Hope College football rolls to huge win over Northwestern
The Hope College football team put together a dominating performance on Saturday, defeating Northwestern (Minn.) 56-7.
The Flying Dutchmen improved to 3-1 after scoring 21 points in both the first and second quarters to take an early lead and keep it.
Less than a minute into the game, Terrell Harris scored on a 6-yard run.
It was enough to shake off the loss from last week and get Hope back on track.
"We had that sour taste from last week. From top to bottom, we felt like we made mistakes. This week, we scored on every possession in the first half and it was fun to see the guys put last week behind us," Hope coach Peter Stuursma said.
Later in the quarter, Elijah Smith ran into the end zone from 5 yards out. Less than a minute later, Chase Brown threw a 5-yard score to Chasse Frantti and it was 21-0 after one quarter.
In the second quarter, Brown struck again with a 24-yard strike to Carter Nofziger. Ja'Kaurie Kirkland scored on a 1-yard run and Chance Strickland scored on a 12-yard run to push the Hope lead to 42-0 at halftime.
Late in the third quarter, Dan Romano scored on a 5-yard touchdown run.
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Kirkland added another 5-yard TD run in the fourth.
Hope had 265 yards rushing and held Northwestern to just 41. The Flying Dutchmen had 254 yards passing and allowed 188.
"We have been trying to find ourselves offensively as far as running and passing. We had great balance and had to establish the running. To have six different players score in the first half is pretty unique," Stuursma said. "The defense rallied to tackles well. The game is geared to offenses gaining yards, but our guys did well and had control for the most part."
Brown was 10-for-13 for 179 yards and two touchdowns. Harris had four catches for 68 yards.
Hope had seven rushers reach double-digits in yards, led by Kirkland, who had 14 carries for 78 yards and Kenyea Houston, who had seven carries for 52 yards.
Luke Palmer totaled eight tackles to lead Hope's staunch defensive effort. Adam Vander Kooy had an interception.
Now, Hope turns its attention to the conference season, beginning with Adrian next week at home.
"The win is huge. We needed to put last week behind us. But we will be focused on Adrian now," Stuursma said. "There is always a different vibe when it comes to league play."
Contact sports editor Dan D’Addona at Dan.D’Addona@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanDAddona or Facebook @HollandSentinelSports.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Hope College football rolls to huge win over Northwestern
