A strong defensive effort put the Hillsdale College football team in position to pull a road upset of Ohio Dominican in the Chargers' final game of the season on Saturday, but Hillsdale just couldn't finish enough drives to prevail in a narrow 20-10 loss to the Panthers.
The Chargers had six drives into Ohio Dominican territory, but turned that into 10 points, as Hillsdale was picked off on two of those drives, turned the ball over on downs a third time, and missed a field goal on a fourth drive, which wasn't enough to match three touchdown drives in the second half by the Panthers.
Hillsdale's defense stood tall early in the game, as safety Sam Zemis picked off a pass on ODU's first drive to end a threatening advance by the Panthers to start. The Chargers made the most of that momentum, shutting ODU out in the first half, and taking a 3-0 lead just before halftime on a 34-yard field goal from Julian Lee.
The second half also started auspiciously for the Chargers, as the Panthers' first drive after halftime also ended in an interception as defensive tackle Zach Tokie pulled down a ball at the line of scrimmage to give Hillsdale good field position. The Chargers, however, couldn't capitalize, going three and out, and on the next drive the Panthers pulled ahead for the first time on a 20-yard touchdown pass to go up 7-3 with seven minutes left in the third quarter.
The Panthers extended their advantage to 13-3 in the beginning of the fourth quarter on a short touchdown run after a 12 play, 80 yard drive, but Hillsdale answered right back with its best drive of the game, an 11 play, 87 yard march that ended in a two-yard touchdown run by Michael Herzog to cut the deficit to 13-10 with 7:50 to play.
Needing one stop to get the ball back with a chance to pull back ahead, however, the Chargers couldn't get off the field, as ODU drove 71 yards in 10 plays and took 4:24 off the clock, scoring on an 11-yard touchdown pass to go up 20-10 with 3:20 to play.
Hillsdale made one final push to get back in the game, getting to the Ohio Dominican 32, but quarterback Luke Keller was sacked twice and the Chargers couldn't convert on fourth down, turning the ball back over to ODU who ran out the clock for the victory.
Herzog led the Chargers offense with 81 yards on 16 carries, including the touchdown, while Keller was 15 of 24 for 226 yards passing but battled constant pressure from a tough ODU front seven all day, getting sacked five times in the defeat.
Keller hooked up eight times with Isaac TeSlaa, who finished with 148 yards on the day, giving the sophomore 1,325 yards for the season, the third-most in a single season in Chargers history. Only former All-Americans Trey Brock and Andre Holmes put up more yards in a season than TeSlaa did in 2022, and TeSlaa may join both of them in the ranks of All-Americans soon.
In his final game as a Charger, senior Tim Boyd added four catches for 48 yards, and sophomore Austen Williams chipped in three catches for 30 yards as well.
Defensively, Hillsdale was led by senior Kyle Kudla, who put up 11 tackles and two quarterback hurries in his final performance in a Charger uniform. Vince Francescone added 10 tackles, and senior Max Torbert chipped in seven tackles as well. Sophomore Riley Tolsma finished with three tackles and a sack, giving him a team-leading 7.5 sacks for the season.
Hillsdale heads into the offseason having experienced its first losing season since joining the G-MAC in 2017, but with hope for the future. While the Chargers will miss their 12 graduating seniors, Hillsdale is slated to return nine offensive starters next season, including its quarterback, tailback, top receiver and entire offensive line, and is also bringing back a significant chunk of its defensive contributors as well.
The hope is that the Chargers' returners can use this season's close losses as fuel and come back even stronger in 2023, ready to climb the standings in the G-MAC.
Photo by Anthony Lupi