KALAMAZOO, Mich. - The Kalamazoo College football team won its season opener 36-29 over Oberlin College at Angell Field on Saturday.
Oberlin scored the first touchdown of the game at 8:07 in the first quarter, but Kalamazoo responded on the next drive with a 3-yard touchdown pass from Alex White to Seth Dexter to even the score.
White connected with Zak Zagon on a 26-yard touchdown early in the second quarter (14:09) to give Kalamazoo a 14-7 lead. White threw his third touchdown pass of the game with 19 seconds left in the half, this time connecting with Collin Feilla for a 32-yard score to put the Hornets up 21-7 at halftime.
Kalamazoo went up 26-7 midway through the third quarter as a result of a safety and a 21-yard field goal by Viet Nguyen.
The Yeomen finally scored again with 3:28 left in the third quarter to make it 26-14. Kalamazoo's Nguyen connected on a 39-yard field goal on the next possession to put Kalamazoo up 29-14.
Oberlin took advantage of a Kalamazoo fumble and great field position to score early in the fourth quarter, and soon after scored on a 70-yard pass to tie the score at 29-29.
Kalamazoo followed with an 8-play, 64-yard drive capped off by Clay Wilkey's 12-yard run for a touchdown to put the Hornets up 36-29 with 3:28 remaining.
Kalamazoo regained possession and had a chance to seal the win, but a fumble at Oberlin's 1-yardline was recovered by the Yeomen with 29 seconds left. Oberlin connected on a pass to its own 30-yardline before the receiver stepped out of bounds as time expired.
Kalamazoo put up 595 yards of total offense compared to 448 for Oberlin.
Alex White finished 29-of-53 for 409 yards with three touchdowns and an interception.
Collin Feilla caught 10 passes for 216 yards, the second highest single game total in school history. Seth Dexter caught five passes for 55 yards whilt Zak Zagon had four catches for 57 yards.
Lorenzo Redmond led the rushing attack with 86 yards on 19 carries. White added 74 yards on 17 carries.
Jakob Frederick led the defense with 15 total tackles and two sacks. Quentin Sweeney finished with 10 tackles and a sack. Sean Bauer, Andrew Thiede, Joe Piet and Ben Toledo were all in on sacks. Josh Vance recorded the Hornets' only interception.
Kalamazoo travels to Wheaton College (Ill.) next week for a 1 p.m. CDT kickoff.