Game Leaders
Team Stats
Passing Yards
Rushing Yards
Turnovers
Time of Poss.
After trailing 7-0 at halftime, the Millikin football team scored 28 second half points to win a thriller at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology 28-26 on September 9 in Terre Haute, Indiana. The Big Blue are now 2-0 on the season.
Trailing 10-0 in the third quarter, Millikin got on the board on a 16-yard touchdown pass from Nicco Stepina to freshman tight end Colton Kelsey. The Ben Spelman extra point pulled the Big Blue to 10-7.
Rose-Hulman answered with Matt Murray's second field goal to go up 13-7.
Millikin then took the lead for good on an 80-yard touchdown pass from Stepina to Gerald Perry. The extra point by Spelman made it 14-13 Big Blue.
Millikin would go up 21-14 on a two-yard run by junior running back Deonte Robinson with 5:33 left in the game.
Rose Hulman answered with a 15-yard touchdown pass from Andrew Dion to Raymond Burt to pull to within two at 21-19. The Fightn' Engineers went for the two point conversion, but the Big Blue defensive pressure forced an incomplete pass on the play.
Facing a third down and seven yards to go from its own seven yard line with 3:13 left in the game, Millikin pulled off a surprise party converting on a 93 yard pass from Stepina to Perry for 28-19 advantage.
Rose-Hulman keep fighting and scored on a 45 yard pass from Dion to Zack Murphy to make it a 28-26 lead with 1:57 left in the game.
Rose-Hulman then recovered the onside kick to give them one final chance at victory. After Nikia Averitte tackled for a loss and two incomplete passes, Rose-Hulman faced fourth and thirteen. Dion completed a pass to Murphy, but Millikin's Lashon Johnson made the tackle one yard short of the first down securing the win for Millikin.
Stepina finished the night 13-32 passing for 362 yards and three touchdowns. Perry had six catches for 207 yards and two scores. Perry's performance was the third most receiving yards in a game in Millikin history.
Stepina led the Millikin rushers with 14 carries for 57 yards followed by Robinson with 12 carries for 47 yards.
For Rose-Hulman Dion was 30-45 for 389 yards. Murphy had six catches for 173 yards.
Millikin had 504 yards in total offense with Rose-Hulman gaining 507.
Daniel Jackson led Millikin with 13 tackles followed by Johnson with nine. Linebacker Matt Brown had seven stops with two tackles for a loss.
Millikin is off next week and will host North Central College on September 23 to open play in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin.