Two former quarterbacks gave the Tigers their biggest chance to win on Saturday.
Early this season, sophomore Joe Schoen gave up his plans of playing quarterback this season and became a wide receiver. Against Trinity University on Saturday he led the Tigers in receiving with five catches for 96 yards and one touchdown.
And if that wasn't impressive enough, he put his quarterback skills to work throwing a 40-yard touchdown pass to sophomore Ryan McGuffey.
"I finally got my chance to play and I tried to make the most of it," Schoen said after the game.
On defense, junior Joe Rogowski had also started the season trying out for the quarterback position. He ended up as a defensive back and on Saturday had two interceptions. One of the interceptions came with a leaping catch in the end zone stopping a Trinity drive deep in DePauw territory.
But even the play of McGuffey and Schoen could not stop Trinity from jumping out to a 21-0 first quarter lead.
"You can't be making stupid mistakes," linebacker coach Tim Hreha told his defense after Trinity scored its second touchdown. "You have to concentrate and understand what's going on."
After a 40-yard kickoff return by freshman Rondell Ferguson to start the second quarter, DePauw's offense moved well down the field, but could only manage a 33-yard field goal by junior Brian Hurey.
The defense then began to put pressure on Trinity and DePauw sacked punter freshman Chris Ulmo after he bobbled the snap. Lead by junior quarterback Kurt Hare, the Tigers moved into Trinity territory with a successful fourth-down pass completion from Hare to senior Brian Jennings. However, on the next series the Tigers were unable to convert of fourth and six.
With good coverage down the field by Rogowski and senior Jon Secrest, the Tiger defense stopped Trinity on three straight plays. On the Tigers' first play of the drive, Hare flipped the ball to Schoen who threw 40 yards to McGuffey that cut the Trinity lead to 21-10. Trinity answered with a touchdown with 36 seconds left in the first half to push to lead back to 28-10.
In the second half both teams struggled on offense. Trinity turned the ball over three times. DePauw couldn't move down the field failing to convert on two fourth down attempts. Secrest then intercepted senior Michael Burton's pass and took the ball all the way to the Trinity one-yard line. After a penalty and good Trinity defensive stops the Tigers found themselves with a fourth down and eight yards to the end zone.
Hare scrambled out of the pocket and threw to a diving pass to Schoen in the end zone for a touchdown. Hare then found Schoen again for a successful two point conversion to make the score 28-18.
With 10 minutes left, the Tigers were down by 10, and definitely had the momentum. The defense, as they had been doing all year, gave the offense plenty of chances, but again the Tigers couldn't move the ball down the field.
With four minutes left, Trinity put together a 75-yard drive, ending with a 15-yard touchdown pass from Burton to junior Bo Edwards. Edwards finished the day with 11 receptions for 148 yards.
"We hung in there and we came back in the second half, but we still didn't execute when we had to," head coach Nick Mourouzis said after the game. "The effort was there, we didn't quit, we came back, but like I said before, we didn't capitalize on opportunities."