After an 0-3 start, the Hillsdale College football team is surging into conference play after back-to-back wins, and looking to make some noise in the G-MAC as we hit the midway point in the season.
The Chargers play host to Walsh this Saturday in a contest that takes place alongside Hillsdale College's annual Parents' Weekend festivities. The matchup is an important one for the Chargers, who can improve to 2-0 in the G-MAC with a victory over the Cavaliers.
For more about the matchup, check out our full guide:
Schedule
Walsh (1-4, 0-1 G-MAC) at Hillsdale College (2-3, 0-1 G-MAC) | 2 p.m. ET Saturday, Oct. 9 | Frank "Muddy" Waters Stadium | Hillsdale, MI
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Additional Info
Hillsdale Roster | Walsh Roster | 2021 Hillsdale Stats | 2021 Walsh Stats | G-MAC Schedule | G-MAC Standings | Game Notes
Last Game
The Chargers stunned two-time defending G-MAC Champion and 24th-ranked Tiffin on the road, 24-21, to open the conference season, jumping out to a 24-7 lead and holding off a furious rally by the Dragons with two fourth down stops in the final three minutes. Hillsdale harassed one of the G-MAC's top offenses into four turnovers, including two interceptions by senior safety Joe Schneider, and got rushing touchdowns from Jack Robinson and Garritt Aissen to secure the upset victory.
Scouting the Opposition
The Cavaliers opened the season with an impressive win at West Liberty, but have since struggled to four straight losses. The culprit has been an offense that ranks dead last in the G-MAC to date in almost every offensive statistical category, and hasn't scored more than two offensive touchdowns in any of Walsh's first five games.
After struggling with pressure in the Spring 2021 season, Walsh has done a better job of protecting quarterbacks Jeremy Hodge and Tom Vatter, but that has not yet led to a big leap in offensive production. Efficiency (a combined 53.5 percent completion percentage) and turnovers (five interceptions and four lost fumbles) have held the Cavaliers back.
Hodge started the first four games for Walsh, but Vatter finished the McKendree game and played the whole contest against Ashland. It remains to be seen who will be leading the Cavaliers into this weekend's contest.
Walsh's top offensive player in the spring 2021 season, All-G-MAC first team tailback Koby Adu-Poku, has missed three games with injuries. In his place, junior Thomas Wilks has gotten the bulk of the carries, rushing for 68 times for 3.8 yards per carry. Resurrecting a ground game that was an important part of the Cavaliers' success in the spring but has yet to produce a touchdown in five games is a major key for Walsh this weekend.
At receiver, experienced senior Tyre Gray leads the Cavaliers with three touchdown catches, while freshmen Jermaine Gresham and Delonte Hall also have impressed early.
The Walsh defense has held up well so far, keeping the Cavaliers in games despite the lack of offensive success. Walsh's strength is its linebacking corps, as senior Sal Sidebotham and junior Matt Amison lead Walsh in tackles and sophomore Preston Hodges has a 97-yard interception return.
Up front, Marcus Shellenbarger has been a terror for Walsh in its base 3-4 defense, with four sacks and 4.5 tackles for loss in five games.
On special teams, the Cavaliers have an accurate kicker in Mason Brown, who's 7 for 8 on field goal attempts and 7 for 7 on PATs this season, but has missed his only attempt longer than 38 yards. Punter Trey Crockett averages 40.9 yards per punt and has put 12 of his 28 punts inside the 20.
Walsh is coached by John Fankhauser, who is in his fourth season at the helm of the Cavaliers with a 9-22 record overall. An assistant for 19 years at Walsh before taking over the head job, Fankhauser got his start under legendary Walsh coach Jim Dennison, joining the program after serving as a student assistant at his alma mater, Youngstown State, in the mid-90s.
