PHOTOS

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- The Rose-Hulman Fightin' Engineers football team hosted Trine in their home opener on Saturday night under the lights. Trine came away with a comeback win defeating the Fightin' Engineers with a final score of 39-33. This drops Rose-Hulman to 0-2 to start the season. 

Jay Smith was the standout for Rose-Hulman finishing the game with 134 yards rushing and three touchdowns. Rick Easterwood led the Fightin' Engineers under center finishing the game going 21-33 with 283 yards passing and two touchdowns through the air. Daniel Huery was the top receiver for Rose totaling 10 catches for 82 yards and a touchdown. 

The defense was led by Austin Hastings with an impressive 15 tackles. Augustus Shryock was another standout with 2.5 tackles for loss and one sack with a forced fumble. 

Trine got on the board first with a field goal in the first quarter. Rose-Hulman answered to take the lead on a four-yard pass from Easterwood to Brandon Green for a touchdown at the end of the quarter. Rose-Hulman led 6-3 after a missed extra point at the quarter break.

Rose-Hulman began to build a lead in the second quarter. After Trine jumped ahead on a touchdown 9-6, Rose-Hulman scored two touchdowns from Smith and Huery to build a substantial lead. The Fightin' Engineers stood in front 19-9 heading into the locker room for halftime. 

After a Trine field goal to start the second half, Rose-Hulman started to pull away. Smith capped off back to back drives with rushing touchdowns scoring on his longest run of the day from 50-yards out. This gave Rose-Hulman the lead 33-12 with 2:23 left in the third quarter. 

Trine started their comeback with a 31-yard touchdown reception to end the third quarter. The Thunder continued to chip away at the Rose-Hulman lead putting up two more touchdowns to tie the game at 33-33 with 5:07 remaining in the game. 

After coming up short on an incomplete pass on third down Rose-Hulman relied on their punter Andrew Toler to flip the field in the final minutes. Toler had a booming punt that was downed at the Trine one-yard line to back the Thunder all the way up to their goal line with 3:51 remaining in the game. Trine put together an 11-play, 99-yard game winning drive capped off with a touchdown to end the game and steal the win from the Fightin' Engineers.

Rose-Hulman will look to bounce back as they host Hope College for their Tackle Childhood Cancer Game on Saturday, September 21 at 1:30 PM.