Game Leaders
Team Stats
Passing Yards
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Time of Poss.
The Paint Bucket is going back in Hamline head football coach Chip Taylor's office. Josiah Harris rushed for a pair of touchdowns and Michell Maday had a huge game on defense as the Pipers defeated Macalester, 21-7, before a full house at Klas Field Saturday night.
Harris, a senior, carried the ball just six times for 64 yards. But two of those runs ended up in the end zone -- including a 42 yarder in the third quarter on a fourth down play. Justice Spriggs threw for 238 yards and a TD as well to help the Pipers improve to 2-0 heading into a bye week.
Led by Maday, who had 4.5 sacks among his seven tackles, the Hamline defense rose when needed, stopping Macalester on all 11 of their third down conversion tries and the three fourth down tries.
Spriggs opened the scoring in the second quarter when he connected with Deon Bishop for a 36 yard touchdown strike. It was the start of a big night for the senior wide receiver, who caught six passes for 95 yards. That looked like it would be the only score of the first 30 minutes until Kyle Johnson drove a punt out of bounds at Mac 4 late in the half. On the first play afterwards, Lucjan Januszewski knocked the ball out of Mac back Jeremy Stephan's hands and recovered the ball himself at 1. Harris plunged in on the next play and the Pipers went into the break up 14-0.
Harris' second TD came on a fourth and three. The senior shot through a ride opening and ran untouched for the score.
The Scots responded with a TD later in that quarter but the HU defense stopped them the rest of the way. A 12 play Scot drive was stopped on a fourth and goal situation when Michael Alvarez tackled a receiver at the Piper 2.
Macalester started another drive only to see Maday, a sophomore, break through and strip the ball from the quarterback's hands. Brandon Ferns recovered it and the Pipers ran out the clock to retain their trophy for the third year in a row. In all, HU had five sacks, six tackles for loss, a pair of forced fumbles, an interception and three pass break ups.
The Pipers can revel in this victory a little longer than usual. Hamline has a bye next weekend. They return to action September 24 when they open MIAC play against Gustavus Adolphus at Klas Field. Game time is 1:00 p.m.