard line, then Swenson hit Fisher on another scoring strike on the next play.

Rose-Hulman's defense shutout Hanover for the remainder of the first half to keep the lead at 17-0 at the break.

The Fightin' Engineers scored twice in the first seven of the second half as the lead reached 31-0.  Hogan scored from two yards out to cap a four-play drive, then Dufauchard had a four-yard run to score with 8:05 left in the third quarter.

Hanover scored a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns to bring the final margin within 31-13.

Rose-Hulman improved to 2-1 on the season and 1-0 in HCAC play, while Hanover dropped to 0-3.  The Fightin' Engineers travel to Defiance College next Saturday afternoon.