Hope football overmatched in first-place battle with Alma

HOLLAND - Trailing by four, the Hope College football team had done a stellar job defensively against one of the highest scoring teams in the nation.

But two possessions to start the second half changed everything in a MIAA first-place battle with Alma.

The Scots used those two quick scores to propel them to a 35-17 win on Saturday at Hope's Ray & Sue Smith Stadium.

"The first drive of the second half was huge that we didn't get a stop. We chose to kick into the wind because we wanted to win it in the fourth quarter, but they beat us in the third quarter, so that didn't go as planned," Hope coach Peter Stuursma said. "We have to regroup and find a way to learn from this."

Hope dropped to 5-2 and 2-1 in the MIAA. Alma improved to 6-0 and 2-0 in the MIAA and is alone in first place.

"I felt like we beat ourselves, and ultimately, that is my responsibility as a head coach, and I take full responsibility. We had too many penalties and mistakes. I am disappointed that we didn't have our guys better prepared," Stuursma said.

At the end of the first half, it looked like the momentum had evaporated from Alma after some penalties, missed opportunities and a missed field goal attempt to close the half.

But Alma marched right down the field to open the second half and scored to push the lead to 21-10.

The Scots weren't done. After forcing a punt, the Scots marched right down the field and scored again on a Carter St. John 15-yard run following two costly penalties by the Flying Dutchmen.

Hope's defense gave the team a chance with a goal line stand on fourth down - only to turn it back over on downs.

Alma capitalized with a halfback pass for a touchdown on the very next play to make it 35-10 and didn't look back, taking over first place in the MIAA.

Hope started strong defensively, allowing just one Alma offensive score in the first half, and that came on an extremely short field after an interception gave the Scots the ball on the Hope 4-yard line.

But in the end, Alma had 218 yards rushing and 371 yards rushing. Carter St. John was 13-for-21 passing for 146 yards and Eddie Williams rushed for 98 yards.

Meanwhile, the Hope offense struggled.

Here are the takeaways:

Strong start picked off by Scots

The game couldn't have started much worse for Hope.

After the first play of the game was stuffed for a loss by the Alma defense, Hope freshman quarterback Zach Trainor underthrew a pass into the wind and it was intercepted.

Despite the short field, the Scots did not score and were stopped on fourth down.

But Trainor threw another interception a couple plays later and Alma took advantage with a touchdown.

Trainor was rushed out of the pocket on several plays early on and was forced on the move throughout the game thanks to Alma's strong rush.

Alma momentum returns with a 'Poff'

After a Hope touchdown tied the game 7-7, the momentum was immediately gone with a poof - or rather a "Poff."

Alma's Zach Poff, a transfer from Hope, returned the ensuing kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown. Poff proved he was comfortable at his former home field and broke several tackles before out-running the Flying Dutchmen to the end zone.

It put Alma up 14-7.

Offensive woes

After two interceptions early, it didn't get much better for the Hope offense.

The Flying Dutchmen put together one strong scoring drive in the first half, capped by a quarterback sneak from Trainor into the end zone.

They added a field goal in the second quarter, but nothing was working consistently.

With all the talk about Alma's high-powered offense that put up 70 points in its last game and is among the nation's highest in scoring average, it was the Alma defense that made the statement.

Ben Wellman came in at quarterback in the fourth quarter and scored on a quarterback keeper after driving Hope down the field.

More: MIAA title on line for Hope football in showdown with high-scoring Alma

The pressure continued on the quarterback as Wellman was rushed and took several shots. He was sacked twice on the next Hope drive, including on fourth down with 5:28 to go in the fourth.

Hope rushed for just 89 yards, had 194 yards of total offense and went just 3-for-10 on third downs.

Trainor was 8-for-15 passing for 105 yards. He was sacked three times.

Chance Strickland led Hope rushing with 12 carries for 63 yards.

"They did what we expected to them, but we didn't do enough. Their defensive front was really good and we didn't do enough. We moved the ball in spurts, but not enough," Stuursma said.

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 football overmatched in first-place battle with Alma