Sept. 27, 2008

Final Stats

PAINESVILLE, Ohio - The Adrian College football team needed to establish a physical running game at Lake Erie on Saturday and boy did they ever in a 37-17 win over the Storm. The Bulldogs rushed for a season-high 299 yards on 56 carries and Troy Niblock and Myke Johnson both went over 100 yards on the day. Niblock had four rushing touchdowns and also threw for a score as Adrian College rolled up 505 total yards against the provisional Division II school. Johnson ran for 126 yards and Niblock for 129 yards.

Lake Erie took a 3-0 lead on their first drive after a kickoff return put them at the AC 45-yard line. Cameron Szatala booted a 37-yard field goal which capped off the seven-play, 25-yard drive. Adrian's second drive resulted in Niblock's first rushing score of the day. The big play in the drive was a 41-yard pitch and catch between Mike McGee and Stevie Freeman which put the ball at the LE one-yard line. Lake Erie ended the first quarter on a Tony Howard 13-yard TD run with 35 seconds left to give the Storm a 10-7 lead after one quarter.

Adrian moved the ball through the air on their first possession of the second quarter as Niblock completed a 25-yard pass to Aaron Oswill and then found Joseph Beehler on a leaping 23-yard score with 12:58 left until halftime making it 14-10. With the game still close approaching the end of the half, Adrian put together a big scoring drive which covered eight plays and 56 yards and took 1:43 off the clock. Niblock's seven-yard TD run with 24 seconds left gave AC a 21-10 lead into the locker room.

Lake Erie gained momentum back on a 77-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Sean Bedevelsky to Demetrius Gray with 7:05 left in the third quarter making it 21-17. The rest of the game was all Adrian as they used their punishing running game to control the clock and put the game out of reach. The next possession saw Adrian drive 75 yards with 43 yards on the ground as Johnson carried the first five plays of the drive. Niblock's third TD at 2:39 from five yards gave the Bulldogs a 28-17 advantage.

The fourth quarter began with an eight-play, 75-yard drive to paydirt as Niblock carried for six yards to double up the Storm 34-17 with 12:13 left in the game. The final score was a 25-yard Justin Warner field goal with 39 seconds to go. Oswill lead the team with four catches for 48 yards. Freeman had his first 100-yard receiving game with 104 yards on three grabs. Adrian had struggled on third down this season (25 percent) but was 8-of-14 and 5-of-5 in the red zone.

Adrian was plus-four in the turnover battle with three interceptions and a fumble recovery. Nick Pipia recovered the fumble and had three tackles. Brad Smagala got his fourth pick of the season on the last play of the first half and also finished with five tackles. Harry Bailey led the defense with nine tackles and three tackles for a loss of 11 yards. Bobby Watson recorded seven tackles and one sack and also had an interception. Eric Suttie recorded an interception and also had two tackles in the secondary. Adrian finishes non-conference play with a 3-1 record and will host Kalamazoo College on October 4 beginning at 7:00 p.m.