DePauw routs MSJ in opener

DePauw’s offense totaled 535 yards and garnered 28 first downs, while the defense recorded a score and forced four turnovers on the way to a 44-13 win over visiting Mount St. Joseph on Saturday in the Tigers’ season opener.

The Tigers grabbed a 17-0 lead in the first as Marko Adams started the scoring with a 45-yard field goal just 2:35 into the season.

Matt Hunt’s 34-yard touchdown pass to Ian Good made it 10-0 with 6:47 left in the stanza.

DePauw drove to the Lions’ 19 on the third possession of the contest before fumbling, but on Mount St. Joseph’s second play of the next possession DePauw’s Rocky Leffler picked off Quinn Farrell at the Lions’ 39 and returned it to the 20. Matt Hunt connected with Jason Kirchhoff for a 20-yard score on the next play to push the lead to 17-0 with 2:57 left in the third.

Adams made it 20-0 on the second play of the second quarter as he booted a 26-yard field goal. The guests reached the scoreboard on Mike Williams’ 1-yard run that was set up by Tyler Hannah’s 62-yard interception return. A bad snap on the point-after attempt left the score at 20-6 with 10:10 left in the half.

Kirchhoff’s 1-yard run with 2:12 left in the half pushed the lead to 27-6 and capped a 13-play, 77-yard drive.

DePauw dominated the first half stats as it outgained Mount St. Joseph 373-64 and held a 22-6 advantage in first downs while running 32 plays.

The Lions got the ball to start the second half, but on the second play, DePauw’s Brooks Hepp picked off Chaiten Tomlin at the Mount St. Joseph 32 and returned it to the end zone for a 34-6 lead.

On its next two series, Mount St. Joseph drove inside the DePauw 10, but both times the DePauw defense stopped the Lions on downs. Tomlin tossed a 13-yard scoring pass to Garrett Weaver to close the gap to 34-13 with 4:01 remaining, but DePauw responded with an 11-play, 91-yard drive with Matt Hunt teaming with Ben Wilson for a 6-yard score to make it 41-13 with 1:06 left in the third.

Adams booted his third field goal of the day with 12:17 left to wrap up the scoring.

Matt Hunt completed a career-high 31 passes in 46 attempts for 327 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. His brother, Andy, caught 12 of those for 131 yards. Kirchhoff rushed for 102 yards on 22 carries.

Tomlin completed 24 of 37 passes for 257 yards, but was sacked four times. Dustin Parker caught six for 77 yards, while Williams totaled 41 rushing yards in 14 attempts.

Zachary Reichle totaled nine tackles for the Tigers with Matt Crupi and Hepp each adding eight. Nate Orrison led the way with three tackles for losses totaling 26 yards and joined Will Longthorne, Michael Mitsch and Matt Robinson with one sack each.

Tavon Robertson paced the Lions with 13 tackles and 2.0 for losses.

DePauw outgained Mount St. Joseph, 538-327 and held a 28-20 edge in first downs.

Mount St. Joseph dropped to 0-2 with the loss.