Kalamazoo, MI – In a game that featured a near two-hour weather delay shortly after kickoff, the Oberlin College football team was never able to get restarted as the Kalamazoo College Hornets defeated the Yeomen 24-7 on Saturday afternoon.
 
The Yeomen out-gained the Hornets on offense with 346 yards compared to their 317, but key miscues at critical moments were Oberlin's ultimate undoing. Junior Melvin Briggs was a bright spot, rushing for a 110 yards on 12 carries while scoring the team's lone touchdown. Classmate Zach Taylor was under duress all afternoon long as he completed 13 of 30 passes for 204 yards. He was unable to find any traction on the ground, finishing with -23 yards on nine attempts, which included four sacks. Miles Temoney had a career-high 70 yards receiving on three catches, while Ryan Gleeson added 58 yards on five receptions.
 
The opening half was a mistake-filled one for the Yeomen as the Hornets ultimately took advantage by cashing in two touchdowns to carry a 14-0 lead into the intermission.
 
Starting at the Hornets' 48-yardline with 5:09 left in the opening quarter, Oberlin had a promising opportunity to get points, but a dropped touchdown pass on 3^rd-and-12 from the 20-yardline was followed by a missed 36-yard field goal, keeping the Yeomen scoreless.
 
A fumble by Oberlin setup the Hornets with great field position early in the second quarter. On 3^rd-and-8 from the Yeomen 16-yardline, it appeared Oberlin had quarterback Zach VanFaussie bottled up, but he escaped free on the edge and sliced his way through the second and third layers of the defense for the game's first touchdown with just under seven minutes left in the half.
 
The Yeomen would go 60 yards on the ensuing drive, but have nothing to show for as the march stalled out at the Hornets' 29. The jaunt did feature a 38-yard catch-and-run by Temoney on 3^rd-and-14 to keep the chains moving.
 
K'Zoo responded by going 71 yards in the opposite direction on six plays as a broken coverage allowed VanFaussie to find a wide open Jared Pittman for a 34-yard scoring strike.
 
Oberlin's defense held the Hornets to just a field goal in the third quarter to keep themselves in the game. The Yeomen briefly grabbed the momentum early in the fourth quarter as Briggs capped a 10-play, 80-yard drive with a 3-yard TD plunge to make it 17-7 with 14:11 remaining on the clock.
 
Unfortunately, the momentum was extremely short-lived as K'Zoo answered back just three plays later. A 54-yard rip by Raekwon Castelo was followed with 21 more yards on the ground from Pittman, including a 7-yard touchdown scamper to the end zone.
 
Oberlin continued to fight but the execution just wasn't there as another missed field goal and a fumble on the Hornets' goal line that resulted in a touchback short-circuited any threat of a comeback. In all, the Yeomen put the ball on the ground five times, losing four fumbles in the setback.
 
The Yeomen defense had 11 tackles-for-loss with junior Von Wooding leading the way with a sack and 2.5 TFL's. He matched Justin Godfrey and Kenny Williams with a game-high eight tackles.
 
Oberlin will look to regroup next Saturday when it opens conference play at Kenyon College. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m.