ALBION, Mich. – After building a three score lead in the second quarter, the Trine University football team held off a comeback attempt by Albion College to finish the day with their fifth win of the season by the score of 35-28.
The Thunder improve to 5-3 overall and 3-1 in Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) play following the victory. The Britons fall to 5-2 overall and 1-2 in MIAA play. Trine keeps themselves in at least a tie for second in the league standings, with just Alma College remaining undefeated.
The Britons won the coin toss and chose to receive the opening kickoff, looking for a quick lead in the contest. That plan went awry with the Thunder defense forcing a three-and-out. Tucker Hasselman, Jamon Gibson and Marcques Tagliaferri each came up with tackles for short gains or losses to force the punt.
The first play from scrimmage for Trine featured a deep slant route for Kale Lawson, that saw him gain a step on his defender. Alex Price caught the senior in stride and Lawson ran up the far sideline and dove into the endzone. After an Anthony Hentz extra point conversion, the score was 7-0.
The Thunder defense forced another three-and-out to give the ball right back to their teammates on the other side of the ball. This time Price led a calculated drive down the field, mostly on the ground. The two highlights of the drive were a pair of crucial completions to Brandon Kline, one coming on a third-and-six play and the other on a fourth-and-six play with both securing first downs. The second of those passes went for 32 yards down to the one setting up a dive play to Rubens Joseph who came up with the touchdown. Another Hentz kick made the score 14-0 with eight minutes remaining in the first quarter.
The home side had their first success of the day offensively on the ensuing drive, posting a touchdown of their own to cut the lead in half.
Trine's offense had another sustained drive after the Briton touchdown, ending the quarter on the oppositions four yard line with a first and goal opportunity. The drive was aided by a pass interference call and Kline came up with another crucial third down catch to keep the ball. On the first play of the second quarter Craig Nichols ran into the endzone making the score 21-7.
The defense posted another three-and-out performance to set up the offense with a chance to secure their biggest lead of the game. Price connected with both Kline and Lawson on medium passing plays with Kline's going for a touchdown that did make the score 28-7.
Albion put together a six-minute, 70-yard drive to score their second touchdown of the day cutting the Trine lead back to 14 points at 28-14.
After the first three-and-out of the day for Trine, Albion threatened to score again before the end of the half. The Thunder defense came up with a stop, spearheaded by a Matthew Jimenez sack on third down that pushed the Britons out of comfortable field goal range. Albion attempted the 47-yard kick as time expired, but it was no good.
The third quarter saw no points scored for either team. There were just three full drives during the period, but the Britons started a fourth with six minutes left and held on to the ball into the fourth quarter. They would score on the first play of the fourth to cut the lead back to one score at 28-21.
With the game back in reach the Thunder offense returned to the field for a crucial drive. Kline extended the drive once with an 11-yard reception on third down, but it looked like the team would need to punt after the second third down pass fell incomplete. A penalty against the Britons let the Thunder set up for a re-kick after a short punt on the first attempt. Rather than punt however the team ran a fake with Cam McCarver running up the middle for a 26-yard gain. The next play saw Price connect with Kline again moving the ball to the one yard line, before the quarterback was pushed across the goal line for the touchdown.
The Britons came up with another touchdown a few drives later to cut the lead back to one with just over three minutes remaining the contest. The home team brought three timeouts to the table for the final Trine drive but crucial first downs by way of a Xaine Kirby run and a long pass down the middle to Tim Kasper iced the game. The score went final at 35-28 in favor of the Thunder.
Gibson was once again a menace defensively for the team, finishing with a sack, two tackles for a loss and six tackles in the contest. Only Tagliaferri had more tackles in the contest with eight.
Offensively Price had a near perfect day at quarterback, he finished the game going 14-for-19 through the air with 298 yards and two touchdowns. Both Kline and Lawson finished the game with over 100 yards receiving. Kline led the team with 127 yards while Lawson posted 114.
The Thunder are on a bye next weekend and will next take the field when they travel to face Hope College on Saturday, Nov. 4. That game is set to start at 1 p.m.