FRANKLIN, Ind. - The No. 22 Mount St. Joseph University football team defeated Franklin College 27-20 to move to 9-0 on the year and 6-0 inside the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference. The win, coupled with a Rose-Hulman win at Hanover today sets the Lions up for a winner-take-all contest vs. the Fightin' Engineers one week from today.
The Lions prolific offensive attack was stymied a bit by the elements at Franklin on Saturday. Dealing with a constant wind of nearly 35 mph, with gusts of up to 50 mph throwing the football was a struggle for both teams all game long. So offensive coordinator
Caleb Corrill turned to his star-studded backfield of
Josh Taylor and
Cornell Beachem Jr. to take over on the ground. The duo did not disappoint, Taylor led the way with 16 carries for 191 yards and three touchdowns, Beachem carried it 17 times for 156 yards.
In a game where the Lions only completed eight passes,
Zykeem Hunley led the way with three catches for 81 yards and a touchdown.
Defensively the Lions were fantastic, holding Franklin under 300 yards for the game. Leading the way with 8 total tackles (5 solo) was
Nate Owens,
Nick Stephenson and
Nicholas Paff each contributed 7 tackles (6 solo).
This back in forth contest hung in the balance until very late into the fourth quarter. On their first drive of the fourth quarter, Franklin tied the game at 20 on a 1-yard touchdown drive. The Lions quickly answered back on their next possession, on the second play of the drive Beachem carried the ball 65 yards to get the Lions into the redzone. After a pair of negative plays put the Lions well behind the sticks, Taylor put together a pair of plays that may have saved the Lions undefeated season. On third and goal from the 15, he rushed the ball down to the 2-yard line on a play which he could have been sacked on. Then followed that up with a 4th down touchdown run from the 2-yard line.
Franklin looked like they were going to give themselves an opportunity to run out the majority of the clock and score late to tie or even take the lead. They were able to move the ball down the field primarily running the football, which kept the clock clicking away. The Lions defense though would have a say in the outcome of the game. Franklin had the ball 1st and 10 from the Lions 37 yard line with just more than two minutes to play. On that first down play,
Brady Buller registered the Lions lone sack in the game for a nine-yard loss putting Franklin way behind the chains. The sack forced the Grizzlies to go away from their ground game. On third and fourth down the Lions secondary was able to break up a pair of passes to force the turnover, those plays were made by
Mason Owens and
Austin Price.
The Lions would hand the ball to
Cornell Beachem Jr. three consecutive times, gaining a pair of first downs to end the game.
UP NEXT:
It all comes down to next week, the Lions will face off with Rose-Hulman (6-3, 3-0 HCAC) with the HCAC title on the line for the second season in a row. This time though the game will be played in Cincinnati! The Mount will look to win the HCAC outright and appear in the NCAA DIII playoffs for the first time since 2009. The game is scheduled to kickoff at 1:30 PM at Schueler Field on the campus of Mount St. Joseph University! Come early, Be Loud and GO LIONS!!!
