Visiting Rose-Hulman jumped out to a 13-0 lead in the second quarter and led by a 20-14 score before the Mount got its offense in gear with five straight touchdowns en route to a 49-20 home-opening and HCAC-opening victory. The Mount (2-0, 1-0 HCAC) will play at non-conference Illinois Wesleyan University on Sept. 15. Rose-Hulman drops to 1-1 overall, 0-1 in the conference.
The win enabled the Mount to go 6-0 in the all-time series against Rose-Hulman, and ran the Lions HCAC record to 19-1 in the last 20 conference games. The 49 points scored by the Mount tied their third-highest point output in a game, with the 2005 season 49-7 win at Rose-Hulman.
Two Engineer field goals and a one-yard quarterback keeper for a touchdown allowed the visitors to jump out to a 13-0 lead before Jake Davis (Cincinnati, OH/Anderson) scored to cut the deficit to 13-7. Vince Palmer (Cincinnati, OH/Anderson) then found wideout Mike Jones for a 34-yard TD strike and Kevin Koch (Cincinnati, OH/Roger Bacon) added the PAT to give the Mount a 14-13 lead with 4:53 to play in the first half.
Rose's Thomas Reives took the ensuing kickoff 98 yards for a score and kicker Jeremy Sharp added the PAT kich to give their team the advantage again at 20-14. That was all the scoring the Engineers would do on the night as the Mount led 21-20 at the half and then scored 14 points in each of the last two quarters. Palmer tossed two TD passes, Kyle Prosser (Cincinnati, OH/Oak Hills) had a 13-yard interception return for a score and Mike Lovell (West Chester, OH/Lakota West); and Davis added TD runs to close the scoring. Koch was a perfect seven-for-seven in PAT kicks for the game.
The Mount had 442 yards of total offense, with Palmer rushing for 59 yards and Lovell adding 56 yards on the ground. Palmer completed 14-of-20 for 215 yards, three TDs and two interceptions. Jones led the Mount with five catches for 68 yards. The Lions' defense held Rose-Hulman to 81 yards rushing on 38 attempts. They also intercepted four passes, including a school, single-game record-tying three pickoffs by Ricky Stautberg (Cincinnati, OH/Elder). Prosser added 11 tackles while Nick Yahl (St. Mary's, OH/Memorial) had 10 tackles and two sacks. Alex Harbin (Cincinnati, OH/Elder) also had two sacks and a fumble recovery.
