Hope College football surges to win after 'electrifying' punt return by Terrell Harris

HOLLAND - As the game looked to be slowly slipping away from the Hope College football team, Terrell Harris made his move - in record fashion.

Harris caught a punt at the Hope 10-yard line, then reversed his field nearing his own end zone.

He got two key blocks within the 10-yard line before exploding with a burst of speed through a pack of Loras defenders, then moved to the sideline where he got past the last two opponents and coasted into the end zone.

It sparked a 42-28 comeback win over Loras in Hope's home opener on Saturday, Sept. 9, at Ray & Sue Smith Stadium.

"That was electrifying," Hope quarterback Zach Trainor said. "That really got us going. We were in the game and we knew we could win. He really put the team on his back."

The 90-yard return broke the school record set all the way back in 1959 by Sherwood VanderWoude, who returned a punt 79 yards for a touchdown against Albion.

"Honestly I don't even know what happen. I tried to make a play out of it and our guys held their blocks all the way down the field," Harris said. "It was the result of how hard they worked. (After getting through the first wave), I saw one of our guys block his guy and freed up the space. He set that up perfectly. It is good to see that all work in a game. It was a huge momentum shift. This is huge. We needed this."

Loras was forced to punt after their next possession, and kicked it out of bounds, wanting nothing to do with Harris.

Loras couldn't keep track of Harris again, and again, it was costly as Harris scored on a 34-yard touchdown pass with 58 seconds remaining to tie the game at halftime. He was wide open, no defender within 20 yards of him.

Hope improved to 1-1.

"It was huge. It definitely gave us a shot in the arm," Hope coach Peter Stuursma said. "It was an energy burst - I was wondering why we couldn't get that from the get-go. But we needed that one after last week. We still have a lot to work on. It is fun to see our guys celebrate when they know there is a lot to work on. That is a nice start to our homestand and a nice way to put last week behind us."

More: Why Terrell Harris will be Hope football's 'guiding light'

Huge Hope run game

Hope's Elijah Smith opened the second half with a 58-yard touchdown run to give the Flying Dutchmen their first lead of the game.

Late in the first half, Hope took the momentum set by Haris and used a methodical drive that was mostly on the ground - 70 yards in 12 plays - capped by a a 3-yard touchdown run by Chance Strickland, tying the game 14-14. Strickland had eight carries for 48 yards in the drive.

Strickland was able to pound the ball for a few yards nearly every carry, helping Hope convert several third- and fourth-down conversions. He was a huge weapon to balance the speed of Harris. It also took the pressure off of the freshman quarterback.

In the fourth quarter, after a roughing-the-snapper penalty gave Hope new life after a missed field goal, Strickland scored on an 8-yard run.

Strickland and Smith were both over 100 yards rushing with Smith having 18 carries for 142 yards and Stickland carrying 25 times for 136 yards. The Flying Dutchmen totaled 296 yards on the ground.

"We had movement up front," Stuursma said. "It starts and ends with the big dogs up front. We have a 1-2 punch running with bursts and power. That is a pretty nice combination."

Home opener for rooking quarterback

Freshman quarterback Zach Trainor had a rocky start, but was able to turn this around in his first home start.

Trainor's first series at home resulted in a promising drive that ended in an interception. Early on he was chased by the defense and rushed a few decisions.

But in the first half, hew as 6-for-12 passing including a 34-yard touchdown pass to Harris. He finished 11-for-21 for 171 yards.

In the third quarter, Trainor found Grant Holtzer in the back of the end zone to push the Hope lead to 35-21.

Late in the fourth quarter he stuck in the pocket and found Brody Thompson on third-and-long. He was hit hard and had to leave the game for a play, but returned after Ben Wellman took one snap under center.

"That first drive, I thought I saw something and the guy made a great play and intercepted it," Trainor said. "But I was able to get the mistake out of the way early and played looser. The run game made it very easy for me. I definitely have to play better."

Hope struggles against pass until crunch time

The Hope secondardy struggled at times against the pass and gave up some big plays through the air.

The Hope front seven helped by getting pressure on Evan England for a lot of the game, the biggest by Connor Naklizki on a late fourth-down attempt, but when they didn't, England was able to find open receivers.

But when the game was on the line, Sam Cochran of Zeeland made a huge pass breakup to force a punt.

"We need to fix some things on defense. We had some coverage errors, and we have a bunch of new guys back there," Stuursma said. "It was huge to end with breakups and pressure up front. That helps the confidence level at the back end. We are going to enjoy this and shore up some of those mistakes and do it again next week."

Contact sports editor Dan D’Addona at Dan.D’Addona@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter @DanDAddona or Facebook @HollandSentinelSports.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Hope College football surges to win after 'electric' punt return