Tigers lose first game of season, fall to Hastings

HASTINGS, Neb. — Dakota Wesleyan University suffered its first loss of the year Saturday, falling to Hastings 40-30 in a Great Plains Athletic Conference football game.

DWU, which trailed 17-0 early in the second quarter, rallied to make it a seven-point game late in the fourth quarter but gave up a field goal with 1:27 left that sealed the game.

“We didn’t play well enough to win the game,” said DWU coach Ross Cimpl, who suffered his first coaching loss after leading the Tigers to three wins to open the season. “But we didn’t quit. There were opportunities for us to fold and give up, and I was glad that we didn’t do that.”

The Tigers got a game-high 457 passing yards from quarterback Jon Bane on 24-of-50 passing with three touchdowns and two interceptions.

Bane threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown on the Tigers’ first offensive play of the game.

Still, the DWU passing game found its groove, and receivers Arthur and Michael Brown each went over 100 yards. Arthur caught seven passes for 106 yards and a touchdown and Michael had five catches for 109 yards.

"We had some receivers who knew we had to throw the ball, they stepped up for us and that was a step in the right direction for our passing game,” Cimpl said. “We were a little rusty in our passing game, and that’s unfortunate because we had two weeks to work on it with the bye week last week.”

Tigers running back Josh Endres finished with 23 attempts for 99 yards and tight end Derek Carlson had three catches for 69 yards and two TDs.

Carlson caught a 6-yard score to open the second half that got DWU within 17-10 and added another TD in the fourth quarter that got DWU within 37-23 after Hastings got three touchdown passes of at least 30 yards.

After Carlson’s second touchdown catch, Bane ran a 1-yard touchdown with 4:31 to play to get DWU within 37-30.

From there, Hastings picked up its fourth conference win of the year to lead the GPAC. DWU dropped to 3-1 overall and 2-1 in the conference.

Cimpl said his team is already looking to come back with a win Saturday when the Tigers host Dordt. Game time is 1 p.m. at Joe Quintal Field in Mitchell.

“I think our guys played extremely hard,” Cimpl said. “But we have to be able to put a full 60 minutes together and we have to do it both offensively and defensively.”

HASTINGS 40, DWU 30

Hastings 14 3 14 13 – 40

DWU 0 3 14 13 – 30

First Quarter

HC: Kendall Ferguson 4 pass from Dostal (Kenny Anderson kick)

HC: Alex Gildon 29 interception return (Anderson kick)

Second Quarter

HC: Kenny Anderson 34 field goal

DWU: Dan Porter 23 field goal

Third Quarter

DWU: Derek Carlson 6 pass from Bane (Porter kick)

HC: Nick Blunt 42 pass from Dostal (Anderson kick)

DWU: Arthur Brown 24 pass from Dostal (Porter kick)

HC: Zach Enstein 30 pass from Dostal (Anderson kick)

Fourth Quarter

HC: Blunt 53 pass from Dostal (kick blocked)

DWU: Carlson 33 pass from Bane (kick blocked)

DWU: Bane 1 run (Porter kick)

HC: Kenny Anderson 26 field goal

Individual statistics

Rushing: DWU — Josh Endres 23-99; Jon Bane 4-(-7). Hastings — Keenen Ballage 25-90; John Dostal 10-80; Sean Robnett 4-20; Darvonte Knight 1-13; Nick Blunt 1-4; Tyler Mertens 1-2.

Passing: DWU — Jon Bane 24-50-2-457; Hastings — John Dostal 19-32-0-314.

Receiving: DWU — Arthur Brown 4-106; Mike Brown 5-109; Dimitri Fahey 4-89; Josh Endres 4-63; Derek Carlson 3-69; Greyson Wooten 1-21. Hastings — Nick Blunt 4-108; Trevor Bohn 3-40; Jordan Wallman 3-35; Tyler Mertens 3-47; Clayton Dean 2-41; Zane Anstine 2-34; Luke Ruhlman 1-5; Kendall Ferguson 1-4.

Defensive: DWU — Brady Bonte 11 tackles; Matt McManus 10 tackles; Mike Barnaud 8 tackles; Jeff Maassen 7 tackles.

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