Oct. 20, 2007

Box Score

Erie, Pa. - The Mercyhurst College football team scored two touchdowns in the first five minutes of the first quarter, but Hillsdale College bounced back to defeat the Lakers 42-33 Saturday at Tullio Field.

Mercyhurst running back Richard Stokes rushed for 150 yards, the fourth time this season he has had at least that many, and two touchdowns, but four Laker turnovers hampered the team's efforts.

Trailing 35-33, Mercyhurst picked off Hillsdale quarterback Mark Nicolet for the third time and started its drive at the Hillsdale 48 with 13:12 remaining. Nicolet entered the game with 23 touchdowns and just two interceptions. The Lakers drove to the Hillsdale 25 before a completion on third-down turned into disaster as a fumble gave the ball back to Hillsdale.

The Lakers did get another chance as Hillsdale went three-and-out and was forced to punt back to Mercyhurst. But the Lakers threw incomplete on third and fourth down to end their final threat.

Mercyhurst looked to be in control early as the Lakers scored two touchdowns just 14 seconds apart early in the first quarter. Quarterback Mitch Phillis led Mercyhurst on a 44-yard drive and closed it out with a touchdown pass to Josh Szeluga, the first of Phillis' three TD strikes of the game.

On the ensuing kickoff, Hillsdale's Zach Rausch fumbled away a short kick and the Lakers recovered at the Hillsdale 14-yard line. On the first play, Phillis found Brandon Hill for another touchdown that made it 14-0.

But Hillsdale battled back and outscored the Lakers 28-7 throughout the rest of the first half, getting a Nicolet touchdown pass and three second-quarter rushing touchdowns. Stokes scored Mercyhurst's only other touchdown of the half on a five-yard plunge that momentarily tied the game at 21-21 with 3:21 to play in the first half.

Hillsdale held a 28-21 lead at the half but the Lakers forced the Chargers to punt on their opening drive of the second half. Phillis then threw his third touchdown of the game on a 12-yard pass to Frank Ziegler, but the extra point was no good and Hillsdale held on to a 28-27 lead.

After the Chargers scored late in the third quarter to make it 35-27, Mercyhurst came right back with a scoring drive, capped by Stokes' one-yard touchdown that made it 35-33. The Lakers elected to go for the two-point conversion and Phillis' pass attempt was incomplete.

Phillis had an up-and-down game by going 17-of-34 for 154 yards. He had those three touchdown passes and three interceptions. Nicolet, who entered the game as the top-rated quarterback in the country, was held to 14-of-24 for 182 yards and three interceptions of his own to go with just one touchdown pass.

Defensively, Tim Herbener led the Mercyhurst defense with 17 tackles, a forced fumble, and 1.5 tackles for loss. Charlie Gleisner added 13 tackles and 0.5 tackles for loss. Craig Moone, Theo Hall and Julius McCormick all added interceptions.

Hillsdale improves to 6-2 on the year and 6-2 in GLIAC play, while Mercyhurst falls to 4-5 overall and 3-5 in the conference. The Lakers will play at Northern Michigan Saturday at 1:00 p.m.