Oilers Set to Host Chargers on the Gridiron
The Game
After a big win in Week 7 against Ohio Dominican, the Oilers have sole possession of first place in the Great Midwest standings as the only team without a conference loss to-date. That record will be put to the test on Saturday, Oct. 23 at noon when Findlay welcomes Hillsdale, which is coming off a surprising loss to Lake Erie last week. The Oilers and Chargers will kick off at noon in Donnell Stadium.
Tickets
To purchase presale tickets for this contest, please visit https://athletics.findlay.edu/tickets
Media
Video streaming of the contest will be produced by Ohio Dominican and will broadcast on the Great Midwest Digital Network.
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Head Coach Rob Keys
Head coach Rob Keys will enter his 11th season at the helm of the Oilers football program in 2021. He has recorded a 72-41 record with the program as a head coach, which includes a 34-26 mark in GLIAC games and a 24-7 mark in G-MAC games.
For Findlay's 2021 coaching staff, please click on the following link:
The Series
The Oilers have been successful against the Hillsdale Chargers lately as they have won six of the previous seven matchups. Hillsdale's lone win came in 2018 when a controversial call gave the Chargers the win on their path to the 2018 G-MAC Championship. In the series, Findlay has a 13-17 record overall.
Findlay Oilers (5-2, 3-0 G-MAC)
No one is ever happy with a loss on the schedule, and through seven games the Oilers have taken two of them. However, there's no doubt that this squad has to be content with where it stands with just four games remaining on the schedule because all of it's goals are still in play. Findlay sits alone as the last remaining undefeated team in conference play at 3-0 and, with losses to now undefeated #1 Ferris State and 5-1 Lindenwood, a berth in the Super Region 1 playoff is still very much in the team's crosshairs.After giving up more than 500 yards of offense per game over the first four games of the season, Findlay's defense has stepped up, holding conference opponents to less than 350 yards in each of the previous three games. Leading the Oilers on that side of the ball has been sophomore Grey Brancifort who leads the team and ranks third in the conference with 73 tackles. Junior Ervin Besingi has been a menace on the defensive line this year, as well, and has 8.5 tackles-for-loss to go with 5.5 sacks, putting pressure on opposing quarterbacks to make quick decisions. A big question through the first four games was Findlay's pass defense and junior Jeremiah Jackson has led the resurgence of that unit. Jackson, the reigning G-MAC Defensive Player of the Week, has three interceptions and seven pass breakups this season to go along with 32 tackles which rank fourth on the team.
After throwing five interceptions in the first two games, quarterback Matt Winzeler has tightened it up, not committing a turnover in the five games since. So far this season, Winzeler has thrown for 1,599 yards and 13 touchdowns and is coming off one of the top performances of his career, a 289-yard, three-touchdown showing on the road against Ohio Dominican last Saturday.
Receivers Marlin Richardson and Ruben Flowers have been a tall order for defenses thus far. Richardson has 25 receptions for 464 yards while Flowers has 23 catches for 304 yards and four touchdowns. Last week, Flowers had his best game of the year, a ten-catch, 136-yard, two-touchdown game.
A balanced offense is critical to the Oilers' success as they are the only team in the league with more than 1,400 yards rushing and more than 1,600 yards passing. The bulk of the carries over the past few games have gone to Garret Clark and Josh Booker. Clark has 65 carries for 392 yards and four scores while Booker has 57 carries for 302 yards and six scores. However, Derek Lynch still remains the team and the league's leader with 505 yards on the ground this season.
2021 Season Statistics
2021 Roster
Hillsdale (3-4, 2-1 G-MAC)
The fall of 2021 has been a roller coaster season for Hillsdale. The season began with a loss in the final minute on the road against Michigan Tech. A week later the Chargers battled no. 12 Indianapolis to a 35-31 loss. A loss in week three had Hillsdale without a win through three games and things looked bleak for the proud program. Then something clicked.
Hillsdale hosted Missouri S&T and picked up a one-score victory, but in the process saw it's number one and two quarterbacks come out due to injury. Despite that, the Chargers followed that performance up with a win on the road against then no. 12 Tiffin, snapping the Dragons 12-game in-conference winning streak. That win came along with chatter about a conference championship as hillsdalechargers.com wrote, "the Chargers are very much in play for the G-MAC title".
The Chargers then survived giving up nearly 400 yards of offense to Walsh in week six, picking up a 20-3 win. But not for four interceptions thrown by the Cavaliers, that contest could have ended differently. Then came the most shocking result of the 2021 fall season. The Chargers played host to the Lake Erie Storm, albeit a much-improved version of the Green and White, and suffered a 33-14 loss in a game that was dominated by a Lake Erie offense that put up 499 yards of offense to just 179 yards by the Chargers.
Sometimes a team coming off of a loss like that is the most dangerous and there is no question that the Chargers were challenged to dig a little deeper this week in practice. Hillsdale will come to Donnell Stadium prepared.
Through seven games this season, Hillsdale has struggled mightily on offense as they are putting up just 261 yards of offense per game which ranks last in the G-MAC and 144th out of 163 teams in the country. While the offense has struggled, the defense has not been much better as they rank seventh out of eight in yards allowed at exactly 400 per game.
Hillsdale has six players on its defense that earned all-conference honors in the spring as Nate Chambers, Zach Herzog, Alex Anschutz, Kyle Parran, Joe Royer, and Kyle Kudla are all back on that side of the ball. Anschutz is the team's leading tackler with 75 stops this season. That ranks third in the G-MAC. Chambers is also off to a big start as the defensive lineman has 40 tackles including six sacks and a league-leading 10.5 tackles for loss.
Where the Chargers defense shines is in it's ability to cause turnovers, specifically through the air. Hillsdale currently leads the G-MAC and ranks third in the country with 12 interceptions this year. Jackson Gillock and Joe Schneider are the leaders in that category as they rank second and third in the country with five and four interceptions, respectively.
On offense, Hillsdale is struggling to find consistency at the quarterback position as they have started three different quarterbacks already this season, all of which have had their struggles. As a unit, the Chargers' QBs are completing just 50% of their passes (86-for-171) and have thrown nine touchdowns and six interceptions. Sophomore Garrit Aissen, originally the third-string QB at the beginning of the season, is listed as the starter on this week's depth chart and comes into the game having started the previous three contests for Hillsdale. He has completed just 29-of-65 (45%) of his passes this year for 293 yards and three touchdowns.
With struggles through the air, Hillsdale hasn't had much more success on the ground as their leading rusher, freshman Jack Robinson, is averaging 38 yards per game and just 3.4 yards per carry in seven games played this season.
That said, the Chargers will come in with a chip on their shoulder and some on the team do still have a taste of winning in Findlay's Donnell Stadium. In 2018, Hillsdale left a bitter taste in the Oilers' mouth as a controversial call on a Findlay fumble at the goal line went in favor of the Chargers who picked up a three-point win and went on to claim the conference title that season.
Links
NCAA Division II Stats
NCAA
NCAA Division II Football
American Football Coaches Association
D2Football.com
Great Midwest