Terre Haute, Ind. - Rhodes College football found themselves on the gridiron against an old conference foe in Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (RHIT). The Lynx powered past the Fightin Engineers, totaling 379 offensive yards, six touchdowns, an interception and two sacks.
As rain fell during the beginning portion of the game, senior quarterback
PJ Settles threw a 37-yard pass to
Josh Lucas, the beginning of 92 reception yards for Lucas on the night. After the Lynx were forced to punt the ball and on the second play of RHIT's first drive,
Duke Sherrell forced a fumble as
Parker Rye came up with the ball for the Lynx.
Rhodes turned the ball over on their own one yard line where
D'On Coofer pressured Engineer quarterback Andrew Dion into the end zone for a sack and safety. The Lynx led 2-0 after the first quarter.
Lucas caught the first touchdown of the game with 8:38 left to play in the first half. Settles threw the 20-yard completion while freshman
Stephan Jean-Francois made his collegiate kicking debut. Jean-Francois made the extra point and finished the game with six kicks for 324 yards.
Rhodes was charged with roughing the kicker near the end of the second quarter, allowing the Engineers to re-gain possession of the ball with 38 seconds to go. Senior
Cody Stockton had other ideas, intercepting the pass and returning the ball 35 yards to the RHIT 20-yard line. After Settles was sacked, the Lynx downed the ball with six seconds left in the half. Rhodes took a 15-7 halftime lead after Settles and Lucas once again connected on a 25-yard reception in the end zone.
Rhodes exploded in the third quarter with 21 points. Settles ran for a 36-yard touchdown on Rhodes' first drive to put the Lynx ahead by 15 points. RHIT had possession of the ball on their own 12-yard line when
Micah Battle blocked the Engineers' punt. Rhodes gained possession of the ball on the four yard line. McKay ran the ball twice, scoring with 10:12 left in the quarter.
RHIT's next drive ended as
Trent Holt recovered a second fumble of the night. Settles and Lucas connected for the final time on a 10-yard reception which Lucas caught over his shoulder running to the corner to give Rhodes a 36-7 lead. RHIT then threw a 22-yard touchdown to end scoring in the quarter. During the final frame, each team put the ball in the end zone once. Rhodes' McKay finished an eight-play, 40-yard drive with an eight yard TD run.
Settles finished the game with 157 yards passing and 135 net rushing yards.
Adam Martinez recorded a 26-yard completion on third and 27 for the Lynx. Defensively, Stockton led Rhodes with 10 total tackles, including eight solo, as well as one interception. Holt added six tackles, five of which were on his own.
The Lynx defense held RHIT to 109 net rushing yards and only 17 minutes of possession.
Rhodes begins conference play next weekend, hosting Berry College at 1 p.m. on Saturday, September 15th.