The Series
Hillsdale is unbeaten in five contests with Walsh, allowing the Cavaliers to score more than 10 points only once – though that meeting happened this past spring, a 31-21 Charger victory at Walsh. The Chargers have shut the Cavaliers out twice and have won by double-digits in all five contests so far.
Other Notes
- Hillsdale returns 18 starters from the Spring 2021 season, as well as its kicker and punter, giving the team an exciting amount of experience to draw on. All three of Hillsdale's first team All-G-MAC honorees are back – offensive lineman Cole Johnson, defensive tackle Nate Chambers, and safety Zach Herzog – as well as 10 of the Chargers' 11 All-Conference players overall.
- The Chargers' win over Tiffin last Saturday was a momentous one for Hillsdale for several reasons. Hillsdale handed the Dragons their first conference loss since 2018, snapping a 12-game win streak in the process. It was Hillsdale's first win over a ranked team on the road since beating 12th-ranked Ohio Dominican 34-18 on Sept. 15, 2018. 2018 was also the last year the Chargers captured the G-MAC title – going 8-0 in conference play and making the NCAA Division II playoffs despite a 1-2 nonconference record.
- The Chargers' excellent defensive line is starting to make some real noise as far as potential milestones. Senior defensive tackle Nate Chambers' five sacks through five games is more than the Charger leader in three of the previous four seasons, and on pace to break into the Chargers' top 10 all-time single season in the stat. Fellow senior defensive end Kyle Parran has 3.5 sacks on the year and 15.5 for his career – just a half-sack shy of breaking into the top 10 in Hillsdale history in career sacks.
- A standout for the previous three seasons for the Chargers, Alex Anschutz is making his final season his best yet. Hillsdale's STAR, a linebacker/safety hybrid position, currently leads the entire G-MAC in tackles (52), and is tied for 16th in all of Division II in the stat. Anschutz is not the only Charger defender standing out – Zach Herzog, his teammate, is seventh in the G-MAC with 37 total tackles.
- Redshirt freshman kicker Julian Lee remained perfect on the season with a 41-yard field goal and three extra points in the win over Tiffin. Lee is 5 for 5 on field goals so far this season, one of just seven players nationally to be perfect on multiple attempts, and has yet to miss a kick in his career at Hillsdale, with 27 straight made PATs and seven straight made field goals in nine games.
- The Charger football program brought home an impressive and historic award haul this summer. For the first time in program history, Hillsdale had three players earn CoSIDA Academic All-American honors – Johnson, senior safety Alex Anschutz and senior wide receiver Konnor Maloney, becoming just the sixth, seventh and eighth players in program history to receive the prestigious honor. All three return this fall. Additionally, 2021 graduate Joey Brenner was named the program's first G-MAC Scholar Athlete of the Year as well, and 79 of Hillsdale's 103 players posted a 3.0 or better GPA for the 2020-21 school year.
- The Charger football program has long been known for its strong family tradition, and that continues in 2021 with two sets of brothers in the starting lineup. Senior cornerback Matt Harding and sophomore tight end Michael Harding (Livonia, MI/Detroit Catholic Central) will start on opposite sides of the ball, following in the footsteps of older brother Steve Harding, who graduated from Hillsdale in 2014. On the offensive line, twin brothers Nick and Ben Affholter (Quincy, MI/Reading) will hold down the two guard spots. Both are the sons of Brad Affholter, a multi-year starter on the Charger offensive line in the mid-90s. There are two more sets of brothers on the team – Zach Herzog and his brother, Mike, a tailback, and Konnor Maloney and his brother Jacob, a defensive back. Additionally, H-back Calvin McNellie is joined by his brother, Carson, a student manager for the team in 2021.
- With 118 wins to date, Otterbein is third all-time in career coaching victories at Hillsdale, trailing two Charger Athletics Hall of Famers in Frank "Muddy" Waters (138) and Dick Lowry (134). If he maintains his current career pace of wins per season, Otterbein would pass Waters for the all-time record in the fall of 2024.