Historic Homecoming!

More history made as Charger football team earns 49-28 Homecoming win over Ashland
September 15, 2007 - Each time the Hillsdale College football team has taken the field this season, a little bit of history is made.

Actually, there was a lot of history playing out on the Frank "Muddy" Waters Stadium field Saturday, as the Chargers pleased a big Homecoming crowd with a 49-28 win over Ashland University. Hillsdale is now 3-0 for the first time since 1992, while Ashland falls to 1-1.

The game marked the first time in Hillsdale's 116-year history that it's scored at least 40 points in three straight games. Engineering that potent attack is senior quarterback Mark Nicolet, who somehow improved on an incredible start to the season with a brilliant performance vs. the Eagles.

Nicolet was 29-for-42 for a school-record 426 yards and three touchdowns. He broke the previous school record of 421 yards, held by Kyle Keefer, set during the 1999 season.

Once again, Nicolet's preferred big-play target was junior wide receiver Aaron Waldie, who nearly set a school record himself. Waldie caught 11 passes for 211 yards and three touchdowns. His yardage fell 11 short of the school record held by Ed House and set back in 2001. Waldie's 11 catches did tie a school record for one game, shared by Hugh MacDonald (1971) and Bob Meyers (1976).

The first big play of the day was made by the defense, as cornerback Josh Hutchison intercepted a Billy Cundiff pass in the end zone, stopping what had been an effective opening-game drive by the Eagles.

Hillsdale picked up the momentum created by the interception and proceeded to march 80 yards down the field for a score. Nicolet plunged into the end zone from one yard out to put the Chargers up 7-0.

Less than two minutes later, Nicolet hit Waldie with a 50-yard touchdown pass down the right sidelines to put Hillsdale ahead 14-0. Redshirt-freshman T.J. Campbell scored his first career rushing touchdown with 2:05 left in the second quarter to give Hillsdale a startling 21-0 first-quarter lead against an opponent it hadn't beaten since 2003.

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