Grizzlies drop second straight

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By Dexter Howard, November 2, 2009

Throughout the first quarter, the Grizzly’s offense surprisingly revolved around their ground game. Within two short-lived series, junior running back Mitch Downs rushed for 15 yards with freshman carrier Ethan Cook adding 20 yards of his own to the offensive production. 

 

However, the gains came to no avail for the visiting Griz and only resulted in two failed scoring attempts. Capitalizing on Franklin’s short-comings, Rose-Hulman put together a twelve play, 85 yard scoring drive which spilled over into the early second quarter. Senior quarterback Derek Eitel went 3-7 with 60 yards for the Engineers on the drive, and added an extra 12 yards on the ground to give the visitors the 7-0 advantage.

 

Directly after their first points were put on the board, an unconventional onside kickoff from sophomore Nick Schneider would allow Rose-Hulman to maintain ball control. A costly offsides penalty against the Grizzlies on an Engineer fourth-and-short would result in a 32-yard touchdown toss from Eitel to wideout Reed Eason. The extra point from Scheider would be blocked by freshman Robby Jordan, making the score 13-0 Rose-Hulman with 10:23 left in the half. 

 

The quarterback-receiver duo would hook up again later in the second quarter. With the help of a 42-yard strike to Reed, followed by a 38-yard touchdown completion to Thomas Reives, Eitel would pad his team’s lead to 20-0 in a 30 second scoring effort. Despite twice navigating into Rose-Hulman territory, the efforts of Nick Purichia and company were thwarted by a stingy Engineer defense who forced six punts and an interception in the first half alone.

 

During the second half of play, the Grizzlies made a valiant attempt at gapping the lead on Rose-Hulman. An early 80-yard drive from the offense would be capped off with a 58-yard throw from Purichia to Adam Mellencamp, making it the seventh consecutive game in which Mellencamp has made a touchdown reception, and making the score 20-7. However, with a potent mix of rushing and passing, the Engineers would respond with a 72-yard scoring drive of their own keeping their lead at 27-7. 

 

A 64-yard touchdown scamper from Purichia late in the third quarter and a Mitch Deffner touchdown reception from Kyle Ray in the fourth would round out Franklin’s scoring efforts but the Grizzlies couldn’t shake the early deficit. Linebacker Andrew Couch would intercept a Ray pass deep in Franklin territory to clinch the 34-21 win for the Engineers.

 

The Grizzlies host Manchester College on Saturday.