Terre Haute, Ind. - DePauw, ranked 14th in the D3football.com preseason poll and 16th in the coaches' rankings, scored on each of its first four possessions and opened its 138th season with a 40-0 victory at Rose-Hulman.
After the defense opened the game with a three-and-out, the Tigers' offense drove 61 yards in 10 plays with
Caden Whitehead scoring on an 8-yard run. Another three-and-out again led to a 10-play drive capped by
Scott Ballentine's 15-yard pass to
Robby Ballentine with 1:00 left in the first to make it 13-0.
The Fightin' Engineers' longest drive of the game ended with a 35-yard field goal attempt that fell short. DePauw took advantage with a 5-yard scoring run by Whitehead.
A 10-yard sack on third down by
Nathan Creed and
Dominic Seibal set up another DePauw scoring drive as Whitehead beat the defense with a 35-yard touchdown run to make it 27-0 with 2:22 left in the half.
DePauw got the ball back with just over a minute left in the half and drove to the Rose-Hulman 1, but was unable to score as time expired.
Matthew Berry booted a 33-yard field goal in the third before
Seth Mencer scored on a 2-yard run early in the fourth and
Buddy Gomez wrapped up the scoring with a 21-yard field goal.
Whitehead rushed for 106 yards in 17 carries and three touchdowns, while
Scott Ballentine completed 22-of-27 passes with six going to
Robby Ballentine for 104 yards and one score.
Rose-Hulman's Jay Smith rushed for 20 yards on 18 tries with Braden Keating completing 10-of-15 for 63 yards and Ben Klein catching six for 50 yards.
Seibal and
Zach Reese each had eight tackles for the Tigers with Seibal totaling 3.0 sacks for 17 yards. Joseph Coveliers had nine tackles for Rose-Hulman.
The Tigers totaled 27 first downs and limited Rose-Hulman to just six and DePauw held a 477-61 edge in total yards. DePauw rushed for 196 yards and held the Fightin' Engineers to minus 6 yards on the ground.
The win was DePauw's 25th straight regular season victory in a streak that started on Oct. 22, 2022. It also marked DePauw's 11th consecutive regular season road victory.
DePauw heads back on the road on Saturday, Sept. 13, with a 7 p.m. game at Centre.
