Published: November 08, 2009 12:00 am         

Rose-Hulman football secures winning season

Eitel tosses for another 300 yards

Anderson — Rose-Hulman secured its fourth consecutive winning season with a convincing 37-6 victory over Anderson University in Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference football action on Saturday.

Senior Derek Eitel completed a historic career by finishing 20 for 29 through the air for 312 yards and four touchdowns in three quarters of action.

Thomas Reives added six receptions for 100 yards and two touchdowns in his final college game. Junior Ben Hopf pitched in with a career-high 95 receiving yards four catches.

On the ground, sophomore Kyle Kovach had a team-high 34 rushing yards and senior Tyler Thornton compiled 33 yards on the ground.

The defense allowed just 204 yards in total offense and held Anderson scoreless until the final play of the game. Sophomore Matt Green led the defensive effort with seven tackles. Junior Scott Eaton had six stops, with senior Nick Murphy and junior Robby Alumbaugh recorded interceptions.

Rose-Hulman’s offensive unit capped one of the best seasons in school history by setting four team and numerous individual school records in the performance. Eitel capped his career with school records of 576 completions in 1,037 attempts for 7,507 yards and 52 touchdowns as a Fightin’ Engineer. His efforts also included single-season passing records of 2,723 yards and 24 touchdowns.

Other school records for Rose-Hulman included single-season marks for points (365), total offense (4,287 yards), passing yards (2,832) and touchdown passes (25).

Other individual marks included junior Reed Eason with 70 receptions this season and sophomore kicker Nick Schneider with 43 extra points. Schneider also tied a school record with three field goals in the victory over Anderson.

The Engineers opened the scoring on the first drive with a six-play, 55-yard drive that ended on an 18-yard scoring strike from Eitel to Reives. The lead reached 10-0 on a 24-yard field goal by Schneider with 2:57 left in the first quarter.

Eitel connected with Huddleston on a nine-yard scoring strike with 9:33 left in the second quarter as the lead reached 17-0.

Rose-Hulman rounded out the first half scoring with two hail mary touchdown passes. The first came on fourth and 20, and involved Hopf leaping over defenders to haul in a 37-yard touchdown pass to make the score 24-0 in favor of the Engineers with 2:29 left in the half.

The second was the final play of the first half, when Eitel and Reives connect ed on a 31-yard scoring strike in the left corner of the endzone to make the score 31-0 at the break.

Rose-Hulman capped its fourth consecutive winning season with a 6-4 mark, including a 4-4 record in league play. Anderson dropped to 1-8 overall and 1-6 in league play.



Rose-Hulman 37, Anderson 6

Rose-Hulman 10 21 6 0 — 37

Anderson 0 0 6 6 — 6

R-H — Reives 18 pass from Eitel (Schneider kick), 12:09 1Q

R-H — Schneider 24 FG, 2:57 1Q

R-H — Huddleston 9 pass from Eitel (Schneider kick), 9:33 2Q

R-H — Hopf 37 pass from Eitel (Schneider kick), 2:29 2Q

R-H — Reives 31 pass from Eitel (Schneider kick), 0:00 2Q

R-H — Schneider 30 FG, 8:57 3Q

R-H — Schneider 26 FG, 4:38 3Q

A — Jackson 18 pass from Walker, 2:09 4Q

RHIT AU

First downs 22 14

Rushes-yards 39-104 29-56

Passing yards 340 147

Att-Comp-Att. 24-36-1 13-33-2

Return yards 62 5

Punts-avg 4-35.8 8-29.5

Fumbles-lost 0-0 1-0

Penalties-yards 4-36 4-30

Individual statistics

Rushing — Rose-Hulman: Kovach 16-34, Thornton 10-33; Reives 1-17, Eitel 3-16, Boschert 1-4; Hill 3-4; Somerall 1-3, Gray 1-minus 3; Snyder 3-(-4). Anderson: Jackson 8-54, Payton 7-18, Sims 6-10; TEAM 1-(-7), Walker (7-minus 19.

Passing — Rose-Hulman: Eitel 20-29-0 312, Boschert 2-4-0 17, Snyder 2-3-1 11. Anderson: Walker 13-32-2 147, Benbow 0-1-0 0.

Receiving — Rose-Hulman: Reives 6-100, Eason 6-43; Huddleston 5-71, Hopf 4-95; Thornton 1-15, Nielson 1-11, Somerall 1-5. Anderson: Jackson 4-71, Joyce 4-28, Brunnemer 3-26, Thomas 2-22.