DEFIANCE, Ohio -- Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology scored 42 unanswered points in the first half before cruising to a 63-14 victory in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference football opener on Saturday afternoon.
Andrew Dion finished 13-of-17 for 301 yards and 4 touchdowns while playing just the first half due to the early scoring margin.
Daniel Huery had a team-high seven receptions for 173 yards and 2 touchdowns, and
Noah Thomas added 3 receptions for 91 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Grant Ripperda led the ground attack with 74 yards on 15 carries with 1 touchdown.
Shane Welshans added 47 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns.
Defensively,
Michael Stevens had a 32-yard defensive interception return for a touchdown to go along with 5 tackles and 1 sack.
Kyzer Bowen had a team-high 6 tackles on the afternoon.
Overall, Rose-Hulman outgained Defiance 518 yards to 180 with strong performances on both sides of the ball.
Rose-Hulman started the scoring early, when Welshans scored on a 5-yard touchdown run with 10:50 left in the first quarter to give the Fightin' Engineers a 7-0 lead.
Dion threw touchdown passes to Thomas on back-to-back possessions to make the score 21-0 with 5:40 left in the first quarter. The first was a 30-yard touchdown strike and the second covered 58 yards.
Huery hauled in his first touchdown catch of the day on a 42-yard play to increase Rose-Hulman's lead to 28-0 at the end of the first quarter.
Rose-Hulman scored twice in the second quarter to increase the advantage to 42-0 at the half. Ripperda scored from 9 yards out, and Dion connected with Huery on a 17-yard touchdown pass to round out the first half scoring.
The lead reached 56-0 on a 1-yard touchdown run by
Alonzo Johnson and Stevens returning an interception 32 yards for a score.
Welshans closed out the Rose-Hulman scoring with a 3-yard touchdown run with 7:41 left in the contest.
Rose-Hulman improved to 2-2 on the season and 1-0 in HCAC play, while Defiance fell to 0-4 and 0-1 in league games. The Fightin' Engineers return to action next Saturday with the annual Homecoming Game against Hanover College at 2 pm.
