September 10

Jackets stopped by Dogs
DEFIANCE, Ohio—The Defiance College Yellow Jackets ran into a buzz saw on Saturday afternoon in the form of nationally-ranked Adrian College, losing 0-37, in front of the home crowd at Justin F. Coressel Stadium.

The Bulldogs’ D.J. Howard flashed a sign of things to come when he returned DC’s first punt 65 yards for the games first score. Adrian tailback Chris Clay then scored four-straight touchdowns, with the first coming at the 4:01 mark of the first quarter and the last coming a minute before half time.

After going into the half down 34-0, the Jackets held the Bulldogs to just three second-half points, coming on a James Spencer 30-yard field goal with 12 minutes to go.

Jason Gendron made a dent in the Bulldog defense in the second half and ended with 96 yards on 27 carries. Gary Allen broke a 78-yard kick-off return after Spencer’s field goal for the long Jacket gain of the day.
Brancheau strips the ball from AC's Randy Hutchinson (Crescent-News)
Jason Bushong led the DC defensive squad in tackles with 10, while Mike Haydon added eight. Steven Brancheau and Chris Tietje each had a forced fumble with six and five tackles, respectively. R.J. Chidester had a good showing in his first career start at linebacker with six stops including one tackle-for-loss.

The Bulldog defense was as-advertised, shutting out the Jackets and allowing just 87 yards of total offense. All-American Taz Williams had 13 tackles with 2.5 for-loss and two sacks, while fellow All-AmericanMike Lewis had 4.5 tackles-for-loss, a fumble recovery and a pass batted-down.

DC’s Blake Stambaugh punted extremely well, averaging 39.1 yards on nine boots with a long of 51 (caught in the air) and one punt inside the 20.

The Jackets, now 0-2, will next host Bethany College (W.V.) on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. The Bisons (1-1) surprised everyone with a 34-21 win over Franklin & Marshall in week one, but fell to Thomas More at home on Saturday, 15-33.

Adrian is off next week before traveling to Bluffton on September 17th.