The Lawrence University football team is looking to get back on track after a 62-30 thrashing at the hands of rival Ripon College. The Redhawks won their fifth game in a row over the Vikings in a series that dates back to 1893. The Vikings fell to 1-2 on the season.The Vikings struck first and early. Nick Korn caught a 35-yard pass from LU quarterback Eric Aspenson, and LU had an early 7-0 lead. Ripon struck back less than a minute later, and tied the game at 7. After another RC touchdown, Vince Iacopelli nailed a 32-yard field goal, and Aaron walker took a run in from 8 yards out to put the Vikings on top 17-14 after the first quarter.
After the first quarter, Ripon dominated LU. After a Vikings punt, Ripon went down the field and scored another touchdown giving them the lead for good. When Aspenson went down with an injured ankle that he had originally injured the week before at Illinois College, P.J. Hilbert came in and fumbled his first snap and the Redhawks recovered. It took less then a minute for Ripon to strike again, this time putting them ahead 28-17.
The Vikings would go down and score on an Adrell Bullock four yard run, but miss the extra point on a bad snap, and cut the lead to 28-23, but this is where the Vikings success on the day ends. With 51 seconds left in the second quarter, the Redhawks returned the kick 46 yards and then scored a 37 yard touchdown run on one play to put them up 35-23 at half.
The second half started the same way as RC took the opening play 69 yards on the ground for another touchdown to go up 42-23. After Hilbert through an interception and injured his shoulder, Ripon scored again on their next drive and Griffin Moe, a freshman out of Waupaca, came in at quarterback for LU. Moe was intercepted on his first drive, but would throw his first career touchdown pass late in the fourth quarter to Dominique Lark, who caught his first career touchdown pass. It would not be nearly enough though, as Ripon would go on to win 62-30.
The highlight of the game for the Vikings was the rushing attack of Adrell Bullock and Aaron Walker. Walker ran 25 carries for 125 yards and Bullock ran 19 for 102 yards. It was the first time two LU ‘backs had ran for 100 yards in the same game since Justin Barrens and Jacques Hacquebord did it in 2000.
The Vikings had several injuries on the field as Aspenson reinjured his ankle, Hilbert injured his shoulder and Greg Haas had a scary injury where he was hit at a weird angle and laid on the field for five minutes. Aspenson will try to play Saturday at Carroll, but Hilbert is out and Haas is also out until next week. If Aspenson can’t go, Moe will play quarterback for LU. The game is at 1:30 p.m. at the newly refurbished Schneider Stadium in Waukesha.