A huge deficit nearly turned into a huge comeback on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in Ohio.
The Hillsdale College football team fell behind host Tiffin 31-3, but scored 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to make it close. But in the end, there wasn't enough time for the Chargers to finish the comeback, and they lost to the Dragons 31-24 at Frost-Klanow Stadium. Hillsdale is now 2-6 overall and 2-5 in the GLIAC, while Tiffin improves to 5-3.
Hillsdale plays the first of back-to-back home games next Saturday at 1:00 against Saginaw Valley State University.
The much-improved Dragons recorded their first win over the Chargers since October 2006, and used their passing game to build a big lead over the first three quarters. After a 77-yard pass from Antonio Pipkin to Charles Holland, the Dragons held a 28-point lead with less than 12 minutes to play.
But at that point, the Hillsdale offense sprang to life. Quarterbacks Mark LaPrairie and C.J. Mifsud - who made his collegiate debut in this game - led Hillsdale on three scoring drives that used up 26 plays, covering a total of 197 yards in the game's last 10 minutes to make the Dragons very uncomfortable.
Hillsdale generated nine more first downs than Tiffin and outrushed the Dragons 124-96 in the game. But Pipkin was terrific as Tiffin's signal-caller, completing 22 of 30 passes for 325 yards. He also rushed for the first score of the game and had 45 yards on the ground.
A key play occured early in the second quarter when Tiffin's Brandon Person took a blocked punt back 10 yards for a touchdown, springing the Dragons to an early 14-0 lead.
LaPrairie had his most productive game in three weeks, going 21-for-37 for 208 yards. He was knocked out of the game by the Tiffin defense, and when that happened, Mifsud came in and directed the team expertly down the field. He completed five passes for 54 yards, including a 23-yard scoring strike to junior wide receiver John Haley on a 4th-and-17 play that cut the lead to 31-24 with 61 seconds to play.
Tailbacks Jack Wiseman and Wade Wood each picked up rushing touchdowns, and Bennett Lewis ran the ball1 2 times for 45 yards.
Haley hauled in 6 passes for 75 yards and a touchdown, while junior H-back Alex Fogt also caught six passes for 53 yards.
Senior Tim Moinet had another excellent game defensively for Hillsdale with 7 solo tackles and one tackle for loss. Freshman linebacker Jay Rose had 6 stops and recovered a fumble, while linebacker Scotty Penola continues to improve week after week and had 6 solo tackles.