There were a lot of players on the Hillsdale College football team suiting up on a Saturday for the first time in their careers Saturday night. Although the Chargers were on the losing end of the 2014 season opener, there were plenty of positives to come out of the game.
Hillsdale lost an entertaining shootout with the host Findlay Oilers 46-38 before more than 2,100 fans in Findlay, Ohio. The Chargers, 0-1 overall and in the GLIAC, will head back to Ohio next week to take on the Lake Erie College Storm.
This game went down as the highest-scoring regulation season opener in Hillsdale College football history. Only the 49-43 four-overtime classic in 2004 eclipsed this game in terms of total points scored in such games.
The Oilers struck the first blow on the season's first drive when quarterback Verlon Reed - a former Ohio State University recruit - threw a 32-yard touchdown pass to Findlay's Luke Hampton. Reed them completed an unexpected two-point conversion to make the score 8-0 just 1:39 into the game. That eight-point margin would end up being the final distance between these teams, but not before some impressive offensive fireworks from both teams.
Charger tailback Bennett Lewis has waited an entire year to get back on the field to show what kind of impact player he could be for the team. The wait was worth it. Lewis was electrifying, rushing the ball 24 times for 143 yards and three touchdowns. Lewis was injured late in the 2013 season opener against California (Pa.) and missed the rest of that season. The team and Lewis have waited that long to see what he could do, and Saturday's opener could portend of big things to come from number 6.
Lewis produced the first 100-yard rushing game by a Charger tailback since the final game of the career of former All-American Joe Glendening back in the 2012 season finale at Northwood.
Sophomore quarterback Mark LaPrairie made his first collegiate start and showed a high level of execution and a cool head in a hostile environment right away. He completed 16 of 28 passes for 214 yards and one touchdown. He led the team on an eight-play, 54-yard drive in the game's last 54 seconds that got the team in position to potentially tie the game. But his final attempt from the Findlay 26 fell incomplete. He completed three passes and scrambled for 12 yards on the final drive.
Senior wide receiver Evan Bach hauled in six passes for 104 yards to lead the Charger receivers. Junior H-back Alex Fogt caught a four-yard touchdown pass from LaPrarie, while sophomore Joe Srebernak had three catches for 53 yards.
Defensively, senior linebacker Butch Herzog racked up 10 solo tackles, while senior Tim Moinet had an interception. Bach recovered a muffed punt at the Findlay one-yard line that led to a Lewis touchdown in a first quarter that featured 29 total points between the teams.
Photo by Sheridan Markatos