ANGOLA, Ind. - Saturday afternoon was the tale of two halves for the Adrian football team. After an opening half-hour that saw the Bulldogs put up 228 yards of total offense, the Trine defense went on lockdown, stifling the black and gold offense to only five total yards in the second half. This performance defensively allowed the Thunder to pull away on the offensive side the ball, ultimately leading to a 36-20 victory in both team's conference-opener.

The hosts made their presence felt early, pouncing for a defensive fumble recovery in Adrian territory on the game's first play. While the momentum seemed to shift towards Trine in that moment, the Bulldogs' defense stood their ground on the ensuing drive, limiting the opposition to only a field goal.

Trailing 3-0 with only a minute-and-a-half off the board, the 'Dogs' offense retook the field and proceeded to string together a six-play, 75-yard drive, capitalized by a 37-yard touchdown pass from Jack Wurzer to Kenny Kujawa on a brilliant post route.

Trine would subsequently respond with a Xaine Kirby rushing touchdown on each of its next two possessions, ballooning its lead to 17-6 after one frame of action.

The second quarter began with a bang from Adrian. On a 1st-and-10 from the Thunder 30-yard line, Wuzer stepped back and dropped a dime to Gage Palus, who went up and made a spectacular catch in the endzone to pull the Bulldogs within four.

Some time passed before either team found the goal line again, and it would be the visitors to reignite the scoring.

Following a 15-play, 40-yard drive that in due course ended with a failed fourth-down conversion by Adrian, the Thunder opened up their resulting drive from their own 32-yard line. On the first snap, Trine quarterback Alex Price had the ball slipped from his grasp thanks to the soggy conditions at Fred Zollner Stadium. The loose change was scooped up by Sam Madrid who went on to cash in his findings in the endzone for a 23-yard score.

Neither side could find its footing over the next two drives, with both teams coming up empty. That is until the Thunder broke though in the dying seconds of the half, giving them a 24-20 lead heading into the locker room.

The second half was controlled from top to bottom by Trine, as the hosts would score the only points of the final thirty minutes en route to a highly-contested conference-win.

Adrian's (2-3, 0-1 MIAA) Wurzer finished with 174 yards passing on a 10-for-21 effort, including two touchdowns.

Steven Moses grounded out 82 total yards on 17 carries, while Jimmie Clark and Kujawa contributed 16 and 12 rushing yards, respectively.

On the receiving end, Preston Smith hauled in three passes for 58 yards, Kujawa tallied 49 yards to go along with his house call, and Palus compiled 30 total yards in addition to his touchdown.

All told, Adrian wrapped up with 233 yards of total offense on 56 plays.

The Bulldogs return home to Docking Stadium next week to host Albion in MIAA action. Kick-off is slated for 5 p.m.