Football Drops 28-14 Contest To Hillsdale

MIDLAND, MICH. – The Northwood University football team dropped a 28-14 contest to Hillsdale Saturday afternoon (November 7).

Both teams are now 4-6 overall, 4-5 in the GLIAC.

The game was scoreless late in the second quarter when the Chargers put together a pair of drives to open up a lead. HC scored touchdowns at the 5:24 and 00:13 mark to open up a 14-0 lead at the break. Both teams had eight first down in the opening half and Northwood held the ball longer than the Chargers (16:39-13:21), but Hillsdale out-gained Northwood 230-118 in the half.

Hillsdale ended up scoring touchdown on four straight drives, as the Chargers found the end zone on each of their first two drives of the second half.

Trailing 28-0 in the fourth quarter, the Northwood offense got going. Entering the fourth, the Timberwolves had 192 yards of offense. But Northwood put together a pair of scoring drives, capped by rushing touchdowns by Mark Morris (Macomb, Mich./Dakota) and Luke Shaffer (Georgetown, Pa./Southside) to make the score 28-14 with less than two minutes remaining. But NU was unable to recover an onside kick, clinching the win for Hillsdale.

For the game, Northwood finished with a 393-386 advantage in total yards. NU ended up with 272 yards passing and 121 yards rushing, while HC had 109 yards rushing and 277 yards rushing. The Timberwolves gained 201 of their 393 yards of offense in the fourth quarter alone. Northwood also held advantages in first downs (25-16) and time of possession (33:32-26:28), but the Timberwolves had three turnovers to zero for the Chargers.

The highlight of the day for Northwood came on their final complete pass of the day, as Morris became Northwood's all-time leading passer with a 13-yard completion to Terrance Stocker (Flint, Mich./Grand Blanc). Morris finished the game with 4,453 yards, passing Sleepie Tollie's mark of 4,442 yards.

Northwood will finish the season with a road game at Malone Saturday (November 14). Game time is set for 1 p.m.