Nate Richter hauls in one of his nine catches against Defiance on Saturday.

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DEFIANCE, OHIO – Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology senior Jeremy Sharp (Warsaw) struck the left upright with a 32-yard field goal attempt in the final seconds as Defiance College held on to top the Engineers 33-31 in Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference football action on Saturday.

The Engineers had two final chances to capture the victory.  Rose-Hulman reached the 22-yard line, before Dustin Supan hauled in an interception at the five-yard line to end the possession.  The final drive took place when senior Austin Hastings (Santa Ana, Calif.) forced a fumble that was recovered by sophomore Kyle Stevens (Santa Cruz, Calif.) with under one minute remaining.

Rose-Hulman marched to the 15-yard line with two rushing plays, before the last second field goal attempt.

"What an exciting game.  Both teams made some great plays and made some mistakes, and we definitely had our chance to win.  I thought the kick was good off Jeremy's foot," said Rose-Hulman head coach Steve Englehart.

Thomas Reives finished with 146 yards receiving on five catches, including receptions of 50 and 43 yards.

Sophomore Derek Eitel (Marshall, Ill.) led the Engineer offense with 29 completions in 48 passing attempts for 353 yards and two touchdowns.  Three receivers led a balanced effort, with junior Nate Richter (Zionsville) making nine receptions for 94 yards and freshman Reed Eason (St. Louis, Mo./Parkway North) with seven catches for 52.

Senior Thomas Reives (Indianapolis/Arsenal Tech) paced the receiving yardage statistics with 146 yards on five receptions, including catches of 50 and 43 yards.

 “This is a heartbreaker.  We have nothing to be ashamed of and sometimes everything doesn’t go your way.  I’m proud of our guys and with our effort. Tomorrow we’ll get ready to play Bluffton,” said Englehart.

Senior Luke Dillon paced the Defiance offense with 11 catches for 154 and a school record four touchdowns.  Quarterback Hans Vetter finished 19 of 33 through the air for 240 yards and five touchdowns.  Freshman David Thornton led the ground attack with 153 yards on 23 carries for the Yellow Jackets.

Tobin Bolton trimmed Defiance lead to 20-14 with this touchdown grab in the second quarter.

Defiance jumped out to a 7-0 lead on its first possession.  The eight-play, 69-yard march concluded on a 39-yard touchdown pass from Vetter to Gary Allen.

The Engineers marched 63 yards in nine plays to tie the score at 7-7 midway through the first quarter.  Eitel connected on a 32-yard pass to Reives to move the ball to the 30-yard line, before sophomore Tyler Thornton (Willard, Ohio) scored from two yards out on fourth down.

Defiance regained the lead at 14-7 on its next possession of the first quarter.  Vetter and Dillon connected on a 48-yard touchdown strike on the fourth play of the drive to give the Yellow Jackets the lead with 3:46 left in the frame.

The combination of Vetter and Dillon hooked up on a 34-yard pass to set up another nine-yard touchdown strike to make the score 20-7 late in the first quarter.  Freshman Michael Hackman (Seymour) blocked the extra point to keep the margin at 13 points.

The Engineers trimmed the deficit to 20-14 on its first possession of the second quarter.  The eight-play, 59-yard scoring drive featured a 34-yard fourth down pass from Eitel to freshman Adam Somerall (Birmingham, Ala.), before a two-scoring strike to senior Tobin Bolton (Fletcher, Ohio) capped the drive.

Rose-Hulman relied on a quick strike to take a 21-20 lead midway through the second quarter.  Eitel tossed a long 50-yard pass to Reives, who hauled in his third touchdown catch of the season to give the Engineers the lead.

The combination of Vetter and Dillon connected for their third touchdown of the first half to give Defiance a 27-21 lead with 1:08 left in the first half.  Their 10-yard scoring strike capped an eight-play, 56-yard scoring march.

Rose-Hulman relied on its defense to regain a 28-27 advantage with 3:13 left in the third quarter.  Senior Casey Boley (Nashville, Ind.) snagged an interception on the 25-yard line and sprinted to the endzone for his first career touchdown.  Senior Jeremy Sharp (Warsaw) booted the extra point to give the Engineers the lead.

Vetter and Dillon added their fourth touchdown of the day to give Defiance a 33-28 lead in the first minute of the fourth quarter.  Dillon set a single-game school record for the Yellow Jackets with the eight-yard catch in the left corner of the endzone.

Rose-Hulman closed within 33-31 on a 10-play, 41-yard drive that resulted in three points.  Sharp capped the drive with a 36-yard field goal from the left hash mark with 10:36 left in the game.

The loss dropped the Engineers to 4-2 on the season and 1-2 in HCAC play while Defiance remained undefeated in Heartland Conference play improving to 3-2 and 2-0 in conference play.

Rose-Hulman will be back home next week as they face Bluffton University on Community Day with kickoff scheduled for 1:30 p.m.