BIG RAPIDS - Ferris State University got an up-close-and-personal look at why Hillsdale College is ranked 22nd in the nation and third in the region.
Hillsdale proved it is no joke.
The Chargers came to Top Taggart Field and dominated from start to finish in Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference football action en route to a 59-14 destruction of the Bulldogs on Saturday afternoon. Fighting to solidify its playoff positioning, Hillsdale scored 14 points in the first quarter and 17 more in the second for a 31-0 halftime lead. The Chargers then added 21 unanswered points in the third quarter for a 52-0 lead. Ferris added two fourth-quarter touchdowns, but they were too little too late to put event a dent in the outcome of the game.
"First of all, I give Hillsdale credit for coming in and playing a good football game and they've got a good football team and I think they've got a pretty good chance of finishing pretty strong here in the playoffs and hopefully they'll get that opportunity," Ferris head coach Jeff Pierce said. "We just didn't match up horsepower-wise with them being able to control the line of scrimmage and there is not a whole lot you can do when you don't do that. They did that."
With the loss, Ferris dips to 1-9 overall and 0-9 in the GLIAC while Hillsdale improves to 8-2 overall and 7-2 in conference play.
Hillsdale finished with 377 yards of total offense to 151 for Ferris.
For the Bulldogs, Skyler Stoker finished with 62 yards on 24 carries while Tyler Thomas rushed it three times for 25 yards with a touchdown. Through the air, Kyle Parrish completed 7-of-12 passes for 54 yards with two interceptions while Robert Banaszak who completed 2-of-3 passes for 59 yards with a touchdown.
For Hillsdale, Vinnie Panizzi rushed for 84 yards on 19 carries with two touchdowns, Joe Glendening had nine rushes for 43 yards with a touchdown and Brad Spencer had five attempts for 10 yards with a touchdown. Billy Kanitz had one carry for a touchdown.
Nick Hixson, a defensive back for the Chargers who is a former Chippewa Hills High School star, had one interception, a punt return for 18 yards and two kickoff returns for 25 yards.
"Our kids are just showing up, we start practice Monday night, they lock in and they learn from the mistakes from the previous Saturday, they work hard and they stay with their focus during the work week," said Hillsdale head coach Keith Otterbein, who is a former long-time head coach at Ferris. "They've been showing up physically and mentally ready to play. The one time we kind of stubbed our toe with that a little bit was at Findlay. Our kids learned a very, very valuable lesson.
"Beating Grand Valley a few weeks ago and then making a road trip to Northern Michigan kind of proved that. They responded well," Otterbein added.
Defensively, there were not a ton of bright spots for Ferris but one of them was linebacker Matt Ryan who led the team with 12 tackles and was in one one tackle for a loss. Defensive lineman Jacob Moreno had 11 tackles and with seven apiece were Angelo Williams and Nick Butler.
Ferris closes out its season Saturday when it travels to University Center to take on another team fighting for playoff positioning: Saginaw Valley State University.
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