NETHERLANDS – The season opener for the Hope College football team started out promising, looked grim, and then ended with an incredible finish.
Trailing by three possessions early in the second half, Hope never gave up, keeping the game close and Kenyea Houston leapt into the end zone in the closing seconds to give the Flying Dutchmen a thrilling 38-34 comeback over Aurora (Illinois). on Saturday afternoon at Ray & Sue Smith Stadium.
“Time (seemed) stopped. We blocked it out good and I just jumped in there,” Houston said. “It means a lot. We haven’t won a first match very often, especially at home. This gives us a boost for the season.”
It was only the second time since 2013 that Hope had won the season opener.
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Down 17 after 27 unanswered points from Aurora, a fourth-quarter spike from Hope completely changed the season opener.
“It’s huge. It’s been a long time since we’ve won a first game against a really good football team. It makes all the difference in the world to walk out the door like that,” Hope coach Peter Stuursma said. “The last two years have been tough for these guys. I don’t care what anyone else says, it’s been tough. Seeing them explode and enjoying themselves is one of the best things about training. They put the time into the effort and to see that the Joy is the best feeling in the world.
Terrell Harris had 175 receiving yards and two touchdowns, while TJ McKenzie had 11 receptions for 151 yards and a touchdown.
“Both of those guys are playmakers, and when you get it within their zip code, they’ll find a way,” Stuursma said. “But everyone made a play when we needed one, and that says a lot about our team.”
Houston had 54 rushing yards on 14 carries. Chase Brown completed 28 of 44 passes for 439 yards and three touchdowns.
“It’s not over until it’s over. If there’s time on that clock, there’s still football to play,” Houston said. “We went out there and played for each other, and we turned it around, just like that.”
Here are three takeaways from the game:
Frantic and epic comeback
But midway through the fourth quarter, Hope found some new life and finally got a turnover. Adam Vanderkooy intercepted a one-handed pass near the end zone just as Aurora moved down the field.
The Flying Dutchmen marched down the field, provoked by a pass to Harris.
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Aurora’s first penalty of the game, an illegal substitution, put the Flying Dutchmen at the 24-yard line.
TJ McKenzie caught a pass from Brown and danced around and over two defenders and ran into the end zone as Hope closed within 34-31 with 5:21 left in the quarter.
Hope’s defense held on, forcing a clearance to return the ball to the Flying Dutchmen down three with 3:10 to go.
Hope cruised past midfield and got a first down at the Aurora 38 with 1:36 left.
Passes to McKenzie and Kareem Williams set up a Kenyea Houston run to the 3-yard line with 46 seconds remaining.
Houston scored by leaping into the end zone from a 1-yard line with 32 seconds remaining.
Vanderkooy sealed the game with another interception.
“It says a lot. It shows that the offense has confidence in the defense and vice versa,” Houston said. “We had some bad plays defensively and offensively, but we rescued each other and came out with the ‘W’.”
second trimester problems
After moving the ball fast in the first quarter, leading 10-0, it all came crashing down in the second quarter for the Flying Dutchmen.
The offense floundered, especially with a couple of key penalties backing up units that looked promising. Tight end Eric Hoogland was called for unnecessary roughness in the end zone after a pass was out of reach. He had an affair with an Aurora player, but as is often the case in sports, the referees only saw the retaliation. He backed an offensive drive from the near-red zone into midfield.
The defense, meanwhile, was stellar in the first quarter, but allowed two long Aurora touchdown passes from Josh Swanson to Trey Madsen as a 10-0 lead quickly turned into a 14-10 deficit.
After the penalty, Swanson immediately hit Cameron Moore for a 40-yard pass into Hope territory. Swanson then hit James Mautino for a 13-yard touchdown and it was 10-21, 21 unanswered points.
Hope allowed just 49 yards in the first quarter and didn’t score. In the second quarter, the Flying Dutchmen allowed 185 yards and three touchdowns.
The fourth ended with a failed field goal attempt by Hope as nothing seemed to go right in the second.
“You never want to get in a hole, and we shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times,” Stuursma said. “We went down inside the red zone and we had a penalty. Then we had another penalty. You can’t do those things against good teams, and that’s a good team. But we knew there was a lot of football left. We didn’t feel like we were that far away. They were small things and our margin for error is very small.”
Swanson finished 19 of 29 for 320 yards and five touchdowns.
Trade big strikes
The Spartans began the second half with another scoring drive, extending their streak to 27 unanswered points.
Then Hope finally answered with a 74-yard touchdown pass from Brown to Harris and the Flying Dutchmen closed within 27-17 with 8:08 left in the third.
But Aurora answered with Swanson’s 79-yard pass to Michael Boland wide open and the Spartans rallied back to a 34-17 lead.
Between the teams it was the third touchdown in a span of 42 seconds.
On Hope’s next possession, Daniel Romano scored a 1-yard touchdown on fourth-and-goal after a drive that included a big hit from Brown to TJ McKenzie. Hope closed within 34-24 and stayed within striking distance.