DePauw roars back to defeat Anderson on Community Day

Monday, September 15, 2008
DPU freshman Jon Ellis goes up the middle against Anderson Saturday. Eliis rushed for 38 yards on 15 carries in the DePauw victory

DePauw University's "Community Day" victory at Blackstock Stadium was perfect for Putnam County football fans. They could arrive late and leave early without missing much.

DePauw trailed 10-0 after one quarter, scored 31 points in the second quarter and had the 52-17 win over the Anderson University Ravens tucked away going into the fourth quarter on the hot, humid and windy afternoon.

"You can never be that unhappy with a win, scoring 52 points and the defense played pretty good," third-year DePauw coach Matt Walker said.

At the same time, the Tigers have some things to work on going into next week's Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference opener at Centre College in Danville, Ky.

DePauw turned the ball over four times (three fumbles, one pass interception) and rushed for only 103 yards and still managed to score seven touchdowns.

"Really we didn't play that well. It was a pretty sloppy game. We had some big plays and scored on some big plays, so the score ended up pretty good for us, but we clearly didn't run the football the way we like to," Walker said.

But the DePauw defense was solid. The Tigers held the Ravens to just 18 yards rushing, and most of the 209 passing yards allowed came between the 20-yard lines. Three times Anderson had the ball inside DePauw's 30 and didn't get into the end zone.

"Defensively I thought we were pretty good. There were some plays, third downs we didn't convert and some other things here and there we need to clean up. But [I'm] pretty happy because we put [our defense] in a lot of bad situations on offense. I thought they did a pretty good job," Walker said.

Anderson (1-1) arrived in Greencastle with one victory under its belt and that one-game played was obvious in the opening 15 minutes. DePauw turned the ball over on its first two possessions, but Anderson led just 10-0 going into the second quarter.

The Tigers rallied for their 11th win in 15 meeting against Anderson with big plays.

DePauw quarterback Spud Dick, who was 20-26 passing for 293 yards and four touchdowns, got the Tigers moving in the second quarter with back to back passes to Brayden Dahlstrom, a North Putnam High School product. Jordan Havercamp capped the eight-play possession with a 33-yard field goal.

Just two and a half minutes later the Tigers tied score 10-10 when Alex Koors pulled in a Dick pass for a 49-yard touchdown play.

DePauw's Dahlstrom set up the next touchdown when he blocked an Anderson punt and teammate Chris Gasbarra returned the loose ball seven yards for the go-ahead touchdown.

After DePauw's Michael McNeil sacked Anderson's QB for a 10-yard loss, the Tigers scored on another big play. On third down and four, Dick found Bryan Mulligan for a 24-yard touchdown play.

DePauw's defense forced Anderson to punt with 57.7 seconds left in the first half, and with three timeouts remaining that was plenty of time for another touchdown.

In just 49 seconds, the Tigers covered 70 yards in seven passing plays for their fourth touchdown of the period. Koors pulled in the four-yard scoring pass from Dick, giving DePauw a 31-10 halftime lead.

Anderson coach Jeff Judge felt DePauw's experience and depth was the difference in the game.

"DePauw is a good football team. They're a veteran football team. We're a young football team. Sometimes young players don't understand the game is 60 minutes long and you got to play and be more consistent, from that standpoint. Their kids rallied themselves, our kids got distracted and didn't play very well," Anderson coach Jeff Judge said.

The Tigers lost two more fumbles in the third quarter, but still scored two more touchdowns to lead 45-10 heading into the final 15 minute period.

"DePauw has got a good football team. I'm not sure we'll see a better team as we go on," Anderson's Judge said.

At?DePauw

DePauw 52, Anderson 17

Anderson 10 0 0 7 -- 17

DePauw 0 31 14 7 -- 52

First Quarter

A -- Tristan Crock, 34 field goal, 3-0.

A -- Nolan Bernard, 24 pass from Chase Thurston (Crock kick), 10-0.

Second Quarter

D -- Jordan Havercamp, 33 field goal, 10-3

D -- Alex Koors, 49 pass from Spud Dick (Havercamp kick), 10-10.

D -- Chris Gasbarra, 7 return of blocked punt (Havercamp kick), 17-10.

D -- Bryan Mulligan, 24 pass from Dick (Havercamp kick), 24-10.

D -- Koors, 4 pass from Dick (Havercamp kick), 31-10.

Third Quarter

D -- Rocky Buchta, 7 pass from Dick (Havercamp kick), 38-10.

D -- Jon Ellis 2 run (Havercamp kick), 45-10.

Fourth Quarter

A -- Zach Duke 21 pass from Thurston (Crock kick), 45-17.

D -- Chris Collins 5 run (Havercamp kick), 52-17.

Individual statistics

Rushing -- Anderson: Stott 11-36, Sims 7-7, Baumgartner 1-5, Dunsmore 2-2. DePauw: Collins 8-44, Ellis 15-38, Karazsia 10-20, Harrington 3-3, Dick 4-1, Morgan 1-0, Engle 1-(-3).

Passing -- Anderson: Thurston 19-42-0--185, Grider 4-8-0--24, Baumgartner 0-1-0--0. DePauw: Dick 26-20-1--254, Ingle 3-5-0--39.

Receiving -- Anderson: Duke 6-60, Bernard 5-79, Sims 4-5, Russell 2-26, Stott 2-15, Akers 2-10, Peacock 1-11. DePauw: Mulligan 5-50, Koors 4-79, Paus 3-31, Dahlstrom 3-17, Ellis 2-45, Etzcorn 2-32, Buchta 2-5, Collins 1-31, Meek 1-3.

Next game -- DePauw (1-0, 0-0 in SCAC) travels to Danville, Ky., to play Centre College next Saturday.

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