FRANKLIN, Ind.-- The Rose-Hulman football team traveled to face Franklin College on Saturday. The team came home with a huge win after an exciting fourth-quarter comeback to defeat the Grizzlies 35-34. This improves the Fightin' Engineers to 1-4 overall and 1-1 in the HCAC this season. 

The team's star running back, Jay Smith, had an incredible performance. He totaled 163 yards rushing on 41 attempts with three rushing touchdowns. Adam Yue was impressive as well, totaling 203 yards passing with two touchdowns through the air. Ben Klein led the receiving core with two catches for 80 yards and a receiving touchdown. 

Antonio Barnes and Rudy Griffing led the defense with eight tackles each. William Fleck made an impact with a team-high 2.5 tackles for loss, and Gabe Adams was the team's sack leader with 2.0 sacks against the Grizzlies. 

Franklin got off to a strong start on their Homecoming Weekend. The Grizzlies put up 14 points on two touchdowns in the first quarter to build an early lead. Rose-Hulman answered after Yue connected with Klein for a 61-yard touchdown to cut the deficit in half, 14-7. 

After another touchdown for the Grizzlies, Rose-Hulman would trail Franklin 21-7 heading into the locker room for halftime. 

Franklin added another score to take their largest lead of the day at 28-7 with 7:30 left in the third quarter. The Fightin' Engineers answered quickly with an 11-play, 74-yard drive that ended in a seven-yard rushing touchdown by Smith. 

In the final quarter, Franklin built their lead once more with another touchdown to make the score 34-14 with 11:04 remaining in the contest. This would be the last time Franklin would see the end zone, as the momentum switched to the Fightin' Engineers. 

Smith took over the game, marching the ball down the field for the Fightin' Engineers. Smith ended a nine-play, 61-yard drive, punching the ball in for the score from the one-yard line to cut the Franklin lead to 34-21 with 6:07 remaining. 

The Rose-Hulman defense made a huge stop on fourth down to turn the ball over on downs in Franklin territory. The team drove 33 yards in three plays to get the ball in the end zone on a five-yard rush by Smith to move the Fightin' Engineers into a one-score deficit, 34-28, with 3:14 remaining in the game.

After another stop by the Fightin' Engineers defense, Rose-Hulman was set up with the ball on their own 33-yard line, with 1:34 left on the clock. Yue led the team down the field, putting together an 11-play, 67-yard drive that ended with a touchdown pass to Smith from 18 yards out. The extra point by Trevor Saguto gave Rose-Hulman their first lead of the day at 35-34 with 28 seconds left. 

Rose-Hulman held on to defeat the Grizzlies, earning their first win of the season and a well-deserved victory in the conference standings. 

The Rose-Hulman football team will return to action on the road, traveling to face Baldwin Wallace on Saturday, October 18, at 1:30 PM.