After staying unbeaten in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference with a 52-14 home-field rout of Manchester on Saturday, Rose-Hulman’s football team faces a decisive duel to keep first place this coming weekend.
Coach Jeff Sokol’s Engineers now stand 6-2 overall and 4-0 in the HCAC after the Senior Day victory at Cook Stadium. They’ll play 1:30 p.m. this Saturday at second-place Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati. The Lions are now 7-1 overall and 4-1 in the conference after dominating Anderson 76-0 last Saturday.
In this coming Saturday’s clash at Mount St. Joseph, Rose will be trying to get its first win over the Lions since 2021. Last season, Mount St. Joseph rolled to a 48-0 win over the Engineers in Terre Haute. This season, the Lions’ lone defeat was a 40-38 setback at Hanover on Oct. 3. On Oct. 24, Rose won 27-20 at Hanover.
In the Manchester win, Rose quarterback junior Brock Zanetell completed 24 of 39 passes for 266 yards and three touchdowns. Alexander Marsteller rushed 18 times for 93 yards and two touchdowns. Joseph Alexion led the receivers with nine catches for 106 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
Alex Shryock and Brandon Chan led the Rose-Hulman defense with four tackles each. William Fleck and Curtic Gault were able to get in the backfield to record one sack each. Andrew Madlem had a forced fumble and fumble recovery, and Antonio Barnes came up with an interception.
Rose got on the board on their first drive of the game, executing a fake punt with Andrew Mrozinske passing across the middle to Hugh Meighan for a 40-yard gain to keep the drive alive. That led to a 35-yard field goal for Cohen Peters to make the score 3-0.
The Engineers extended their lead on the next drive, going 62 yards in nine plays, crossing the end zone on a two-yard rush by Marsteller to make the score 10-0. Marsteller scored again in the first quarter from one yard out to extend the Rose-Hulman lead to 17-0.
Rose-Hulman finished their explosive first quarter with a seven-play, 66-yard drive that ended in a two-yard passing touchdown from Zanetell to Austin Porter to make the score 24-0.
Manchester reached the end zone in the second quarter to avoid the shutout, making the score 24-7.
But the Rose-Hulman offense could not be stopped, adding another score on a 46-yard touchdown pass from Zanetell to Alexion right before the half to make the score 31-7 at the break.
Rose opened the second half with a 13-play, 60-yard drive that ended in a three-yard touchdown reception by Alexion, his second of the day, to extend the lead to 38-7. The Fightin’ Engineers secured the big win with two more scores, a 12-yard rushing touchdown by Porter and a six-yard rushing touchdown by Frank Niyonyishu to defeat the Manchester Spartans with a final score of 52-14.
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