Chargers Iced at St. Cloud

Hillsdale College found out after its Friday walk-through at St. Cloud's Husky Stadium that it would be without its work horse running back Joe Glendening for Saturday's game. An Achilles tendon problem suffered against Tiffin was to blame.

But, like record setting quarterback Troy Weatherhead posted on his Facebook page last night, "Don't be surprised if somebody doesn't flip the script and takes a pass on crying 'Uncle'."

Hillsdale could have easily cried "Uncle" after St. Cloud found the endzone on its first two plays. The Chargers could have really folded after they found themselves down 14-0 after the first quarter. They were dropping passes, missed a field goal and the momentum was running downhill in the Huskies' favor.

The Chargers finally answered just into the second quarter when Weatherhead decided it was time to flip the script and found Andre Holmes wide open in the endzone for the touchdown. Colin McGreevy added the extra point to make it SCSU 14 - Hillsdale 7.

The Charger defense got into the act and shortly after giving the ball back to Weatherhead, Troy found a streaking Mike Blanchard down the left sideline that would set up a second Holmes TD. 14-14.

St. Cloud would add a score just before the half to go up 21-14, but Hillsdale came out of the lockerroom on fire and quickly knotted the score again at 21-21 on a Brad Spencer 13 yard swing out reception. The junior had big shoes to fill in that tailback spot but ran with more grit and confidence as the day progressed.

The Huskies used a combination of bowling ball Dante Steward runs and acrobatic receptions from Fred Williams, regaining the lead and extending it to 35-21 into the fourth quarter. The Chargers kept slugging and when the defense forced a pair of stops in the fourth quarter, Hillsdale drew as close as it would get. Spencer and Weatherhead hooked up on another play similar to the earlier TD swing pass to make it 35-28 with 4:00 left to play

The Chargers just couldn't stop the Huskies as they would add another Steward score to ice things at 42-28.

The Charger defense did a nice job of containing the scrambling abilities of Klaphacke, neutralizing one of the big threats Hillsdale fans feared coming into the game. He picked up 83 yards on 17 but had no big back breaking runs.

Nick Hixson played his last collegiate game and led the team with 11 tackles. A couple of freshman linebackers Devin Moynihan and Jake Weddle had 8 and 7 respectively. Steven Harding, having been asked to step up at a corner position had a big break up and added 6 tackles. Joe Vear had six stops and picked up a tackle for a loss.

Hillsdale ends the season at 9-3. Thanks for all of the hard work Chargers.

Box Score