HOLLAND, Mich — The Hope College Flying Dutchmen trailed by 17 to Aurora two different times on Saturday, but they never stopped battling. Hope came back to defeat the Spartans 38-34 for the first win of the season.
"We were in the locker room at halftime and I said to the guys, 'There is a lot of football left,'" Hope head coach Peter Stuursma said. "When we came back out and we went three-and-out, we could have easily folded our tents and we didn't. We just kept hanging in there. As I said afterwards, there's a lot of life lessons with that."
The Dutchmen scored the go-ahead touchdown with less than one minute remaining in the game as Hope senior running back Kenyea Houston scampered in for the one-yard touchdown with 32 seconds on the clock.
"It's huge," Hope senior wide receiver TJ McKenzie said. "This is what we live for. All of the drills in practice. All of that. Every day we come out there to work since camp. It just means a lot to come out here and win game one. That's all we were worried about."
The Hope defense showed many holes giving up 34 points, but what changed the game was Dutch senior safety Adam Vander Kooy's one-handed interception in the red zone with 7 minutes and 44 seconds left in the game. The Spartans would not come close to scoring again.
"I thought we were always in it," Vander Kooy said. "You can never count our offense out. We were way too explosive and one of the best offenses in all of D3. You can never count them out. Never lose faith. Just keep on grinding."
Stuursma also said this win ranks right up there with some of the best he's experienced as the head coach at Hope.
The Dutchmen play Coe next Saturday at home. Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m.