Safety Owen Graham and the nationally ranked Hope College football team enjoyed one big weekend.
The senior from Caledonia, Michigan (Caledonia HS), intercepted two passes in a game for the second time in three games, delivering during an early swarming effort that propelled the Flying Dutchmen to a 56-21 victory over Kalamazoo College on Saturday.
"OG, to have two picks in a game, it's trusting the defense, trusting the call and getting to his drop," head coach Peter Stuursma said. "When you're 5-11, 6-feet like he is, you can kind of lose track of where his orange helmet is, and he just shows up in his drop. Two times, he made some spectacular plays, in great field position, too. One of them, we turned around, one play, touchdown."
Now 5-1 overall, Hope remained on the heels of the MIAA leaders with a dominant performance during One Big Weekend homecoming and family celebration in front of a season-best Ray and Sue Smith Stadium crowd of 3,839. The Flying Dutchmen were ranked 18th in this week's American Football Coaches Association poll and 19th by D3football.com.
The Orange and Blue's ninth consecutive victory over the Hornets raised their MIAA record to 2-1 heading into a showdown at unbeaten Adrian College on Saturday, Oct. 18, at 1 p.m. Adrian and Alma College are both 3-0.
Both of Graham's second-quarter interceptions set up scores that launched Hope to a 28-point quarter and a 35-0 halftime lead.
Graham first snared a Braydin Ledin pass in front of the Kalamazoo sideline at the Hornets' 28-yard line.
On the next play from scrimmage, junior quarterback Alex Thole fired a 28-yard strike into the corner of the end zone to senior receiver Travis Myers (Ada, Michigan / Forest Hills Northern). Hope led 21-0 at the 11:48 mark of the second quarter.
Graham picked off Ledin again on the next possession at the Kalamazoo 41-yard line. Five plays later, Thole hit senior tight end Jack Goldie (Grand Blanc, Michigan / Grand Blanc Community) in the right corner of the end zone for a 20-yard score and a 28-0 lead with 9:59 remaining in the half.
Thole completed 17 of 20 passes for 227 yards before exiting early in the second half. He also scored on a 2-yard run.
The Orange and Blue finished with 544 yards of total offense, with 260 on the ground and 284 through the air. Twelve different Flying Dutchmen recorded at least one carry, and 12 more caught at least one pass.
Sophomore running back AJ Martel (Mason, Michigan / Mason) scored on runs of 13 and 5 yards.
Hope also received touchdown runs of 4 yards from freshman running back Trey Goike (White Lake, Michigan / Orchard Lake St. Mary's Preparatory), 17 yards from sophomore running back Noah Dunckel (Williamston, Michigan / Williamston) and 1 yard from sophomore quarterback Tyson Williams (Hartford, Michigan / Watervliet).
The Orange and Blue limited Kalamazoo (3-3, 0-3 MIAA) to 317 yards of total offense.
In addition to Graham, the Orange and Blue received two sacks from senior defensive end Liam Danitz (West Branch, Michigan / Ogemaw Heights) and one from senior linebacker Bryce Debri (DeWitt, Michigan / DeWitt).
Danitz now has 8.5 sacks, ranking him among the Division III leaders.
Debri and sophomore linebacker Easton Phipps (Goodrich, Michigan / Goodrich) shared team-high honors with six tackles.
The Flying Dutchmen improved to 59-32-3 in homecoming games.