Hope College football rebounds with shutout 'statement'
HOLLAND - After losing three consecutive games and facing an Olivet team that was averaging more than 43 points per game on offense, the struggling Hope College football team could have been in for another long day.
The Flying Dutchmen had other ideas, though, as they held the Comets to just 156 yards of total offense, forced three turnovers, and recovered a blocked punt in the end zone in an impressive 23-0 shutout win in front of 4,101 fans on Homecoming and Family Weekend.
"Very rarely do you see shutouts in college football these days because the rules are written for (the offense) to score points," said Hope coach Peter Stuursma. "Our guys held them to one first down in the first half on defense. We got a couple turnovers that were huge and offensively, I thought we were really efficient and moved the ball in the first half. In the second half, we did everything except for putting the ball in the end zone, but we also held on to the ball for a long time. Was it a total complete game? Not yet. But to come off what we've come off in the last three weeks, that was a huge statement by our guys."
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Hope (4-4, 1-3 MIAA) got things going early, as Carter Nofziger returned the opening kickoff 37 yards to the Olivet 48-yard line. It took the Flying Dutchmen nine plays and 3 minutes, 52 seconds before Daniel Romano plowed into the end zone from a yard out for a 7-0 lead with 11 minutes remaining in the first quarter.
The first quarter and beginning of the second quarter saw sluggish play from both teams, as each offense put the ball on the turf multiple times due to bad snaps, mishandled handoffs, and forced fumbles. A high snap over Hope quarterback Chance Strickland's head was recovered by Olivet at the Hope 12-yard line. But just two plays later, Hope linebacker Cole Luhmann pounced on an Olivet fumble to give the Flying Dutchmen the ball right back.
Hope proceeded to possess the ball for almost six minutes, as they got runs of 6 and 5 yards from Romano, 6, 9, and 15 yards from Strickland, and a slick 42-yard catch and run from TJ McKenzie to set up Strickland's 4-yard burst up the middle to cap off an 85-yard drive and make it 14-0 Hope at the 7:02 mark of the second quarter.
After the Flying Dutchmen defense proceeded to force the Comets into a three-and-out on its next possession, Luhmann broke through and blocked Brendan Sine's punt around the Olivet 15-yard line. The ball bounced all the way into the end zone, where Ja'Kaurie Kirkland fell on it to extend Hope's advantage to 20-0 with 2:04 to go before halftime.
"That was the first," Luhmann said when asked how many punts he had blocked in his life. "On their second punt, I realized that my guy wasn't blocking me and I said, 'I'm gonna just split the shield (of blockers) and see what I can get.' I just put my hand out and boom, it hit it and I was like 'Wow, this is pretty fun.' I saw my boy Ja'Kaurie scoop it up and I was like 'Amen. That's six right there.'
"We talked all week about bringing it each and every play (on defense). We played all out and it was so much fun to see the boys up front and the boys behind me just all doing their job today."
The Hope defense held Olivet (5-2, 1-2) to just 36 yards of offense in the first half. They also were the first team to shut out the Comets in 10 years.
Olivet moved the ball inside the Hope 25-yard line twice in the second half, but freshman cornerback Darion Nundley forced an incompletion in the end zone on a fourth-and-goal play from the six, while both Sam Cochran (Zeeland East) and Jackson Bush (Unity Christian) recorded interceptions to thwart Olivet's two other fourth quarter drives.
McKenzie didn't quite make it into the end zone for Hope, but he came up huge whenever his offense became a bit stagnant. McKenzie grabbed seven passes for 146 yards, many of which were of the highlight variety and all of them accounting for first downs.
"Every day in practice, we work hard as a team and when the plays need to be made, they look my way," said McKenzie. "That's something that I work toward every day to get to this moment, so when we need those big plays, I can make them. (Quarterback) Chase Brown puts the ball exactly where it needs to be and the O-line gives him the time to do that. This was a big one for us with it being Homecoming and playing on your home turf is something that you need to take pride in. We've been trying to end that losing streak and today we got it done. Having all of these people here and all these alumni coming back was exactly the environment that we needed."
Stuursma was happy to see his team's hard work and persistence pay off after a difficult October.
"TJ had a couple of catches where I literally went 'Wow," Stuursma said. "We're playing about eight or nine guys up front on our defensive line and we finally got some pressure (on the quarterback). It was a great crowd with great energy and it was fun to look around and see a sea of people today. I'm proud of Hope nation for that and sticking with us. It was fun to see the guys show some joy in the locker room after the game for the first time in a few weeks. There's no quit in our team. We really needed this."
Hope racked up 394 yards of total offense on the day.
Brown completed 13-of-23 passes for 232 yards for Hope. Romano carried the ball 17 times for 84 yards and one touchdown. Strickland added 42 rushing yards and a touchdown, while Kenyea Houston chipped in 35 yards on the ground.
Nofziger had a 47-yard reception in the first half and Terrell Harris had three catches for 24 yards for the Flying Dutchmen. Luhmann and Trevor Hansen both recorded seven tackles to lead Hope defensively.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Hope College football rebounds with shutout 'statement'
