HANOVER, Ind. -- The Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology football team will compete for its second consecutive Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference championship and its third NCAA Division III Playoff appearance next week, after the Fightin' Engineers moved to 6-0 in HCAC play with a 47-17 win at Hanover College on Saturday.
The Fightin' Engineers (6-3, 6-0 HCAC) will travel to No. 23 ranked Mount St. Joseph (9-0, 6-0 HCAC) next Saturday at 1:30 pm in Cincinnati in the 2022 HCAC Championship Game after today's results.
Rose-Hulman relied on a balanced offensive attack for the win.Â
Miguel Robertson finished 14-of-23 through the air for 223 yards and 3 touchdowns, while
Grant Ripperda rushed for career-highs of 204 yards and 3 touchdowns on 41 attempts as Rose-Hulman won its 15th consecutive game against HCAC foes.
Other key offensive contributors included
Daniel Huery with 7 receptions for 110 yards and 2 touchdowns;
Jailen Hobbs with 3 catches for 78 yards and 1 touchdown; and
Kyle Rehberg with field goals of 19 and 28 yards to go along with 5 extra points.
Defensively,
Kyzer Bowen had a team-high 6 tadckles.Â
Deven Cobb added a fumble recovery and
Chaikou Sow set up a score with an interception. Sow also had a tackle-for-loss for the Engineer defense.
Hanover took an early 7-0 lead on a 2-yard touchdown run by quarterback Matthew Weiner. Rose-Hulman answered with 21 straight points to take a 21-7 advantage. Ripperda had touchdown runs of 5 and 1 yards, and Robertson connected with Hobbs on a 29-yard score to make the score 21-7.
After another Weiner rushing touchdown, Rehberg gave Rose-Hulman a 24-14 advantage with a 19-yard field goal. Hanover closed to within 24-17 at the break on a 37-yard field goal to cap the first half scoring.
Rose-Hulman dominated the second half by a 23-0 score to push its way to the 47-17 win. Robertson and Huery connected on touchdown strikes of 58 and 18 yards, Ripperda scored on a 3-yard run, and Rehberg capped the scoring with a 28-yard field goal.
Rose-Hulman will seek its second straight NCAA Division III Playoff appearance next weekend and
Jeff Sokol seeks his third NCAA trip as Fightin' Engineer head coach (2016, 2021). Mount St. Joseph has received its first national ranking in more than a decade from the American Football Coaches Association entering Saturday's winner-take-all matchup.
