Hope football shuts out Loras in opener: 'This is the standard now'

HOLLAND - While the Hope College football team won its season opener in convincing fashion, it was one play that got the Flying Dutch running.

After losing a fumble on a punt return, Loras took over in the shadows of the goal line.

The Hope defense held and Loras missed a field goal attempt.

The very next play, Hope's Ben Wellman raced for an 80-yard touchdown run that put Hope up 14-0 and the Flying Dutchmen continued to roll on their way to a 49-0 win on Saturday at Ray & Sue Smith Stadium in front of 2,861.

"This just showed the hard work we put in all year long. All the lifts we put in in the offseason. It showed us all coming together to do our part," Hope linebacker Cole Luhmann said. "This is the standard now, and we have to keep building on this."

Chance Strickland scored four touchdowns and the defense dominated the entire afternoon.

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"It was a clean game and we got to play a lot of players. We saw a lot of things from both sides of the ball," Hope coach Peter Stuursma said. "Flipping the momentum (after the missed field goal) was huge."

Here are some takeaways from the game:

Quarterback shuffle

Hope's Ben Wellman earned the start at quarterback, but Zach Trainor also saw action in the first quarter as the Flying Dutchmen utilized the strengths of both players, who each led scoring drives in the first quarter.

Hope amassed 243 yards of offense in the first quarter.

In the second quarter, Wellman hit Eli VanderVeen for a touchdown pass.

Several other quarterbacks got some snaps in as well once the game was out of reach.

"Ben and Zach complement each other very well and we are not afraid to show what both can do," Stuursma said. "They took some snaps from a repetition standpoint and they don't get hit in practice, so to run the ball and get into that competive mode was great. They want each other to succeed and when you have that, it is a nice setup."

On the run

While the quarterbacks were keeping the offense balanced, it was Chance Strickland that gave the Flying Dutchmen the edge.

Strickland scored three touchdowns in the first four possessions, the other coming on the 80-yard Wellman run.

Strickland scored four touchdowns in the game and totaled 80 yards rushing.

It could have been much more, but Hope opted to get the second string players some experience with the game out of reach.

"We had a really good rhythm," Stuursma said.

Defense dominates

While the Hope offense was off and running, Loras was anything but, which is a credit to Hope's defense.

Hope allowed just 36 yards of offense in the first quarter and it didn't get much better for the Duhawks as they went backward and had just 13 yards of offense at halftime and 128 yards total.

"We flew around and hit some people," said Luhmann, who totaled seven tackles. "It was awesome to see everyone flying to the ball and hitting hard."

Hope's last shutout was in 2022 against Olivet.

"Statistically, this might be (the best defensive performance we have had). We put a lot of pressure on them up front, and that sets up the defensive backfield really well," Stuursma said. "We had great pressure and tackled well. You want to find huge improvement from game one to game two. It wasn't a perfect game, and we will find things to work on."

Contact sports editor Dan D’Addona at Dan.D’Addona@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as  Twitter @DanDAddona or Facebook @HollandSentinelSport s.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Hope football shuts out Loras in opener: 'This is the standard now'