by Robert Youngs, Jr.
Knowing it had a tall task on Saturday in Lenawee County, the Kalamazoo College football team was defeated by the Adrian Bulldogs, 38-7, at Performance Stadium in Adrian.
"That's a very good defensive team," said Hornets' coach Jamie Zorbo. "They've got the best defense in our league, and I thought our offense did a good job of moving the ball today."
Kalamazoo opened the contest with an excellent drive, moving the ball deep into Bulldogs territory. After the Adrian defense stiffened, junior quarterback Aaron McGuire pooched a punt inside the Bulldogs' 15-yard-line.
Without even feeling like it blinked, K found itself down 21-0 following a couple of deep Adrian bombs behind enemy lines and a touchdown run. To stop the bleeding, the Hornets knotted up a tourniquet in the form of an 11-play, 75-yard touchdown drive early in the second quarter.
McGuire played the role of gunslinger, completing six of six passes on the drive, finding receivers Josh Wise, Alex Dietrich, and Dan Grost along the way before finding Mikael Lott for the second time on the drive for an 18-yard touchdown pass, cutting the lead to 21-7.
"That was a key point in the game to get back in it," said Zorbo. "It was a great job by our offense; a nice, long, sustained drive, and we did a great job of finishing at the end."
Two McGuire rushes and an offside penalty against Adrian helped balance out the attack.
Adrian booted a field goal to push the score to 24-7, but the Hornets weren't done fighting.
Kalamazoo put together a 10-play, 70-yard drive that saw the Hornets fly themselves down to the the Adrian one-yard line. Wanting to get the score closer, it wasn't meant to be as an incomplete pass on fourth down gave the ball back to the Bulldogs.
"Our offensive coordinator, Van Nickert, did a great job of putting our guys in position to make plays today," Zorbo said. "Unfortunately, we just didn't make enough of them today.
Kalamazoo defenders Alan Mencer and Dylan Zerki helped right the ship with a big stop on third down, bringing down Adrian quarterback Taylor Copacia, who was scrambling on the Bulldogs' first drive of the second half. After a beautiful Gray Vreeland punt that bounced out at the Bulldogs' three-yard line, K had a chance to get the ball back.
Having appeared to flatten the tires of the potent Bulldogs' offense, Kalamazoo would have received the ball via punt, but a face mask penalty kept the Bulldogs in drive, allowing Adrian to get further down the field. Finally earning the punt, bad fortune struck the Hornets again, as a muff gave the Bulldogs a short porch for their next touchdown, pushing the score to 31-7.
Kalamazoo's first two drives of the fourth quarter resulted in punts, and the same for the Bulldogs' first drive, as they shifted almost exclusively to the run. Staying with the run and inserting backup quarterback Aaron Tenney, the Bulldogs wrapped up the contest with a one-yard plunge by Kyle Smock late in the game.
McGuire was, again, the straw to stir the Hornets' drink, going 22-of-32 passing for 219 yards, one score, and a long of 23. Freshman quarterback Justin Danzy was two-for-two, including a great, 16-yard pass to Jacob Lenning on the game's last drive.
Zerki stood out for the Kalamazoo defense, collecting 11 tackles, five of them solo. Mencer added 10, with five of them solo. Mencer also stepped in to the Adrian backfield throughout the night, tallying 2.5 tackles for loss.
Kalamazoo will travel to Alma on Nov. 3 before returning to Angell Field and a Nov. 10 date with Olivet for Senior Day.
"I told the team that we've got two more weeks and the challenge is to win out," said Zorbo. "We want to finish on a high note. We haven't won in a while and we need to get back to that."