FRANKLIN, Ind. -- The Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology football team secured a least a share of the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference football championship and set up a winner-take-all game for an NCAA Division III Playoff bid with a 38-14 victory at Franklin College on Saturday.

With the win, Rose-Hulman secured essentially an HCAC championship game next weekend at Cook Stadium.  The Fightin' Engineers have secured at least a share of the HCAC regular championship, but the winner of next Saturday's 1:30 pm game against Mount St. Joseph will represent the HCAC in the NCAA Division III Playoffs on Saturday Nov. 20.

Andrew Dion completed 24-of-38 passes for 308 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Rose-Hulman offense.  Shane Welshans led the ground attack with 111 rushing yards on 25 carries and one touchdown.

Adam Tice-Saliu had a team-high 121 receiving yards on four catches, highlighted by a 76-yard touchdown reception.  Noah Thomas added 85 receiving yards on seven catches with two touchdowns.

Defensively, Tyler Smith had a huge game with 12 tackles, two tackles-for-loss, one sack, four pass breakups and two quarterback hurries.  Michael Stevens added six tackles and three pass breakups, and Tyce Miller grabbed his team-high sixth interception of the season.

Jailen Hobbs added a 59-yard punt return for a score to lead the special teams performance.  Jonathan Oliger added a 1-1 field goal performance and was 5-5 on extra points, and Andrew Toler placed three of his five punts inside the 20-yard line to provide special teams depth.

Kai Ross led the Franklin offense by completing 20-of-44 passes for 245 yards and one touchdown.  Jarrett Gibson added 114 receiving yards on nine catches.

Franklin scored the first points of the game on its opening drive, but Rose-Hulman responded with 38 unanswered points over the next three quarters to secure the victory.

Oliger started the Rose-Hulman scoring with a 28-yard field goal to make the score 7-3.  The Fightin' Engineers took the lead for good at 17-7 on back-to-back touchdown passes from Dion to Thomas.  The first was a 16-yard catch in the first quarter, and the second was an 11-yard pass in the second quarter.

Welshans boosted the Fightin' Engineer lead to 24-7 at the half with a 1-yard touchdown run to cap a 10-play drive.

In the second half, Tice-Saliu hauled in his 76-yard touchdown catch from Dion to make the score 31-7 at the 11:14 mark.  Hobbs completed the scoring with his 59-yard punt return for a touchdown.

Rose-Hulman improved to 7-2 on the season and secured at least a share of the 13th regular season conference championship in school history with the win.  The Fightin' Engineers have won three HCAC regular season championships under head coach Jeff Sokol (2013, 2016, 2021) and seek their second NCAA Division III playoff appearance in program history next weekend.  Franklin dropped to 5-4 on the season with the loss.