Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

Rose is all over Franklin 38-7 after the 3rd.
MSJ leads Hanover 23-6 with 10 minutes left.
If those two scores hold then MSJ @ Rose is an HCAC title game.

Anderson leads Defiance 28-7 and Bluffton ahead of Manchester 24-0 in the other two games

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

Rose-Hulman is headed to the playoffs with a dominant 58-21 win over Mount St Joseph. The Engineers led 42-7 at halftime. Good luck next week and hopefully they won't be blown out like most years for the HCAC in the playoffs

Franklin regains the Victory Bell for the first time since 2017 with a 27-16 comeback win. Panthers led 10-0 at halftime before the Grizzlies turned on the offense.

Manchester wins the pitchers duel for the Bronze Ball over Anderson 3-0. Ravens won it in the spring for the first time since 2010 but the Spartans didn't let them hold it long. Manchester managed just 182 yards of offense in the win but kicked a 39 yard FG in the 4th quarter for the lone points.

The Hammer stays with Bluffton after a 30-12 win over Defiance. Yellowjackets had cut the lead to 10-6 before the Beavers scored a TD just before halftime. Bluffton pulled away in the 3rd.

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

Rose-Hulman avoids being sent as 1st round fodder for a top seed and will make the short trip to Greencastle to take on DePauw. Good luck Engineers.

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

Rose hung around and had a chance at the end but lose 26-21 to DePauw to finish the HCAC's season.

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

Still months before the season begins but we know a lot of the non-conference matchups. Week 3 is the MIAA-HCAC crossover, week 4 looks like the conference is off

Anderson: TBA (W1), vs DePauw (W2), vs Alma (W3),
Bluffton: @ Kenyon (W1), @ Albion (W2), vs Adrian (W3)
Defiance: @ Mount Union (W1), TBA (W2), vs Kalamazoo (W3),
Franklin: @ Olivet (W1), @ Aurora (W2), vs Trine (W3)
Hanover: vs Centre (W1), @ Adrian (W2), vs Olivet (W3)
Manchester: TBA (W1), @ Alma (W2), @ Greenville (W3)
Mount St Joseph: vs Baldwin Wallace (W1), @ Alfred (W2), vs Hope (W3)
Rose-Hulman: @ DePauw (W1), vs Trine (W2), vs Albion (W3)

The game that stands out (and not in a good way) is Defiance @ Mount Union... Will the Mount starters even finish the 1st quarter?
MIAA: 12, NCAC: 3, OAC: 2, E8: 1, NACC: 1, SAA: 1, UMAC: 1, TBA: 3

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

We still have the traditional matchup against Trine on Thursday to open the season... but this year it's Anderson and not Manchester. The Spartans instead will head to North Park for their opener.

That leaves the only unknown game as Defiance in week 2. Who will their 6th different coach in 8 seasons (2012-15 Sheehan, 16 Goff, 17 Mershman, 18-20 Matsakis, 21 Wilson) have to face coming off an expected drubbing by Mount Union?

MIAA: 13, NCAC: 3, OAC: 2, CCIW: 1, E8: 1, NACC: 1, SAA: 1, UMAC: 1, TBA: 1

[dc_has_been]

Defiance has added Alfred State as their TBA game also, Bill Nickell will take over for Wilson as head coach, and he has started to build his staff.